Visiting A Modern Day Slave Plantation --An Interview With Nancy A. Heitzeg (tags)
My interest in Angola is as both a paradigm of the Southern transformation of plantations into prisons and as a prototype for what we now call the prison industrial complex. Many old plantations in the South became prisons after the Civil War. Angela Y. Davis traces the initial rise of the penitentiary system to the abolition of slavery, writing: “in the immediate aftermath of slavery, the southern states hastened to develop a criminal justice system that could legally restrict the possibilities of freedom for the newly released slaves.”
The Mark of Cain: God and Man at Angola Prison (tags)
This article by James Ridgeway is featured at a brand new website focusing on the issue of solitary confinement in prisons. The Solitary Watch News site (http://www.solitarywatch.wordpress.com) is part of an emerging project called Solitary Watch, an innovative public web site aimed at bringing this issue out of the shadows and into the light of the public square.
Southern Injustice: Herman Wallace of the Angola 3 (tags)
Convicted of murder in a deeply flawed trial, Herman Wallace has spent nearly 37 years in solitary confinement. Will new evidence finally lead to his release?
Normalized Madness - Violence in Everyday Life (tags)
Violence is a primal phenomenon of humanity. Admitting we live in a culture of violence is hard. Violence is part of the horrific everyday life of many people. Nonviolent education strengthens civil courage. Jesus calls peacemakers blessed.
Bush and the 12 virgins.
Voting Rights Consultant Can't Solve San Diego Redistricting (tags)
San Diego's Redistricting Commission hoped a report from voting rights consultant Bruce Cain would give them a definitive answer on whether the federal Voting Rights Act required them to put all of the City Heights neighborhood, many of whose residents are people of color, in a single City Council district even if this means breaking up the concentration of Queer voters in the current District 3. But Cain's report was inconclusive.