Who I'd invite to my writers' dinner party
mass incarceration
Several recent films and shows portray people of color with a complexity that James Baldwin once assumed was impossible for pop culture.
For some kids, jail is a school field trip. For others, it's nearly inevitable.
My state has the same number of churches as prisoners. This fact haunts me.
Some riots protest injustice. Others perpetuate it.
Here in Washington State, there is roughly the same number of churches as there are prisoners.
Though most of the American churches in the past failed to be a people that manifested the kingdom of God in society during racialized chattel slavery, as well as during Jim Crow white supremacy, we have the opportunity to repent and live into a new and more Jesus-shaped story, being a people that do what God requires; doing justice, loving mercy, and walking humbly before our God. (Micah 6:8)
Imprisonment in this country is long on punishment and shamefully short on rehabilitation.
Caught, by Marie Gottschalk
Marie Gottschalk describes an American penal system that has all but abandoned any real attempt to rehabilitate its inmates.
The "war on drugs" approach to marijuana has had major costs. But the dawning era of legal marijuana presents its own set of public health problems.