#CC neglected it and then was forced to face the consequences

[loubetcha]

yk i’m at the point that i literally don’t accept s7e11 “closure” as canon. it makes me ANGRY now because the more i look at all the past seasons and everything they’ve done with the samantha arc and how important it’s been to mulder’s character, it just defaces and denies all of it. it just- it’s not fair. after all mulder has been through to continue to believe that samantha was abducted just for it to be thrown out the window? for him to accept it finally in a way which was supposed to be meaningful and big but altogether uncharacteristic and hollow? it’s like they tried to abide by paper hearts ideologies but through a seemingly unnessary dark meandering of new paranormalities. it also creates so much more inconsistency along with what we started to see from s5 and beyond in the samantha plot, it doesn’t explain it. for instance, in the colony arc, the samantha-looking clones say “how could we know so much about her” and WHO if not samantha is this woman they were modeled after??? did the clones just grow old from the little samantha’s on that bee farm thing so they knew what she’d age like?? IT DOESN’T MAKE SENSE!!! IT’S NOT ENOUGH!! CC YOU CANT GET AWAY THAT EASY!!

[cscclibrary]

[Color photo: Protesters against police brutality in Columbus, OH on June 2, 2020. In the foreground, a male African-American protester is supine, hands clasped behind his back as if handcuffed. An African-American woman holding a sign kneels on his neck. Two other protesters nearby hold similar poses, and more protesters in the background stand and hold signs. Photo taken by Paul Becker, used under CC license.]

Criminal justice reform, the police state, mass incarceration, police violence, the unique danger of criminalization faced by Black persons in the United States--all of this and more have been on our country’s collective mind since the murder of George Floyd on May 25th of this year.  These have long been topics of student papers here at Columbus State, but now they’re something more: people all over the country are seeking books about these and other related topics, not to write an essay for a grade, but to educate themselves about how our criminal justice system came to be, and what, if anything, can be done to rectify it.

We’ve assembled a sizable list of ebooks that can help you learn about these topics. The first portion of our list are items which discuss the history and current context of the criminal justice system; the second portion focuses on barriers to reentry for former prisoners.  Although access to these items is limited to current Columbus State students and staff, readers associated with other institutions may find that they have access through their own libraries.

[Note: All book descriptions are provided by their respective publishers.]

History and Current Context:

The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the Making of the American Penal State, 1776-1941. “America's prison-based system of punishment has not always enjoyed the widespread political and moral legitimacy it has today. ...[This book] covers the periods of deep instability, popular protest, and political crisis that characterized early American prisons.”

Incarceration Nation: How the United States Became the Most Punitive Democracy in the World. “[A] sophisticated and highly accessible picture of the rise of mass incarceration.”

Building the Prison State: Race and the Politics of Mass Incarceration. “Examining civil rights protests, prison condition lawsuits, sentencing reforms, the War on Drugs, and the rise of conservative Tea Party politics, [this book] explains why politicians veered from skepticism of prisons to an embrace of incarceration as the appropriate response to crime.”

The Cambridge Handbook of Policing in the United States.  “[P]rovides a comprehensive collection of essays on police and policing, written by leading experts in political theory, sociology, criminology, economics, law, public health, and critical theory. It unveils a range of experiences--from the police chief of a major metropolitan force to ordinary people targeted for policing on the street-and asks important questions about whether and why we need the police, before analyzing the law of policing, police use of force, and police violence, paying particular attention to the issue of discrimination against marginalized and vulnerable communities at the blunt end of police interference.”

Too Easy to Keep: Life-Sentenced Prisoners and the Future of Mass Incarceration. “[I]llustrates the harsh consequences of excessive sentences and demonstrates a keen need to reconsider punishment policy.

Children of the Prison Boom: Mass Incarceration and the Future of American Inequality. “[D]escribes the devastating effects of America’s experiment in mass incarceration for a generation of vulnerable children.” 

Handbook on Children with Incarcerated Parents: Research, Policy, and Practice. “[E]xamines family life, health, and educational issues that often arise for the millions of children in the United States whose parents are in prison or jail.”

