Research on the crime control industry
Prisonsucks.com is a clearinghouse for useful, verifiable statistics about the crime control industry. Too often prison activists use statistics that are out of date, provided without citation or simply wrong. One of these days the public will start listening to prison activists, so let's be prepared to win without being sidetracked by arguments over defective statistics. In some cases, the numbers we need don't exist. In others, the facts exist but activists don't know where to find them. Now you do.
April 2004
Incarceration and Its Consequences
April 30, 2004
The Western Prison Project and the Prison Policy Initiative have posted the Incarceration and Its Consequences section of The Prison Index on the web. The section looks at the extent of penal control in the U.S., incarceration rates, prisoner demographics, prison conditions, the families of prisoners and disenfranchisement. Check it out and then purchase the entire report.
New Book: Gates of Injustice
April 23, 2004
Reuters' journalist Alan Elsner's new book about the criminal justice system, Gates of Injustice: The Crisis in America's Prisons is a powerful examination of how our prison system grew out of control. The book combines first hand reporting with a detailed analysis of the larger trends that made the U.S. the world's largest incarcerator without any gain in public safety.
Gates of Injustice is both an introduction to prisons and a detailed indictment of why they don't work. The book contains a number of powerful (and true) facts that we hadn't been aware of.
Near and dear to the hearts of Prison Policy Initiative staff, Elsner discusses in the chapter on rural prisons how prisoners are counted in the census and he calls for changing how the Census counts the incarcerated.
This timely book is a must read for everyone interesting in making the world a better -- and safer -- place.
Author Alan Elsner has a website with his op-ed pieces on prisons. Check that out, then buy the book.
Mass incarceration screws up everything, even the Census
April 16, 2004
The above map shows how much of the Black population of every county in the country was created out of thin air by a Census Bureau methodology that counts prisoners as if they were residents of the prison town. Statistics on community size, growth, race, ethnicity, gender and per-capita income are all distorted, charges a new report: Too big to ignore: How counting people in prisons distorted Census 2000.
Printing/copying help needed for Prison Policy Initiative Atlas
April 10, 2004
We'd like to make some large copies of some of the maps in the Prison Policy Initiative Atlas and could use some advice from site readers.
- Does anybody know an affordable way to print posters (13x19 or 18x24) in runs of under 100?
- I once saw a photocopier that could make 22x17 inch black and white copies from 8 1/2 by 11 originals. Are there any copy shops that have a machine like this that charge a reasonable amount per copy?
- Does anyone have access to a color laser printer that can do 11x17 prints for us?
Please let the webmaster (at the address below) know if you have any ideas or can help.