The role of financial incentives in mass incarceration is often thought of in terms of the role of private contractors and private prisons. But the far greater financial incentive in mass incarceration comes from the public sector—the role of police in imposing fines and fees on local residents as a strategy to secure revenues for […]
Tag: Rattling the Bars
Posted inEconomy, Economy and Inequality, Politics and Movements: US, Prison Industrial Complex, prison reform, Rattling the Bars, The Real News Network, video
Invest in housing, not prisons: California’s war on the homeless
The housing and affordability crisis is getting worse, and more people around the country are facing the grim reality of homelessness. Rather than treating housing as a human right and committing to large-scale construction of accessible housing, states like California are responding with police raids of homeless encampments and imprisonment for unhoused people. On this […]
Posted inPolitics and Movements: US, Prison Industrial Complex, prison reform, Prisons and Policing, Rattling the Bars, The Real News Network, video
Will a new president revive the use of clemency?
The issue of mass incarceration has been far less central to the 2024 election thus far in comparison to the 2020 presidential race. However, that doesn’t make the matter any less pressing for incarcerated people, their loved ones, or the activists fighting tirelessly to free prisoners. There are a range of ways presidential candidates could […]
Posted inpolicing, Politics and Movements: US, Prisons and Policing, Racial Justice, Rattling the Bars, The Real News Network, video
It’s been 10 years. When will we get justice for Michael Brown?
On Aug. 9, 2014, Officer Darren Wilson shot and killed Michael Brown in Ferguson, MO. Police left Brown’s lifeless body in the hot sun for four hours, plainly demonstrating the contempt of law enforcement for the local community. The righteous rebellion that followed in Ferguson shook the nation and the world, turning the Black Lives Matter […]
Posted inelections 2024, Politics and Movements: US, Rattling the Bars, The Real News Network, video
How poor and working-class voters navigate an electoral system that doesn’t serve them
The 2024 US elections are just three months away, and with polls showing a tight race between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, the outcome may come down to voter turnout—and data show that there is a direct correlation between income level and voter turnout. As Katherine Hapgood recently wrote in an article for the Washington […]
Posted inEconomy and Inequality, Prisons and Policing, Rattling the Bars, The Real News Network, video
The Supreme Court just made it easier to criminalize homelessness—and that’s a win for the prison system
The number of homeless people in the United States, either without shelter or in temporary housing, is steadily rising towards a million people. Faced with this crisis, municipalities, counties, and states across the country are responding by criminalizing those experiencing homelessness. Advocate and activist Jeff Singer joins Rattling the Bars to discuss the Grants Pass v. […]
Posted inclimate change, Climate Crisis, Prison Industrial Complex, prison reform, Prisons and Policing, Racial Justice, Rattling the Bars, The Real News Network, video
Black woman dies in California prison from heat over 110 degrees
A 42-year-old Black woman, Adrienne Boulware, has died in the custody of the California Department of Corrections at the Central California Women’s Facility in Chowchilla. On July 4, prison guards exposed Boulware to extreme temperatures outdoors during a heatwave for 15 minutes, leaving her with just a small glass of water in the over 110 F […]
Posted inPrison Industrial Complex, Prisons and Policing, Racial Justice, Rattling the Bars, The Real News Network, video
Slavery once split up Black families. Today, prisons do the same thing.
The modern prison system’s origins in slavery can be seen in telltale signs throughout the system. The system of chattel slavery had no incentive to keep Black families together—in fact, separation was deliberately used to punish the enslaved. Today, the prison system mirrors this in its treatment of families of the incarcerated. Prisoners are denied […]
Posted inPolitics and Movements: US, Prison Industrial Complex, prison reform, Prisons and Policing, Rattling the Bars, The Real News Network, video
‘Survival pending revolution’: Dominque Conway on education, political abolition, and reform
One of the most persistent myths about the US prison system is that the system of mass incarceration helps deter and change harmful behavior. Yet according to the federal government’s own statistics, more than 80 percent of formerly incarcerated people will be arrested within a decade after their release. The astronomical rate of recidivism reflects two realities: […]
Posted inprison reform, Prisons and Policing, Rattling the Bars, The Real News Network, video
Federal courts use ‘supervised release’ to doubly punish prisoners—it should be abolished
It’s been 40 years since supervised release was first introduced into the federal court system by the 1984 Sentencing Reform Act. Supervised release, which replaced federal parole and probation, is a secondary sentence judges can impose that only comes into effect once people have already served their time in prison. The legality of the widespread use […]