Keramet Reiter calls supermax prisons "the black hole" in this nation's system of incarceration: So little is known about them, and yet inmates in those facilities endure the most extreme form of punishment short of the death penalty. Reiter has investigated the rise of supermaxes, the conditions and terms of confinement, and the impact of such confinement on prisoners and society. (Encore presentation.)

What are the real reasons for this nation's unprecedented (in world history) boom in incarceration? Is the prison a tool to fight crime, or does it serve an entirely different function? And what about the notion of a Prison Industrial Complex: does it have any relation to reality? Loïc Wacquant shares his thoughts about the relationship between penal policy and welfare/workfare policy, and much more.

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.)

Keramet Reiter calls supermax prisons "the black hole" in this nation's system of incarceration: So little is known about them, and yet inmates in those facilities endure the most extreme form of punishment short of the death penalty. Reiter has investigated the rise of supermaxes, the conditions and terms of confinement, and the impact of such confinement on prisoners and society.

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.