I listened to an hour of Columbia Justice Lab, Women's Community Justice Association & the Prison and Jail Innovation Lab pitch their new feminist jail. I didn't hear a single idea that hadn't been widely circulated among carceral feminists a decade ago. 1/ There seemed to me to be a certain anxiety at the amount of criticism their plan has received & how much it was getting in the Zoom comments. & not surprisingly, HR&A, the real estate developer partners, weren't on the call. 2/

Plans about to be revealed for yet another new jail for women & 'gender-expansive people' in NYC. As with all improved cages, these will be 'different', 'humane', 'feminist', 'gender-responsive.' Contrary to advance propaganda, there is nothing new about such 'reformed' cages. 1/ As as been the case with most 'gender-responsive' caging projects, they've given it a warm & fuzzy & neutral name: "The Women's Center for Justice." In CA 15 years ago, they were called Female Rehabilitative Community Corrections Centers. 2/

This NYTimes story about a planned prison closure is the latest public relations success of prison guards, the real estate business, & the Chamber of Commerce to convince us that we should keep people in cages to maintain jobs & real estate values & commerce. 1/ The LATimes ran basically the same story last year: 2/

No surprise that Darren Walker & the Ford Foundation support building 8-12 new jails in NYC. Walker was a member of the commission that drafted the plan. His new In Defense of Nuance is a not very nuanced attack on #NoNewJails organizers opposing NYC’s jail construction plans 1/ Walker laments extremism, enemy of nuance & complexity. Rather than building consensus “based on mutual understanding or shared respect”, extremists, he argues, vilify those not in alignment with their ideologically pure position. The “perfect” becomes the “enemy of progress.” 2/

Yesterday, the California legislature passed #AB32, banning (in the near future) the operation of for-profit prisons, jails, & detention centers in the state and of sending state prisoners out of state to for-profit prisons. 1/
theguardian.com/us-news/2019/s… California has phased out the use of out-of-state private prisons over the last few years, finally bringing the last few dozen back a couple of months ago: 2/ sacbee.com/news/politics-…

I've had enough of reading basically the same story year after year exposing the 'truth' about private prisons in the US. That the stories are sooo repetitive is annoying. That they repeat misleading or unfounded claims deceives & weakens the movement against prisons. 1/9 What are those deceptive tales? A) That donations from private prison corporations drive penal policy. Do they donate? Yes. Do they donate as much as unions of public sector prison workers or police? NO. Or have as much power to shape legislation as sheriffs or DAs? NO. 2/9