A libertarian (not quite) writes about race, class, and prison

[nancylebov]

http://www.cato-unbound.org/2009/03/11/glenn-loury/a-nation-of-jailers/

It is precisely in these terms that I wish to discuss a preeminent moral challenge for our time — that imprisonment on a massive scale has become one of the central aspects of our nation’s social policy toward the poor, powerfully impairing the lives of some of the most marginal of our fellow citizens, especially the poorly educated black and Hispanic men who reside in large numbers in our great urban centers.

Addenda: Glenn Loury isn't a libertarian. I assumed he was because what he wrote was basically consistent with libertarianism and it was published by a libertarian source. However, he's apparently on the left. He's had quite an interesting career, including a while as a neo-con. I recommend the article.

Original link thanks to Marginal Revolution.

Comments

[madfilkentist]

My experiences communicating with Bill Wells are relevant to this. Over a year ago, I wrote to the prison inquiring about some grievances which Bill had. I know that the appropriate people received this, because Bill said he'd been told about the inquiry and had given permission to reply. I never got any reply.

Bill reports that he's been pursuing efforts for a long time to get his sentence vacated, based on his claim that his Public Defender shafted him in plea bargaining, getting him to plead guilty to an offense he wasn't guilty of given the accepted facts. The court keeps granting the government delay after delay.

Whether or not the government is in the right, these constant delays are a clear sign that it doesn't care.

[madfilkentist]

Re your addendum: Other non-libertarians have written for Cato when there's agreement on a specific issue. For instance, Harold Feld has written for them on the domain name system.