Journalists and human rights organizations have closely documented the correlation between poverty and prison time. The United States, largely as a result of its mass incarceration policies, boasts the largest prison population in the world, and a disproportionate segment of this population has lived beneath the poverty line. Moreover, researchers have demonstrated that convicted felons… Read more »
Author: Serena Taj
Detroit’s Water Crisis
“If you’re wealthy enough in Detroit, you can have water. If you’re not wealthy enough, you can’t have water.” This is how Dr. Peter Hammer, the director of the Center for Civil Rights at Wayne State University, characterizes the latest developments in Detroit’s financial crisis. In what the United Nations has declared a violation of… Read more »
The Northeastern SJP Case
In a motion that has incensed free speech advocates across the country, Boston’s Northeastern University has suspended its chapter of Students for Justice in Palestine (SJP) until 2015, after the organization engaged in a leaflet campaign around school dormitories. The university has also pursued disciplinary action, including expulsion proceedings, against two group members. The leaflets… Read more »
Roast Busters: Rape Culture in New Zealand
New Zealand police are being fiercely criticized as details surface that officials responded ineffectually to allegations against a self-styled rape club, going so far as to ask victims what they were wearing when they were attacked. The so-called “Roast Busters” are a group of high school boys in the Auckland area whose goals are to… Read more »
An Unexceptional Spy
In September, Brazilian president Dilma Rousseff stood before the UN general assembly to deliver a scathing condemnation of U.S. intelligence policy. In response to new leaks that showed that the NSA was not only collecting information on U.S. citizens, but also eavesdropping on the private communications of Brazilians, Rousseff branded the U.S. an international criminal…. Read more »