Great News for Voting Rights

Iowa will restore voting rights for ex-felons. Read the story here.

Mark Mauer, assistant director of The Sentencing Project and author of Race to Incarcerate, has a compelling article on the subject here.

This is a topic that is germaine to a larger discussion about the prison industrial complex. At a time when we are incarcerating people at a higher rate than ever before, and those who are incaracerated tend to be among the most disenfranchised members of society, the political benefits of voter disenfranchisement to ruling class politics are obvious. The prison industrial complex is part and parcel of the "new global economy."

Three years ago, I was introduced to the Prison Moratorium Project through an incredible hip hop CD called No More Prisons.
Sites about No More Prisons (book and CD) and the Prison Moratorium Project:

http://www.nomoreprisons.org/
http://www.nomoreprisons.net/
http://www.horizonmag.com/3/no-more-prisons.asp
http://bad.eserver.org/reviews/2000/2000-4-21-1.49PM.html
http://www.november.org/razorwire/rzold/18/18018.html
http://www.backbonecampaign.org/Blog.cfm?ID=56
http://www.prisonactivist.org/
http://www.prisonactivist.org/pmp/
http://www.exodusnews.com/Books/Review023.htm
http://www.criticalresistance.org/index.php?name=links

Mr. Politician, tell me who you represent?
He says I represent big industry cause they're the ones that pay my rent
Why should I back a poor community that's mostly black?
When it's a fact, I need some cash to get elected back
The bank account of the prison is the account that's feeding mine.
They need more prisoner's to make more money
So I invent another crime
Or increase the penalties for crimes that already exist
The public will love me for it as I put handcuffs on their kids
But don't blame me because the ship's about to sink
Blame the media and yourself for letting them tell you how to think
If you say that you're not influenced than your lying through your teeth
You're frightened by the cover but don't know what's underneath
Can't drive through the ghetto cause it makes you feel unsafe
When your block gets too dark you move to another place
Better think of something cause there is no place to hide
It will affect us all it's just a matter of time

Lock'em up cause it only brings us money
63% incarcerated by 2020
Little rich kid, he got caught and paid a fine
While the poor black youth got himself a 3 to 5
No more room? Well than I'll build another prison
Create another job get re-elected to my position
The war on drugs if you read between the lines
Is a way to enslave people for non-violent crimes

Abolish slavery? Fuck that, we'll reinvent it
There's crack in the black community so why should we prevent it?
Instead we'll just arrest them try to keep them all unskilled
We just built a brand new prison and the beds have to be filled
This industry is growing fast we're going to make some money
63% in the year 2020, of all black men age 18 to 34
Will be incarcerated, spend their life behind a cell block door
But wait there's more
We'll cut the budget's of all the programs that were designed
to help the poor cause we don't love them no more
Not like we ever did. Locking up our Native Americans
Puerto Ricans, Asians don't forget about the Mexicans
If you're poor and white well then we'll get you too
It will help us hide our racism make it harder for you to sue
So go ahead, speak out. Maybe you'll find someone who listens
Want to change the world? Well why not start with
NO MORE PRISONS
("No More Prisons" by the Lunchbox Superheroes)