The editorial calls to mind two interesting publications. The first is an excellent edited collection entitled (coincidentally) Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America’s Poor (Amazon) which contains essays on inter alia privatization of prisons, racial disparities, sexual abuse, the HIV/AIDS crisis in American prisons.
The second is the Concluding Observations of the CERD on fifth and sixth periodic reports of the United States, which were released on February 28th. In these Concluding Observations the CERD expressed concern about “the persistent racial disparities in the criminal justice system…including the disproportionate number of persons belonging to racial, ethnic and national minorities in the prison population†(paragraph 20), the fact the “young offenders belonging to racial, ethnic and national minorities, including children, constitute a disproportionate number of those sentenced to life imprisonment without parole†(paragraph 21), and “the persistent and significant racial disparities with regard to the imposition of the death penalty, particularly those associated with the race of the victim†(paragraph 23).