Mass incarceration is synonymous with criminal justice in the United States. We are the world’s top jailer, have among the longest sentences, and tolerate shocking racial disparities in imprisonment rates.

Baz Dreisinger is an unusual combination of English professor, journalist and documentary producer whose travels to nine countries to meet with their prisoners led to “Incarceration Nations.” This journey into what she calls “global hellholes” sets an earnest American on a quest for insight into American criminal punishment, via structured encounters with foreign prisoners in situ. Each country is paired with a reflection on a single strategy, from punishment to its alternatives: South Africa’s is truth and reconciliation; Brazil’s is solitary confinement; Uganda’s and Jamaica’s are arts education. read the whole MAGILLA here

The degree of civilization in a society can be judged by entering its prisons.
— Fyodor Dostoevsky

How does your state’s use of the prison compare to the nations of the world?

Incarceration Nation: The war on drugs has succeeded only in putting millions of Americans in jail

A Great Injustice – Exploring American Incarceration