| | |
|
MassIncarceration 10 - 10 Jul 2012 - Main.AbiolaFasehun
|
| | I thought it would be useful to consolidate a conversation that's going on in the class facebook group. The material is interesting, important, and relates to our discussions in this class (most obviously regarding Robinson and his work). Hopefully it will also allow us to procrastinate from finishing torts or con law reading. I apologize for the scattershot nature of this post. I may go back and do more editing / summarizing of the links below if there's any interest or this sparks a discussion. Of course I welcome any interested person to do likewise, or just jump off from one of the articles or points and run with it.
A New Yorker article on mass incarceration that provides something of a historical overview. "The Caging of America" by Adam Glopnik, 1/30/2012. | | | I think this New Yorker article about Portugal's drug policy is interesting and relevant. It's behind a paywall, unfortunately, but the abstract gives you the gist of the argument.
-- KatherineMackey - 07 Jul 2012 | |
>
> | I would like to second Katherine's opinion about hope, by using the prior posts. Although we began to diverge from the topic, there was a discussion above about an uncomfortableness with the term "future policy-makers". To be honest, I am not sure I understand where this uncomfortableness stems from. I believe Jared's latter post initially made a good point- that through multiple small acts possibilities are created to help "end the epidemic of imprisonment". However, when Jared began to write about his hopelessness, in my mind this topic could come full circle. Although we may feel uncomfortable with the privilege that a degree from Columbia is supposed to provide, if we decide to, each one of us can use our degree to create small acts. Shaked, although you may have been delivering pizza prior to attending law school, you and I now have an opportunity that most will never have. What will we do with it?
There is no need to wait on popularly-elected legislature, prosecutors, or judges to come on board. Our acts don't need to be grandiose and can be as varied as working directly with a subset of the population, serving on a board of an organization, volunteering, mentoring, or getting the word out about literature that can frame the issues. I believe that when we decide to turn the other cheek, when we decide to say that we choose not to get involved at any level, then there will continue to be no end in site to America's mass incarceration. If anyone is interested, All God's Children by Fox Butterfield is a powerful exploration into an American culture of crime and violence. -- AbiolaFasehun - 09 Jul 2012 |
|
|
|
|
This site is powered by the TWiki collaboration platform.
All material on this collaboration platform is the property of the contributing authors.
All material marked as authored by Eben Moglen is available under the license terms CC-BY-SA version 4.
|
|
| | |