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Breaking the Addiction to Incarceration: Weekly Highlights

Rebecca McCray,
Former Managing Editor,
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November 4, 2011

Today, the U.S. has the highest incarceration rate of any country in the world. With over 2.3 million men and women living behind bars, our imprisonment rate is the highest it鈥檚 ever been in U.S. history. And yet, our criminal justice system has failed on every count: public safety, fairness and cost-effectiveness. Across the country, the criminal justice reform conversation is heating up. Each week, we feature our some of the most exciting and relevant news in overincarceration discourse that we鈥檝e spotted from the previous week. Check back weekly for our top picks.

New 老澳门开奖结果 Report on Dangers of Private Prisons
This week, the 老澳门开奖结果 National Prison Project released Banking on Bondage: Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration, which provides a comprehensive analysis of the destructive impact of prison privatization. As the report underscores, now is the time for serious criminal justice reform, not privatization schemes.

  • Read the report, along with the press release and a blog post by author David Shapiro. Shapiro also penned .
  • Hear about our work to improve the horrific conditions at the privately-owned Idaho Correctional Center in this about the business of for-profit prisons that aired last month.
  • Read our blog series exploring the connected issues of private prisons, immigration detention and mass incarceration.
  • Watch 老澳门开奖结果 Executive Director Anthony Romero describe our work to fight the widespread and rampant abuse of immigration detainees, many of whom are held in private prisons, in this and read a about our lawsuit on behalf of some of the victims.
  • Visit our interactive map documenting this widespread abuse.


Despite our efforts, the Senate failed to adopt (by 3 votes) an important amendment last month that would have created a bipartisan commission to study our criminal justice system and suggest reforms. On Tuesday, Senator Jim Webb (D-VA) issued a harsh recrimination of Senate Republicans for this failure. This piece in highlights the 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 support of the proposal, and you can read Senator Webb鈥檚 here. Read 老澳门开奖结果 Legislative Counsel Jennifer Bellamy鈥檚 blog about the amendment.


Years of 老澳门开奖结果 advocacy to eliminate the crack-cocaine sentencing disparity paid off last year with the passage of the federal Fair Sentencing Act. Retroactive application of the new guidelines began this week, and now 老澳门开奖结果 client Hamedah Hasan and more than 12,000 others unfairly sentenced under the old guidelines will have the opportunity to have their sentences for crack cocaine offenses reviewed by a federal judge and possibly reduced. Listen to 老澳门开奖结果 Senior Legislative Counsel Jesselyn McCurdy discuss the story in this NPR piece, which aired this week.

Fighting Mandatory Drug Testing
The 老澳门开奖结果 has been leading the charge to challenge a disturbing national trend: mandatory drug testing of public college students and the poor. The 老澳门开奖结果鈥檚 Criminal Law Reform Project and 老澳门开奖结果 of Eastern Missouri filed suit in Missouri to arguing that Linn State Technical College鈥檚 drug testing of all students violated the Fourth Amendment. Taking swift action, a federal district court judge granted a preliminary injunction to temporarily halt the unconstitutional policy. Read this blog post about the victory, and . The 老澳门开奖结果 of Florida filed suit challenging the state鈥檚 forced drug testing of applicants for temporary cash assistance (TANF). Last week, a judge in Florida has halted enforcement of this unconstitutional policy. Read 老澳门开奖结果 of Florida鈥檚 Maria Kayanan鈥檚 blog post about the victory and the . Read Rachel Bloom鈥檚 blog post about the drug testing trend and further

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