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

[orangemike.livejournal.com]

It is my embittered conclusion that most of the so-called libertarians in the U.S. are just Randite reactionaries, and believe that the only justifiable reason for government is to keep the peasants from stealing their stuff, by whatever means necessary.

Keeping anybody except gunowners, drug salesmen (especially "health" swindlers like the fake cancer cure hucksters) and railroaded corporate skating-on-the-edge-of-legality types out of jail doesn't seem to be on their radar.

(And all the exceptions I encounter are in fandom.)

[nancylebov.livejournal.com]

I hope you'll read the article-- it's quite impressive, and very firm about everyone in a society being part of it, very specifically including prisoners, their families, and their communities.

As for the interesting to me but not as generally important matter of what you think of libertarians, I really think you're not doing the subject justice. Radley Balko at The Agitator seems to be libertarian, has done tremendous work on justice system outrages (mostly in the war on drugs, but also investigating over-aggressive prosecutors and lying forensics), and doesn't seem fannish.

The article about the US being addicted to imprisoning people was published at the Cato Institute, the premier libertarian think tank.

Just like any significant chunk of the left, libertarianism includes people with a range of ideologies.