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      mass incarceration

      An aerial view of the Topeka Correctional Facility.

      A Literal School-to-Prison Pipeline

      The reshaping of the Kansas Technical Institute’s campus into an actual prison a perspective on what it means when, over time, whole populations are functionally criminalized.

      Tamar Sarai
      Sep 28, 2023

      Not long after moving to Topeka, Kansas, in the early 1980s, community organizer Curtis Pitts learned about a hidden slice of that city’s history that would come to shape his life’s work over the next four decades. He was introduced to the Kansas Technical Institute, or KTI, a Black vocational college that had prospered throughout the early 20th century, only to close in the mid-1950s.

      Founded in 1895, KTI enjoyed the distinction of being the second Black college established west of the Mississippi. Built in part by its own students, the school became a self-sustaining campus, training them in agriculture, nursing, printing, tailoring, and theology, among other subjects. The story of KTI almost immediately captured Pitts’s attention, both because of its grandeur at the time and the ways its absence had impacted the city.

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      Opinion
      mass incarceration
      A participant holding a Black Lives Matter sign at a protest.

      We Live in the Sunlight: End Permanent Punishment Now

      I am an elected representative of my community, and I have been removed from an office I was duly elected into, because of a prior conviction.

      Karl Ferrell
      Aug 11, 2023

      One thing I know: Corruption only withers under the sunlight.

      In Illinois, 3.3 million adults have been arrested or convicted of a crime since 1979. Right now, there are 1,189 permanent punishment laws and regulations in Illinois that restrict people with records. Often these restrictions are permanent punishments. I am an elected representative of my community, and I have been removed from an office I was duly elected into, because of such permanent punishments.

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      Opinion
      criminal justice system
      A crowd demonstrates in San Salvador, El Salvador.

      El Salvador’s State of Exception Threatens its Peace Accords

      While many Salvadorans applaud President Nayib Bukele’s “iron fist” approach against the country’s gangs, others are having flashbacks to the repression during the country’s 12-year civil war.

      Margaret Knapke
      Aug 09, 2023

      President Nayib Bukele’s regime has arrested nearly 72,000 Salvadorans over the last 16 months for allegedly assisting or belonging to criminal gangs. This includes at least 1,600 children.

      It also includes “Teo” (not his real name), a boatman arrested in May 2022 when he declined to give a ride to members of the armed forces. He explained the boat didn’t have sufficient fuel, and his aunt had gone to buy more.

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      Opinion
      human rights
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