Prison By Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms

FEATURING MAYA SCHENWAR – As the national uprising led by Black Lives Matter called for a defunding of police this year, a demand that has gone hand-in-hand but received less attention in recent months is the end of mass incarceration in the US. America locks up more people than any other nation in the world and in late 2018 a broad coalition from the left and right came together to endorse a bill called the First Step Act that many hailed as progress toward ending mass incarceration. But that bill, which was signed into law by President Trump did little to actually end the problem and instead shifted funding from traditional prisons toward programs that ended up sounding an awful lot like incarceration by another name.

Maya Schenwar, editor-in-chief of Truthout, author with Victoria Law of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms. The book has a foreword by Michelle Alexander. Her earlier book was Locked Down, Locked Out. She also co-edited the anthology Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect?

** This interview was originally broadcast on August 7, 2020.