OPEN STACKS | #43 Institutions: Toussaint Losier, Michael C. Dawson, Crystal Laura, & Bill Ayers
This week on Open Stacks, discussions about two of the most fervently debated and scrutinized institutions: prisons and public schools.
First, Touissant Losier sits down with Michael C. Dawson, to discuss the book Losier and Dan Berger co-authored, Rethinking the American Prison Movement. Then, Bill Ayers and Crystal Laura talk about their book, "You Can't Fire the Bad Ones!": And 18 Other Myths about Teachers, Teachers Unions, and Public Education, co-authored with Rick Ayers.
The Co-op is now partnering with JSTOR to bring you additional reading from the database's vast collection.
This week, four articles from the JSTOR Daily archives on prisons and schools:
- Why Does the U.S. Sentence Children to Life in Prison?
- Bringing Universal Education to the South
- Little Rock, Then and Now
- A History of Women’s Prisons
From the final article:
Some politicians in Britain have apparently been calling for an abolition of women’s prisons altogether. There are some signs that mass incarceration as it impacts both sexes may be spinning to an end. Liberals and conservatives seem to agree that the cost of maintaining the world’s largest number of inmates is excessive. California voters, as an example, recently passed Proposition 47, which will keep many low-level offenders out of state prison and will likely keep more women out of prison as a result. While acknowledging the statistical differences between men and women, however, the best hope may be that changes in women’s prisons can effect change in all of them.
Laura mentions two video clips towards the end of her conversation with Ayers:
Related Titles
Rethinking the American Prison Movement provides a short, accessible overview of the transformational and ongoing struggles against America's prison system. Dan Berger and Toussaint Losier show that prisoners have used strikes, lawsuits, uprisings, writings, and diverse coalitions with free-...
