New Book: Invisible Punishment

Leading scholars and advocates explore the far-reaching consequences of thirty years of "get tough" policies on prisoners, ex-felons, and families and communities.

by Peter Wagner, October 20, 2002

Invisible Punishment: The Collateral Consequences of Mass Imprisonment, edited by Marc Mauer and Meda Chesney-Lind, just published by The New Press, reveals how the two million imprisoned Americans and their families are being punished by factors well beyond incarceration. Leading scholars and advocates explore the far-reaching consequences of thirty years of “get tough” policies on prisoners, ex-felons, and families and communities. The contributions in Invisible Punishment define the boundaries of a new field of inquiry concerning the impact of American criminal justice policies.

How the prison system makes minority communities pay

"The Crisis" reports on how rising incarceration is spilling over into critical arenas of black political and economic power.

by Peter Wagner, July 15, 2002

The cover article of July/August, 2002 issue of “The Crisis” Magazine, (NAACP national publication) is on how rising incarceration is spilling over
into critical arenas of black political (electoral) and economic power, i.e. affecting the lives of African-Americans not under criminal justice control. Key issues focused on are felony disenfranchisement and the impact of census prisoner-counting practices on redistricting, as well as the relationship between those phenomena and post-reconstruction initiatives designed to take away from the newly enfranchised what had just been granted…

The article discusses the Importing Constituents: Prisoners and Political Clout report about the census counting urban prisoners as rural residents.

An internet version of the article is not yet available but you can order a hard copy from Crisis Magazine.

Supreme Court strikes down judge-ordered death sentences

The Supreme Court today invalidated the death sentence of Timothy Ring because although the jury voted for life, the judge sentenced him to death

by Peter Wagner, June 24, 2002

The Supreme Court today invalidated the death sentence of Timothy Ring because although the jury voted for life, the judge sentenced him to death. Between 180 and 800 death sentences will be invalidated by this decision.

Justice O’Connor wrote a dissent where she argues in part that she opposed reversing Ring’s death sentence because it would also reverse many other death sentences. To paraphrase the late Justice Brennan: What does O’Connor fear — too much justice?