This chapter provides background on American jails and prisons. (What’s the difference between a jail and a prison? What is incarceration supposed to accomplish? How do prison abolitionists conceptualize and justify their goals? How did American incarceration develop?) It provides longitudinal and contemporary statistics. Finally, it offers narrative and case law background on the development of the modern conception of prisoners’ rights.
An edited version is available for download here.
The Reach of the Criminal Justice System: Various Institutions and Punishments
What is Incarceration For?
Bonnie Tenneriello is Solitary Confinement Project Director and a Senior Attorney with Prisoners’ Legal Services of Massachusetts. Much of her litigation has focused on solitary confinement, including the pending case Evelyn v. DOC, which challenges the Massachusetts DOC’s evasion of solitary confinement reform. She has also written on this topic for the Boston Review. Recent litigation also includes Doe v. Mici, which challenges the use of prisons to house people civilly committed for substance use disorder. She serves on the Board of Directors of the Massachusetts Chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. |