Acton Institute Powerblog Archives

Post Tagged 'prison'

Bridging the Church-State Divide

In 2000, I didn’t realize until it was too late that my astronomically exaggerated proximity to presidential candidate George W. Bush would make me a target. For example, I had said in 1998 that women volunteers had run charitable enterprises in the 19th century, so women’s entrance into the corporate workforce had hurt the nonprofit world. Continue Reading...

Fewer prisoners, more jail spending?

The onset of COVID-19 brings new attention to correctional facilities and the number of prisoners remanded because of the virus’ ability to spread rapidly through human contact. A recent study by the Pew Charitable Trust focuses on jails, which are generally operated by local municipalities, and how their budgets are currently allocated. Continue Reading...

Race, mass incarceration, and drug policy

With the 2010 publication of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Ohio State University law professor Michelle Alexander, the conversation about America’s exploding prison population singularly became focused on the intersection of race, poverty, and the War on Drugs. Continue Reading...

Fresh Food And Fresh Starts

In today’s American, nearly a quarter million women are incarcerated, primarily for drug-related or non-violent crimes. That’s roughly an 800 percent increase in the past 30 years. And female felons don’t have any easier a time finding work than their male counterparts. Continue Reading...

Should Prisons Be Purgatorial?

“If Christians cannot help prisoners find meaning behind bars,” wonders Stephen H. Webb, “how can they expect the Gospel to find an audience among those never convicted of a crime?” At First Things, Webb argues that revival of Christianity will only come when we reform America’s prisons: Prisoners are test cases of how Christians deal with sinners in extremis. Continue Reading...