While racial justice advocates focus on affirmative action, millions of African Americans have lost their basic civil rights -- the right to vote, to have access to housing and education -- through the penal system. In a powerful new book, litigator Michelle Alexander argues that the mass incarceration of people of color in this country is a system of social control, similar to Jim Crow segregation, and that a widespread movement is needed to overturn it. (Encore presentation.)

More than one in every one hundred adults in the US is behind bars. What accounts for the 450% increase in the number of incarcerated people since 1980? Is it rising crime rates, or racism, or something else? Ruth Wilson Gilmore shared her analysis, and described anti-prison activism, before an audience at The Evergreen State College. (Encore presentation.)

While racial justice advocates focus on affirmative action, millions of African Americans have lost their basic civil rights -- the right to vote, to have access to housing and education -- through the penal system. In a powerful new book, litigator Michelle Alexander argues that the mass incarceration of people of color in this country is a system of social control, similar to Jim Crow segregation, and that a widespread movement is needed to overturn it.