30,000 California Inmates Begin Hunger Strike Protest

Staff / Truthdig Jul 10, 2013 An estimated 30,000 prisoners in California began refusing meals Monday in what may be the largest incarceration strike in history. Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )

Bowl Phone Sex

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Jul 1, 2013 Prisoners in a New Jersey jail, like prisoners across the country, have built a subterranean system of communication to defy the harsh conditions of incarceration and keep themselves connected. Dig deeper ( 8 Min. Read )

Murder Is Our National Sport

Chris Hedges / Truthdig May 13, 2013 The decision to execute William Van Poyck, who in his writings from death row has chronicled our penal system's depravity, is one more footnote to our perverted belief in the regeneration of society through violence.The decision to execute writer William Van Poyck, who has chronicled our penal system's depravity, is one more footnote to our perverted belief in regeneration through violence. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

Death Penalty

Dario Castillejos, Cagle Cartoons, Dario La Crisis Apr 26, 2013 Dig deeper

Are California Prisons Punishing Inmates Based on Race?

By Christie Thompson, ProPublica Apr 15, 2013 In several men’s prisons across California, colored signs hang above cell doors: blue for black inmates, white for white, red, green or pink for Hispanic, yellow for everyone else. On any given day, the color of a sign could mean the difference between an inmate exercising in the prison yard or being confined to his cell. Dig deeper ( 6 Min. Read )

The Shame of America’s Gulag

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Mar 18, 2013 US prisons are the engines of a system of neo-slavery in which corporations feed on the bodies of people of color Reform is unlikely in the face of enormous profits. Dig deeper ( 11 Min. Read )

Profiting From Human Misery

Chris Hedges / Truthdig Feb 18, 2013 The for-profit prison industry, which is expanding across the nation, has blunted prison reform, stymied repeal of our draconian drug laws and successfully lobbied for harsher and harsher detention policies. Mass incarceration is increasingly about corporate profit, not justice. The for-profit prison industry has blunted prison reform, stymied repeal of draconian drug laws and successfully lobbied for ever-harsher detention policies. Dig deeper ( 7 Min. Read )

Locking Down an American Workforce

By Steve Fraser and Joshua B. Freeman, TomDispatch Apr 20, 2012 Prisoners, whose ranks increasingly consist of those for whom the legitimate economy has found no use, make up a virtual brigade within the reserve army of the unemployed whose ranks have ballooned along with the U.S. incarceration rate. Dig deeper ( 15 Min. Read )

Immigrants for Sale

Staff / Truthdig May 13, 2011 Brave New Films sent us this must-watch primer on the big business (to the tune of $5 billion annually) of immigrant imprisonment. Watch and connect the dots between shady right-wing lobbyists, state legislators and private dungeons. Dig deeper ( 1 Min. Read )

The Age of ‘Crimmigration’

Staff / Truthdig Feb 25, 2009 A new study by the Pew Hispanic Center reports that Latinos now constitute the largest single ethnic group in the U.S. federal prison system. The rising arrest and detention levels are driven largely by changes in immigration law that criminalize undocumented immigration, with nearly half of all Latino offenders jailed on immigration-related "crimes." Dig deeper ( 2 Min. Read )