Richmond, VA. —The Virginia State Conference of the NAACP filed a brief on Monday, June 27, 2016 in the Virginia Supreme Court in support of Gov. Terry McAuliffe’s executive order restoring voting rights to more than 200,000 Virginians with previous felony convictions. Gov. McAuliffe’s Order for the Restoration of Rights, issued April 22, 2016, represents […]
The Marshall Project sheds new light on the U.S. criminal justice system
An important new criminal justice resource has just come online: The Marshall Project, a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization devoted to criminal justice reform. The Marshall Project is a nonprofit, nonpartisan news organization founded on two simple ideas. In their own words: 1) There is a pressing national need for high-quality journalism about the American criminal […]
Left of Black: Mass Incarceration, Voting Rights & State Sanctioned Violence
Left of Black host and Duke University Professor Mark Anthony Neal is joined in-studio by Daryl Atkinson, Senior Staff Attorney at the Southern Coalition for Social Justice in North Carolina. In a conversation about mass incarceration, the erosion of voting rights and State sanctioned violence Aktinson asserts that “the State sanctioned violence that we saw […]
Why I support the 'Final Words' book project
Final Words: 517 executed prisoners of Texas Death Row share their last words. It’s time to listen! This is not a typical SCSJ blog post. I am speaking to you as one person to another, not in my professional capacity as an attorney. I hope you will bear with me. -Shoshannah Sayers, Deputy Director, SCSJ […]
Prisons and police culture gone rogue
This post originally appeared in the St Louis American By Christi Griffin There are few who did not rise to the occasion, who did not donate, plan or pray. There are few who did not view the senseless and brutal shooting of Michael Brown as a reflection of the lack of value placed on the […]
Private Prison Profiteers
Private Prisons: The Injustice League The two largest private prison providers in the U.S. each rake in tens of millions of dollars every year. How do they make their money, and what agreements are in place to protect their profits? Guaranteed Occupancy When a prison company approaches a state or city to either build or […]
Voting Rights and Mass Incarceration
With SCSJ attorneys in federal court hearings this week fighting against North Carolina’s voter suppression laws and the second Clean Slate Clinic in Durham quickly approaching, the disenfranchisement of the justice-involved population is a central topic for SCSJ this week. Voting Rights and Mass Incarceration at the National Level According to The Sentencing Project, there […]
The Unvarnished Truth about the Prison Family Journey
The Unvarnished Truth about the Prison Family Journey The first boldly honest resource for those affected by mass incarceration in the U.S. is stimulating powerful discussion. The United States is the largest jailer in the world. With just 5% of the world’s population, the U.S. incarcerates 25% of the world’s prisoners. The human and financial […]
Maya Angelou's legacy: stories that make us whole
Dr. Maya Angelou is famous for embracing and sharing all of her life experiences – the good, the bad, and the horrifying. Her philosophy was that all experiences are important parts of making a complete human being. In that vein, SCSJ offers you the poetry of formerly incarcerated people and their families. Because while these […]
FICPM on the vanguard of ending mass incarceration
SCSJ Criminal Justice Reform attorney Daryl Atkinson is a steering committee member of the Formerly Incarcerated and Convicted People’s Movement (FICPM). In the following radio piece from PRX, Daryl and his colleagues speak truth to power on issues relating to ending mass incarceration in the United States. A half-century since the apex of the Civil […]
UNC journalism students explore race class and education in Durham, NC
There is no direct means by which a student becomes a dropout, unemployed or a criminal; there is no single decision, policy or process directly responsible for the transformation. But certain characteristics tend to tip the scales toward either future success or future failure. The intersection of poverty and race can be a statistically dangerous […]
Mass Incarceration & People of Color
Mass Incarceration & People of Color One in every 31 Americans is on probation, on parole, in jail or in prison. Distressingly, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, one in three African-American men can expect to be incarcerated at some point. These statistics reflect systemic problems in the U.S. justice system and the punitive […]
Mass Incarceration of Juveniles: does putting children in jail solve anything?
Does putting children in jail solve anything? During a single year, an estimated 2.1 million youth under the age of 18 are arrested in the United States[1]. When we think of mass incarceration, we cannot just think of adults. Countless boys and girls are funneled from schools and neighborhoods to the juvenile justice system […]
End Mass Incarceration: Roundup of Recent Developments
As part of SCSJ’s End Mass Incarceration Week observance, we are posting daily blogs about various issues affecting incarcerated people. This post by SCSJ macro social work intern Meredith McMonigle examines policy trends in mass incarceration. Let’s look at recent developments on two fronts—policy, and in the arts and media, which may contribute to the […]
U.S. Immigrant Detention Centers: # NotOneMore
This post is part of SCSJ’s End Mass Incarceration Week series. It focuses on immigrant detention facilities in the U.S. NotOneMore Deportation. The United States is deporting more immigrants today than at any point in our history. Many of those deported spend at least some time in an immigrant detention center, often a for-profit prison. […]
End Mass Incarceration Week
From April 5-13, 2014, SCSJ will be honoring End Mass Incarceration Week. What is End Mass Incarceration Week? It is a week set aside to fully consider the consequences of America’s over-reliance on mass incarceration. Why is this relevant? Over the last 30 years, the US has experienced an explosion in the number of people […]
Brutality of the Immigration Detention System
Oscar Quintero, Currently Detained Inside Etowah County Detention Center, Speaks Up on the Brutality of the Immigration Detention System Immigrant Rights Groups Block Entrance to Etowah County Detention Center Oscar Quintero, currently detained at one of the worst immigrant detention centers in the country, Etowah County Detention Center in Gadsden, Alabama joins the thousands of […]
Truth: 'No One Is Disposable'
Recently, Reina Gossett and Dean Spade of Sylvia Rivera Law Project came together to co-facilitate a lively and brilliant online conversation about how a prison abolition framework informs queer and trans justice movements. This conversation arrives at a critical time where bodies that don’t fit into an established social norm are being shoved behind bars […]