Paying for the Past: The Case against Prior Record Sentence Enhancements. “[E]xamines the neglected but critically important topic of sentence enhancements based on prior convictions in the United States. Most sentenced offenders have a prior record, and in many cases that record carries more weight at sentencing than the new crime being punished.”

The School-to-Prison Pipeline: Education, Discipline, and Racialized Double Standards. “[O]ffers a research and comparison-driven look at the school-to-prison pipeline, its racial dynamics, the connections to mass incarceration, and our flawed educational climate--and suggests practical remedies for change.”

Color behind Bars: Racism in the U.S. Prison System. “A diverse, critical analysis of racial and ethnic disparities within the American criminal justice system that encourages critical thinking by providing various sides to the issues.”

Misdemeanorland: Criminal Courts and Social Control in an Age of Broken Windows Policing. “An in-depth look at the consequences of New York City's dramatically expanded policing of low-level offenses. ...[S]hows how the lower reaches of our criminal justice system operate as a form of social control and surveillance, often without adjudicating cases or imposing formal punishment.

Ending Overcriminalization and Mass Incarceration: Hope from Civil Society.  “[I]ntroduces the key issues that need immediate attention and provides concrete direction about effective solutions systemically and relationally.”

Barriers to Reentry:

Living in Infamy: Felon Disfranchisement and the History of American Citizenship.   “[E]xamines the history of disfranchisement for criminal conviction in the United States during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. In the post-war South, white southern Democrats expanded the usage of laws disfranchising for crimes of infamy in order to deny African Americans the suffrage rights due them as citizens, employing historical similarities between the legal statuses of slaves and convicts as justification.”

After Life Imprisonment: Reentry in the Era of Mass Incarceration.  “[E]xamines the experiences of 'lifers' upon release. Through interviews with over sixty homicide offenders sentenced to life but granted parole, [the book] tracks those able to build a new life on the outside and those who were re-incarcerated.” 

Jesus Saved an Ex-con: Political Activism and Redemption after Incarceration. “This book sheds light on how former gang members and formerly incarcerated persons wage campaigns to expend the rights of those with criminal records.” 

On the Outside: Prisoner Reentry and Reintegration.  “[E]xamines the lives of 22 people--varied in race and gender but united by their time in the criminal justice system--as they pass out of the prison gates and back into society.” 

Convicted and Condemned: The Politics and Policies of Prisoner Reentry.  “[T]his book explores the evolution of a felony conviction, the common understanding of it, and the way it became shorthand for criminality and deviance specifically linked to black skin. On the basis of social practices, politicians took the common understanding of a felony conviction and extended its function beyond the boundaries of the criminal justice system so that a felony conviction is now embedded in policies that deny felons access to public housing, educational grants, and employment opportunities.” 

[balochdiplomacy-blog]

📑The Baloch Conlict with Iran and Pakistan: Aspects of a National Liberation Struggle

