Undue Influence: the power of Police and Prison Guards’ Unions
Police officers and prison guards hold tremendous political sway. Their advocacy for better pay, more power, and more jobs has been a major factor in the expansion of the prison industrial complex. Now that system is changing. Can law enforcement unions change as well?
Prison Crisis: Local Solution?
The United States imprisons more people than any other country. In California a new policy called ‘realignment’ aims to reduce the number of people in state prison. Could the incarceration nation finally be slowing down?
Police Tape: From Rodney King to Aiyana Jones
It’s been 20 years since four white police officers were cleared of unlawfully beating Rodney King in Los Angeles. But we might never have heard of Rodney King had it not been for an amateur cameraman who caught the whole thing on tape. On this edition, we hear how video cameras have changed the way we see the police.
Justice For Sale: Glenn Greenwald on the Rule of Law
Author Glenn Greenwald talks about his book, ‘With Liberty and Justice for Some.’ Americans claim to live under the rule of law; that no one is above our system of justice. But as we witness more exceptions to that rule, there are growing doubts that fairness is a value we as a nation, still hold dear.
Ban the Box! The Campaign for Post-Prison Employment
It’s not even the crime that counts sometimes. It’s that little box on an application that asks you to reveal if you have a criminal history. Checking that box can mean the difference between failure and success. We look at the nationwide movement to ‘ban-the-box’, and make criminal histories less of a stigma.
Massachusetts Leads the Way in CORI Reform
In the United States, an estimated 65 million people have had a brush with the law that resulted in a criminal record. And every year, about 650 thousand of them are released from prisons and jails—reemerging into society with one goal—to get back on their feet. To increase opportunity, some states are rethinking their approach to criminal records. Massachusetts is one. With assistance from Deborah Begel, Francesca Rheannon brings us this report.
