Portside

Since the end of the Civil War, the United States has found ways to disenfranchise Black voters. It started with literacy tests and poll taxes and threats of racist violence. Now, it’s through voter suppression laws and mass incarceration. 

Wrist-Slaps for Racist Terrorists (1964), Stop Global Warming! (2009), An ‘October Surprise’ for the Ages (1924), Nothing New About ‘Lock ‘em Up!’ (1994), Integrated Schools – ‘Just Around the Corner’ (1969)

The right to participate in the conduct of public affairs, which includes the right to vote and to be elected, is at the very heart of democratic governments based on the will of the people, according to the United Nations.

Victoria Law’s new book is an accessible primer on abolitionist theory, told through intimate stories of prison life in the pandemic.

JD Vance's Donut Disaster; Trump's Really 'Not Weird'. Alabama Generates Billions by Trapping People in Prison. Big Effing Development in DC Case. What Happened When These 6 Dictators Took Over? KAOS | Limited Series.

Most prisons have no real plan for how to deal with the kind of misery climate change inflicts—and will inflict—on incarcerated people.

One of the most important battles of criminal justice today should be changing incarcerated laborers’ classification to legal workers. This would provide the same rights and benefits as non-inmate labor and allow prisoners to earn a “livable wage."

Two bills, currently under consideration in Tennessee, could change sentencing rules that keep many inside prisons for too long.

“We don’t look at the crime. We are looking at predetention when you have not been convicted of a crime. We didn’t make the system. The system says, ‘You are innocent until proven guilty.’”