Criminal injustice: U.S. prison system dwarfs other nations', but what does it really cost us? [View all]

[marmar]

from the Detroit Metro Times:



Criminal injustice
U.S. prison system dwarfs other nations', but what does it really cost us?

By Curt Guyette
Published: October 24, 2012


Among other highlights of the labor history conference at Wayne State University last week was a keynote presentation given by Heather Ann Thompson, an associate professor of history at Philadelphia's Temple University.

A Detroit native, Thompson authored 2001's Whose Detroit: Politics, Labor and Race in a Modern American City, which focuses "in detail on the struggles of Motor City residents during the 1960s and early 1970s and finds that conflict continued to plague the inner city and its workplaces even after Great Society liberals committed themselves to improving conditions."

But for her talk at the conference, Thompson focused on crime and punishment.

In terms of what's going on in America these days, mass incarceration is the "elephant in the room," Thompson said as she began a jaw-dropping presentation. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://metrotimes.com/news/criminal-injustice-1.1392513