More and more women with economic and social advantages are attending institutions of higher learning—but women without those advantages increasingly find themselves in penal institutions.
Tag: Justice System
Resistance to the Prison-Industrial Complex Remains a Feminist Issue
This week’s prison strike is the tactic of a growing movement that promises to tackle the systemic violence touching countless women’s lives.
Ending the Rape Kit Backlog: What’s the Price of a Survivor’s Peace of Mind?
A nationwide investigation spearheaded by USA Today has found that at least 70,000 rape kits sit untested in laboratories around the country. While Detroit and other cities have made headlines for their determination to […]
What You Won’t See on Orange Is the New Black
When I heard that Piper Kerman wrote the book Orange is the New Black about her experience at the Danbury, Connecticut federal prison camp, I was excited. I served part […]
Angela Davis’s Legacy of Collective Solidarity
“The masculinist mode of representing history makes it so that, too often, credit is not given where it’s due.” These words—among an impassioned treasure-trove of others—were delivered by longtime political […]
The Nation’s Police Have a Sex-Discrimination Problem
The death of 18-year-old Michael Brown at the hands of a Ferguson, Missouri police officer last month prompted the Department of Justice to launch an investigation into Ferguson’s policing practices. (This investigation […]
How Prison Killed Sex Worker Marcia Powell
In 2009, filmmaker PJ Starr received an email from a friend bringing news of the horrific and unnecessary death of Marcia Powell. Powell had been serving a 27-month sentence for solicitation of […]
“Orange Is The New Black”: Taking Privilege to Task
Netflix’s brilliant new original series, Orange is the New Black, stars Taylor Schilling as TV’s most unlikely convicted felon. Piper Chapman is a white, upper-middle class, Smith-educated fish-out-of-water in the suffocating […]
Supreme Court Punts on Affirmative Action Case
At the beginning of a wild week of decision-making, the Supreme Court stalled on affirmative action Monday, ruling 7-1 in favor of sending Abigail Fisher’s case back to the Fifth […]
NEWSFLASH: Judge Condemns Obama Policy on Plan B
UPDATE 5/13/13: Cutting it close to deadline, the Obama administration has filed an appeal to delay sale of emergency contraception over the counter to all ages. Stay tuned. UPDATE 5/10/13: Judge […]