Chris Hedges: The Prison-Industrial Complex

Image by DonkeyHotey via Flickr

Dandelion Salad

with Chris Hedges

Originally on RT America on Aug 8, 2016

On Contact Archive on Apr 13, 2022

On this week’s episode of On Contact, Chris Hedges discusses mass incarceration with prison reform advocates Walter Fortson and Boris Franklin. From the school-to-prison pipeline, to solitary confinement, to preventing recidivism, they reflect on their own experiences to address how to fix one of the major civil rights issues of today. RT Correspondent Anya Parampil looks at the business of locking people up.

Cowardly Cops, by Michael Parenti

by Michael Parenti
Writer, Dandelion Salad
August 7, 2016

One night in June 2016, in Orlando, Florida, an individual named Omar Mateen, acting on his own, seriously wounded 53 people and murdered 50 others in the Pulse, a gay nightclub. An additional two hundred or more terrified patrons managed to flee the packed premises while Mateen walked around knocking off his victims. How could he have done it? How could one terrorist, acting alone, kill or seriously wound a hundred people? Answer: he had a whole three hours, from 2:02 a.m. to 5:15 a.m., to stroll leisurely around the dance floor, hallways, drinking enclaves, and toilet stalls, killing people with casual impunity. Some of the patrons hid themselves for hours, repeatedly calling 911 or sending messages to friends and family, desperately pleading for help.