Tag Archives: prisoner advocate

Citizens for Prison Reform’s Lois DeMott, a recent Ann Arbor Awesome Foundation grant recipient, featured on NBC’s Rock Center

The Ann Arbor Awesome Foundation recently awarded a $1,000 grant to Lois DeMott, the founder of Citizens for Prison Reform. I’d interviewed Lois at the time of the award, but I’d decided to hold off posting it for a bit, as she had mentioned to me that she was going to be interviewed by Ted […]

Posted in A2Awesome, Civil Liberties, Michigan | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

Bob Sloan on the new slavery of the American prison factory system

When I flew into Providence a few weeks ago, to attend the Netroots Nation conference, I caught a taxi from the airport to the hotel with a fellow by the name of Bob Sloan. Bob, like me, had won one of the Democracy for America scholarships, and we talked about our work as we made […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Corporate Crime, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , | 40 Comments

Solving all of our problems with prison labor

Do you remember how, a week or so ago, I told you that the City of Ypsilanti was teetering on the brink of bankruptcy, and how, if we didn’t figure out something fast, we were going to have to lay off about two-thirds of fire and police personnel, and almost everyone presently working in City […]

Posted in Civil Liberties | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , | 13 Comments

What it’s really like in Michigan’s prisons

Last night, I reprinted a letter sent by a Michigan school Superintendent to our Governor, asking that his school be converted over to a prison. Given that we fund corrections better than we do education in this state, he argued that it would be in the best interests of his students. He was clearly attempting […]

Posted in Civil Liberties, Michigan, Other, Uncategorized | Also tagged , , , , , , , , , , , , | 45 Comments

Michigan, leading nation in release of non-violent offenders… and that’s a good thing

From an editorial in today’s New York Times: The United States, which has less than 5 percent of the world’s population, has about one-quarter of its prisoners. But the relentless rise in the nation’s prison population has suddenly slowed as many states discover that it is simply too expensive to overincarcerate. Between 1987 and 2007 […]

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