Bruce Western, Professor of Sociology from Harvard University's Kennedy School of Government, is a leading expert on the prison boom in the US and discusses in this interview how mass incarceration is affecting American society and in particular how it increases racial inequality
There are more African-Americans under correctional control today—in prison or jail, on probation or parole—than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began. In this edition of Moyers & Company, Bill speaks with civil rights lawyer and legal scholar Michelle Alexander, whose book The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness has become a bestseller and spurred a wide conversation about justice and inequality in America, inspiring one reviewer to call it “the bible of a social movement.” This program also includes an excerpt from the documentary Susan, by Tessa Blake and Emma Hewitt. The film tells the story of former California inmate Susan Burton, who runs five houses offering help to women struggling to rebuild their lives after prison. Broadcast date: December 20, 2013.
