Phone calls to the outside world are a lifeline for incarcerated people. Having access to phone calls also reduces violence in prisons and prisoner recidivism rates. So why have we let prisons and private companies charge so much for them?
Posted inWorking People
Massage therapists forced to choose between unsafe work or losing unemployment
Like many massage therapists, Kate from New Jersey lost her job during the pandemic. Then her employer made her choose between losing her unemployment benefits or returning to work before it was safe.
Posted inBaltimore
Battleground Baltimore: Pushing back
In this week’s roundup of Baltimore news, Black community space Terra Cafe won’t cave to noise ordinance NIMBYs, out of town developers try to silence Poppleton residents, and the “Free Keith Davis Jr.” movement raises the stakes with some help from DeRay Mckesson.
Posted inPolice Accountability Report
Cops hate citizen journalists, but they’re not the only ones
PAR talks to auditors Laura Shark and Lackluster about the obstacles faced by citizen journalists who uncover police malfeasance, and why the work of auditors plays a critical role in holding cops accountable.
Posted inPolitics and Movements: US
Factory farms pose an ‘existential threat’ for rural Wisconsin communities
Big Agriculture and the factory farming industry are taking over more of the US landscape and farming economy every year. But these rural communities in Wisconsin are fighting back.
Posted inEconomy and Inequality
Rideshare drivers strike for fair pay, demand passage of the PRO Act
Drivers in California say Democrats must abolish the filibuster to pass the PRO Act, which would grant them labor protections and force tech companies to compensate them fairly.
Posted inEconomy and Inequality
“Piiigs iiin Spaaace!”
The space race playing out among billionaires like Richard Branson, Jeff Bezos, and Elon Musk has little to do with science—it’s a PR-driven spectacle designed to distract us from the disasters capitalism is causing here on Earth.
Posted inPolitics and Movements: US
Seven months after Capitol riots, we still haven’t confronted what caused them
World-renowned author and historian Rick Perlstein discusses the historical roots of the Capitol riots and the right’s slide toward authoritarianism; will unprecedented opposition to Israeli occupation lead to change?
Posted inPrisons and Policing
Kip Kinkel, the establishment’s poster child for juvenile incarceration, finally speaks
Since the 1998 mass shooting at Thurston High School in Springfield, Oregon, Kip Kinkel’s case has been repeatedly used to justify extreme punishment and sentencing for juveniles in the US. After twenty years of silence, Kinkel is speaking out.
Posted inEconomy and Inequality
84-hour weeks: A striking Frito-Lay worker describes horrors of working for chip giant
Frito-Lay worked its employees to the bone for subpar wages during the pandemic, and profited handsomely. On strike since July 5, workers in Topeka, Kansas, have had enough.