Decarceral Pathways
Just Surviving
Crimes committed because of financial hardship are a form of labor and should not be subject to criminal legal punishment.
criminalization
12 posts in ‘criminalization’
Beginnings
When Treatment First Met the Prison
During the mid-twentieth century, the Bureau of Prisons ran two “narcotic farms” that muddled medical care with incarceration, part of a growing trend that criminalized addiction.
public health
Surviving Abstinence
Abstinence-only drug treatment doesn’t work. For people in prison, where drugs flow freely, such programs simply place them at greater risk of relapse.
excerpt
Unmaking Prison Walls
Reacquainting ourselves with practices that made prisons more permeable can be a step toward ending mass incarceration.
Crimmigration
Decriminalizing Migration
Taking criminal law out of immigration enforcement is a step toward safer, healthier communities. But is it enough?
public history
The Suburban Drug War
How white, middle-class youth in the suburbs experienced the war on drugs is a largely untold chapter in the arc of mass incarceration.
In Depth
Anything But Petty
Misdemeanors are major sources of overcriminalization and punishment. Requiring jurors to screen them could shake up the system.
democracy & power
Culture Wars and Criminalization
Absent a sustained politics of solidarity, culture wars will continue to erode civil rights while criminalizing, surveilling, and punishing those who claim them
Decarceral Pathways
Welfare Check
Here’s how federal cash assistance for low-income youth impacts whether they come in contact with the criminal legal system.
Beyond Reform
No More Courts
The legal institutions, processes, procedures, and actors implicated in the progression of criminal cases are simply beyond reform.
Policy
‘Something on Women’
Carceral feminists clamored for the Violence Against Women Act. What they got in return was criminalization, incarceration, and more violence.
public health
Drug-Induced Panic
Criminalization of so-called drug-induced homicides is yet another manifestation of the failed war on drugs — and far from an adequate public health response.