Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles of Incarcerated Women

This past Monday (August 10th), I was invited to participate in Grit TV's roundtable discussion on incarceration and the recent federal court ruling mandating that California, which is at 190% capacity for its prison population, decrease its prison population by over 40,000:

The United States has the highest incarceration rate of any industrialized nation. In the face of an unprecedented economic crisis, some states are beginning to consider reducing their prison populations. But other states are looking to do just the opposite in an effort to create jobs. Today, David Fathi Director of Human Rights Watch’s US Program, Glenn E. Martin, Vice President of Development and Public Affairs at the David Rothenberg Center for Public Policy, and Victoria Law, author of Resistance Behind Bars: The Struggles Of Incarcerated Women on the future of prison reform in the United States.

Also, Donald Specter, Director of the Prison Law Office discusses a recent federal ruling in California that declared the states overcrowded prisons, “impossible to manage,” and suggests gradually reducing the prison population.

The roundtable discussion is at: http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/2009/08/11/the-prison-crisis/

The full hour (which includes an interview with Aarti Shahani at Families for Freedom's discussion of the closing of the Hutton Detention Center in Texas) is available online at: http://lauraflanders.firedoglake.com/2009/08/10/the-prison-crisis-obamas...