American Gulag
1/28/08 Meria interviews Marsha Weissman, Executive Director of the Center for Community Alternatives; our criminal “justice” system; the alternatives to prison, penalties and restitution; paying to be on parole and probation; bankruptcy doesn’t apply; Attica; CCA- non governmental agency; Re-integrative justice; community and individual responsibility; client specific planning; no rehab in prison; overcrowding; prisons as abnormal environments; drug addiction is a HEALTH problem – treatment works, prison doesn’t; prisons as increasing punitive; $30,000 per prisoner a year; Black Americans in the justice system; from schoolyard to prison; inequity of black Americans vs. white Americans in prison; return of Jim Crow; racial desparities of those with criminal records; undermined voting rights; lifetime punishment- the job market; financial penalties in addition to jail time; “governing through crime”; poverty-desperation-crime; the racial wealth gap; women more disenfranchised in prison than men; programs for rehab; community based solutions are needed; parents in prison- effects on the family and more. Who benefits?
