The biggest crime in the U.S. criminal justice system is that it is a race-based institution where African-Americans are directly targeted and punished in a much more aggressive way than white people. The question is – are these facts the mistakes of an otherwise good system, or are they evidence that the racist criminal justice system is working exactly as intended? Is the US criminal justice system operated to marginalize and control millions of African Americans?

Las muertes violentas que se suceden en las cárceles de Venezuela, protuberantes muestras de las atroces condiciones de supervivencia tras las rejas, están en la mira de la Comisión Interamericana de Derechos Humanos, que insiste ante el gobierno para que tome medidas urgentes. Muchos edificios penitenciarios están deteriorados, con condiciones sanitarias pésimas, y los presos, hacinados y mezclan entre procesados y quienes tienen condena firme, duermen, comen, excretan y se consumen en el ocio en pabellones controlados por bandas conectadas extramuros. Una situación extrema que se repite en muchos países latinoamericanos, pero que en Venezuela destaca por las muestras de violencia dura.

Source: t r u t h o u t by William Fisher December 8, 2009 “In New York when I was detained, I was about to get an attorney through one of the churches, but that went away once they sent me here to New Mexico…. All my evidence and stuff that I need is right there in [...]

Source: IPS by Feraidoon Khwazoon November 27, 2009 KABUL – The U.S. military has announced the opening of a new prison on Bagram Air Base. The prison, costing 60 million dollars, will hold up to 1,100 prisoners at any one time. U.S. Brig. Gen. Mark Martins, a U.S. Army lawyer who undertook an examination this year of Afghan and [...]

by Al Jazeera and agencies November 16, 2009 Journalists have been allowed to inspect refurbished facilities at Bagram airbase in Afghanistan, the largest US military hub in the region and home to a controversial prison. Al Jazeera’s correspondent James Bays, who was among those who inspected the facilities on Sunday, said Bagram, unlike its Guantanamo counterpart, was clearly [...]

by Henry A. Giroux November 1, 2009 This article is drawn from Henry A. Giroux’s forthcoming book, “Hearts of Darkness: Torturing Children in the War on Terror” (Paradigm Publishers, 2010). For the last decade, we have lived through a historical period in which the United States relinquished its tenuous claim to democracy. The frames through which democracy apprehends [...]

by Andy Worthington September 30, 2009 In four years of researching and writing about Guantánamo, I have become used to uncovering shocking information, but for sheer cynicism, I am struggling to think of anything that compares to the revelations contained in the unclassified ruling in the habeas corpus petition of Fouad al-Rabiah, a Kuwaiti prisoner whose release [...]

by Henry A. Giroux October 8, 2009 On May 20, 2009, Marshawn Pitts, a 15-year-old African-American boy, who is also a special needs student, was walking down the corridor of the Academy for Learning High School in Dolton, Illinois. A police officer in the school noticed that the boy’s shirt was not tucked in and started shouting [...]

Interview: Campaign for Youth Justice’s Liz Ryan talks about the thousands of teenagers detained in adult jails and prisons. by Antonio Ramirez September 21, 2009 When 16-year-old Bobby Nestor’s mother found a marijuana roach in his jacket pocket she called the police, hoping to scare him. She never intended for her teenage son to be sentenced to an [...]

by Kevin G. Hall September 20, 2009 WASHINGTON — More than a year into the gravest financial crisis since the Great Depression, millions of Americans have seen their home values and retirement savings plunge and their jobs evaporate. What they haven’t seen are any Wall Street tycoons forced to swap their multi-million dollar jobs and custom-made suits for [...]