Black Agenda Report
Black Agenda Report
News, commentary and analysis from the black left.

  • Home
  • Africa
  • African America
  • Education
  • Environment
  • International
  • Media and Culture
  • Political Economy
  • Radio
  • US Politics
  • War and Empire

Violence and the Prison Nation
01 May 2013
🖨️ Print Article

By Against the Grain Radio

If the problem is violence against women, is the solution the criminal justice system? Many anti-violence activists look to the police, prisons, and stepped-up criminalization for help and protection.  Beth Richie says that's a misguided approach, one that feeds the buildup of the prison nation. Richie describes the contours of the prison nation and the threats it poses to women on the margins.

Beth Richie is a professor of Criminal Justice and Gender and Womens Studies at the University of Illinois, and a leader in the movement to abolish prisons and roll back the prison state.


More Stories


  • Ann Garrison, BAR Contributing Editor
    Southern Panther Malik Rahim
    14 May 2025
    In “A Southern Panther,” movement elder Malik Rahim talks about his lifetime of battling racism and fighting for peace and environmental justice.
  • Jon Jeter
    Fleeing Imaginary Persecution at Home, South African ‘Refugees’ May Find the Grass is Not Greener in America
    14 May 2025
    The Trump administration’s decision to fast-track asylum for white South Africans—claiming "persecution"—is a political stunt, ignoring that they remain among the wealthiest globally, still…
  • Anthony Karefa Rogers-Wright
    How the GOP is Saving the Fossil Fuel Industry From Trump…With Help From the Democrats
    14 May 2025
    Despite Trump’s tariffs battering the fossil fuel industry, bipartisan policies, including Democrat-backed subsidies, are rescuing Big Oil, locking in climate destruction while working-class…
  • Black Alliance for Peace Haiti/Americas Team
    The Black Alliance for Peace Calls for Resistance Against the Accelerating Imperialist War on Black/African Peoples in Our Americas
    14 May 2025
    Accelerating crises of imperialism in Haiti, Ecuador, and beyond highlight the urgent need for regional Pan-Africanist, anti-imperialist unity and strategy.
  • Raymond Nat Turner, BAR poet-in-residence
    Saturday Mornings
    14 May 2025
    "Saturday Mornings" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
  • Load More
Subscribe
connect with us
about us
contact us