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Racism & it’s Centrality – Excerpt from “The Crime of Impunity – The Crime of Punishment”
ON THE CENTRALITY OF RACISM In a book devoted to crime and punishment, why has racism been so much its centerpiece? First, because racism is this country’s key crime. And second, because racism is at the heart of the criminal justice system. We need not revisit the horrors of the slave past. These are usually…
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Racism & the Criminal Justice System – Excerpt from “The Crime of Impunity – The Crime of Punishment”
CONCLUSION The penal system is but a replica — in more brutal form because hidden from public view — of the larger society outside the walls. Each day, correction officials commit untold numbers of crimes against inmates. And the perpetrators of such crimes are, from a moral standpoint, far inferior to those who are being…
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On the Death Penalty
Why do we oppose the death penalty? Not for purely humanitarian reasons, not, because we are pacifists, not because we do not believe in taking life. We are prepared to fight for our liberation, including waging war. Naturally, we do not believe in taking life unnecessarily. We believe in a penal system that stresses rehabilitation…
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Life or Death: Taking Away Habeas Corpus
A barrage of laws and an avalanche of court rulings are stripping us of one right after another. Over one million people in prison and 3,000 on death row (the numbers mounting at unprecedented speed). No jobs for ghetto youth? “Lock ’em up.” Failing schools? “Lock ’em up.” No real drug prevention or treatment effort?…
