Incarceration

You've heard of medical marijuana vending machines in Los Angeles, right? Well, the UK one-ups LA with methadone vending machines in its prisons.

The Pew Center on the States has released a report noting that 1 in 31 Americans is either in jail or prison or on probation or parole. Although two-thirds of them are probationers or parolees, it is prisons that are gobbling up the corrections budget. That needs to change, the report said.

Just a couple of weeks after dishing out a few billion dollars more for the drug war in the emergency stimulus bill, Congress is at it again in the 2009 omnibus appropriations bill. More money for Byrne JAG grants, more money for Plan Mexico, and just a tiny bit less for Plan Colombia.

With a budget crisis and a change in New York leadership, a politically perfect storm for reform of the state's draconian drug laws seems to be brewing. With the Rockefeller drug laws finally be repealed, after 35 years?

Americans can rest secure in the knowledge that our country maintains its role as the world's leading jailer. According to a new Bureau of Justice Statistics report, we have an all-time record 2.3 million people behind bars, and that includes more than half a million drug offenders.

British attitudes toward drug users, sellers, and drug reform are heading in the wrong direction, according to a new poll.

After eight years of Republican rule and the Bush presidency, drug policy and related reformers are ready for change. They have some concrete ideas, too. Here's a look at them and the prospects for change in Washington.

The Justice Policy Institute (JPI) is seeking a dedicated and experienced Executive Director for its Washington, DC office.

With "Women Behind Bars," investigate journalist Silja Talvi has produced a tour de force that should shame every American who reads it -- and, one can only hope, help to propel them to take action.

Shot Caller Press, LLC is conducting a poetry contest with cash prizes for prisoners, ex-prisoners, family members or friends of prisoners, prison guards, prison volunteers, or prison workers.