On August 15, 2016, Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s nod to Pakistan’s festering insurgency revived nascent activism on Balochistan. This included rejuvenated campaigns on the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, human rights violations/resource exploitation, the Kulbhushan Jadhav case, and a larger self-determination movement. The prime minister’s response to Nawaz Sharif’s Burhan Wani reference at the United Nations has since jump-started activism even in Washington D.C. and Geneva. Recently, the World Baloch Organization also managed to irk the Pakistani High Commission in England through its Free Balochistan advertisements on London cabs. With respect to Kashmir, mainstream media has always curtailed, but not fully censored, dissenting opinions via bellicose nationalism. However, alternative avenues still exist to further these voices, (both insideand outside the Valley) such as literature and independent filmmaking. ✔Naseer Dashti 📖The Baloch Conlict with Iran and Pakistan: Aspects of a National Liberation Struggle Independently published, 2017 At the same time, one question arises from the whataboutery and genuine comparisons surrounding these two conflicts. How many Indians understand Balochistan outside the contours of the India-Pakistan rivalry? In light of Pakistani inaction on Hafiz Saeed and the Swiss government’s rejection of Brahamdagh Bugti’s application for political asylum, there is a call for India to grant the latter sanctuary. Hence, Naseer Dashti’s independently published The Baloch Conlict with Iran and Pakistan: Aspects of a National Liberation Struggle, is timely. Until now, literature on Balochistan has constantly been viewed through the prisms of imperial cartography, historical ethnography, precursory nationalism, the Pakistani state, or journalistic memoir. In his first book, Dashti touched on the province’s dubious merger with Pakistan. Preceding this accession is a lengthy oppression-ridden history that included a sovereign nation-state referred to as the Khanate of Kalat. That is until Britain trifurcated the Khanate into portions held by present-day Iran, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Rarely do South Asia policy enthusiasts get acquainted with a radically distinct outlook from an ethnic Baloch. After all, subsequent to Nawab Akbar Bugti’s murder in 2006, the author left Pakistan for the UK to escape persecution. Though according to past establishment leaders like Senator Mushahid Hussain, Bugti was not pro-independence. Outside the Pakistani High Commission in the Knightsbridge area of London. Credit: Daneesh Majid The dissident author also gives long-overdue attention to the more under-reported Baloch persecution in Iran. Fair-weather Indian ‘supporters’ and the general public are unaware of this important facet. In 1973, the Iranian Shah did not take kindly to eastern Balcohistan movements spearheaded by early nationalist figures Ataullah Mengal, Ghous Baksh Bizenjo, and Khair Baksh Marri. In his book, Dashti endorses the secessionist line. But he does so while remaining cognisant of broader geopolitical realities that hold implications for external support towards the Baloch cause. Such pragmatism is usually absent among others who extol separatist narratives. After elaborating on Iran, Dashti devotes the lion’s share of the book to a much-neglected era. This epoch succeeded the short-lived independence of the Baloch nation-state that possessed its own bicameral tribal parliament. Bhakt keyboard warriors and armchair activists alike project solidarity through hashtags that project human rights violations and/or commemorate any prominent ideologue’s martyrdom. But can those far from ground realities truly have an informed opinion on that often-ignored and disregarded period? Luckily the follow-up to The Baloch and Balochistan comprehensively narrates the peaks and troughs of a 70-year long resistance that initially emerged under a confederation of leftist parties, the National Awami Party. During the early years, the elite chieftains of the Bugti, Marri, Mengal, and Bizenjo tribes emerged as the faces of the struggle. Dashti relies on extensive research when recapping the nationalists’ post-accession trajectory that saw strides and schisms. CC BY 2.0 He then smoothly transitions into more recent stages of the resistance after the first four insurgencies. Readers are introduced to other key stakeholders like militant groups (although all but one of political parties deny affiliation with them), student organisations, and the exiled Europe-based leadership. Dashti does not just delve into these groups’ ideological leanings, he divulges fascinating details about their socio-economic and tribal demographics as well. Naseer Dashti. Credit: Youtube The wealth of information regarding contemporary history that preceded the 21st century era can get a bit overwhelming for those new to the Balochistan issue. Nevertheless, the book’s all encompassing content maintains a flow by headings and sub-headings within chapters. Most intriguing are the final parts of this account. Dashti applies relevant clauses and articles of international treaties and human rights covenants to make a case for a UN supervised referendum. This makes for provocative reading since debate around the UN’s role in South Asian conflicts has been Kashmir centric. Despite championing a liberation movement on a political and militant level, the last chapter is a testament to Dashti’s acumen in considering both internal and external obstacles to the cause. A recurring theme within the former is a lack of unity among nationalist forces in eastern Balochistan. ✔As for external support, his realistic assessment of India’s and the United States’ current and future involvement can be summed up in 🌐six words. ▶(C)overt assistance alongside strategic policy paralysis. The present-day discourse on the Baloch question is shrouded in censorship. Consequently, the only recourse to disseminate this excessively silenced narrative was an independent US-based publishing company. Therefore, the unfortunate lack of buzz around this book and minor grammatical lapses can be overlooked. Plus, perspectives regarding Pakistan Administered Kashmir or and Balochistanthat slightly deviate from those of the establishment are not simply discouraged in Pakistan. They are crushed. And if civil society members give a platform to crushed voices, a certain fate awaits them. This is exactly why Dashti’s book deserves to be read.