Mark Zuckerberg visits San Quentin: ‘We can’t jail our way to a just society’ [View all]
Source: Washington Post
“The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness,” by Michelle Alexander is the Bible for many sentencing reform advocates, attorneys—and inmates. As I have been visiting federal prisons all year for a series on prisons and sentencing reform, it is the one book that is mentioned over and over again.
Sharanda Jones, 48, a first-time nonviolent drug offender serving a life without parole sentence in Texas, said she keeps the book in her cell and called it “my Bible.” Attorney Brittany Byrd, who successfully filed a clemency petition for former inmate Donel Marcus Clark granted clemency by President Obama after 22 years behind bars, has a copy of “The New Jim Crow,” in her Dallas apartment. She met the author when she was in law school and asked her to sign it.
And now, Facebook chief executive Mark Zuckerberg says the book inspired him to visit San Quentin State Prison with his wife Priscilla.
“We wanted to see first hand what prison conditions are like for people – and we got a chance to speak with inmates and staff,” Zuckerberg said in his posting.
Read more: https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/post-nation/wp/2015/10/14/mark-zuckerberg-visits-san-quentin-we-cant-jail-our-way-to-a-just-society/
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