Portside

...the U.S. has worked through the U.N. (and its predecessor, the League of Nations) to build a harsh global drug prohibition regime -- grounded in draconian laws, enforced by pervasive policing, and punished with mass incarceration.

The agencies that separate families, abuse children, and deport innocent people should be just as toxic as Trump’s wall.

The 2020 Democratic campaign is already shaping up to be a battle of big ideas. But when it comes to reforming our criminal legal system, the conversation hasn’t been as visionary — in fact, it’s been almost exclusively backward looking.

"There is a silent suffering around the country, but people need to know they're not alone."

In the spirit of rehabilitation, of teaching incarcerated people that well-planned and properly motivated efforts at change can be rewarded, even if only minimally, administrators need to work with inmates on this one.

A nationwide strike takes charge at everything from slavery to sentencing. Organizers say it could be the largest U.S. prison resistance action to date.

On the anniversary of George Jackson's death, prisoners launched a multi-day national strike. The action was taken after an April riot at a prison where guards watched while seven inmates were killed. Strikers are demanding basic human rights.

In this era of law-and-order politics,...we do not need more incarceration. It does not make people safer, it tears communities apart, and many people, including incarcerated people themselves, have argued that incarceration actually produces mental illness.

Typically taking the form of ankle bands and house arrest, monitors are gaining lots of traction in reform packages. Although the immediate financial arguments for EM might make sense, these moves ignore the impact of the monitors on people's lives and the implications of their expanded use for the future of mass incarceration.