Part of the Series
The Road to Abolition
Maya Schenwar, Editor-in-Chief, Truthout.org. (Photo: Jill Brazel)From Maya Schenwar, Truthout’s editor-in-chief, comes a hard-hitting and personal exploration of the enormous damage prison causes by severing millions of people from their families and communities – and the practical alternatives to incarceration that can create a safer, more just world. Get this new book before it is available elsewhere, only on Truthout! Click here to order.
Maya Schenwar talks about her new book Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better, and how corporations profit from prisons, decarceration, rehabilitation, social justice and prisons’ impact on society.
Truthout’s Editor-in-Chief Maya Schenwar’s knowledge of the criminal justice system is not purely theoretical. Her sister has been in and out of the prison system for almost a decade. Having a family member imprisoned spurred Schenwar to write a book describing how prisoners’ daily lives are about being caged, disconnected from loved ones and abused in a system has nothing to do with rehabilitation and everything to do with punishment and cruelty. Add to that the barriers prisoners face upon their release that block access to jobs, various kinds of care, and even the ability to vote, it’s no wonder the recidivism rates average between forty and seventy five percent in some states. Schenwar has written a compelling book, and in this Truthout Interviews, she expands on some of the issues she addresses in Locked Down, Locked Out: Why Prison Doesn’t Work and How We Can Do Better.
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