Portside

In the rush to find targets and mobilize outrage, assigning too much culpability to private prisons runs the risk of ignoring bigger forces. Private prison operators are bit players in a broader drama directed by state actors. Elected officials, "tough on crime" advocates and corporate interests have used mass incarceration to advance a political agenda of criminalizing the poor and dismantliing the social safety net of the working class.

When people think of immigrant hubs in the country, Arkansas is probably not the first state that comes to mind. But the influx of immigrants there, though small in total numbers, is dramatically re-shaping the small, rural state.

Serving legal documents on high visibility persons involved in international criminal acts is very difficult. However, the temptation of large honoraria for speeches in the USA tripped up former Israeli Prime Minister who has been accused of war crimes for involvement in the murders of ten passengers (nine were killed immediately and a seriously wounded passenger died after being in a coma for several years) on the Mavi Marmara in the 2010 Gaza Freedom Flotilla.

Twenty years after the execution of Ken Saro-Wiwa and 8 of his comrades, their work continues to inspire ethnic nationalities across the world, showing that it is possible to stand up against a multinational oil company. In all our struggles the message was simple: take on the devil without losing your moral belief in the tools of nonviolence. Ken Saro-Wiwa’s life is a lasting testament to the power of nonviolence, the power of resistance, the power of people.

Of the 2.2 million people incarcerated in the United States, about half are parents, and at least 1 in 5 has a child support obligation. For most, the debt will keep piling up throughout their imprisonment: By law or by practice, child support agencies in much of the country consider incarceration a form of “voluntary impoverishment.” Parents like Harris, the logic goes, have only themselves to blame for not earning a living.

As hundreds marched from Chicago Police headquarters at 35th Street and Michigan Avenue to McCormick Place where the 22nd Annual Conference of the International Association of Chiefs of Police was being held, several groups locked their arms together with pipes and managed to shut down area intersections, along with one group that did the same inside.

These may be banner days for African American poetry and poets. For example, this year the Pulitzer Prize for poetry went to Digest, by black poet Gregory Pardlo, of Brooklyn. Yet the book trade remains overwhelmingly white. Pardlo is one of a growing number of poets and writers of color who are now challenging racial inequality in publishing, as Angela Chen reports. Along with Chen's article are links to reviews of Pardlo's prize-winning volume.

What’s tragic about the Benghazi hearings is that they displace the serious inquiries that we desperately need about the direction of our foreign policy. President Obama pledged to bring the war on terror to an end, remove troops from Iraq and Afghanistan, and operate a lawful foreign policy. He has retreated on all these goals. We need a thoughtful reassessment of national security priorities and a critical review of the militarization of our foreign policy.

Fighting for $14 phone calls; Soaking prisoners' families; Internet have-nots; Bye-bye Quirky; What trolls get away with