Biblical Hospitality, Immigration, and the Boundary of Whiteness
By Dr. Alex Mikulich, JSRI Research Fellow
Post-Katrina New Orleans: A Welcoming Community?
<p>On Saturday, September 11, 2010, we presented Post-Katrina New Orleans: A Welcoming Community? In this report, we include the presentations of our two morning keynoters, Jarvis DeBerry of The Times Picayune and Dr. Allison Plyer of the Greater New Orleans Community Data Center.</p>
As we contemplated the fifth anniversary of Hurricane Katrina (August 29, 2010), it seemed to our staff that a key prism through which to view these five years was how New Orleans was or was not a welcoming community—first, to the poor, the elderly, and people of color who often were least able to weather the storm and its aftermath; and, second, how we welcomed those migrants who came to help rebuild our homes, our offices, and our communities.
Prison Doesn’t Pay
<p>The Gulf South states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Florida rank 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 respectively for the rate of adult incarceration among all fifty states. The growth in the incarceration rate among Gulf South states between 1982 and 2007 is also high: Louisiana (272%), Mississippi (256%), Texas (203%), Alabama (176%), and Florida (127%). This growth is highly significant for the associated increases in federal and state correctional costs, diminishing returns for public safety, and exacerbating racial inequities.</p>
Gulf States Need to Shift Public Policy and Funding from Incarceration to Alternatives
By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.
The Gulf South states of Louisiana, Mississippi, Texas, Alabama, and Florida rank 1, 2, 4, 5, and 7 respectively for the rate of adult incarceration among all fifty states. The growth in the incarceration rate among Gulf South states between 1982 and 2007 is also high: Louisiana (272%), Mississippi (256%), Texas (203%), Alabama (176%), and Florida (127%).
Louisiana Incarceration Rate Highest among 50 states
Louisiana incarcerates more of its citizens than any other state. One of every 55 Louisiana residents is incarcerated according to a new Pew Center for the States study. Mississippi is ranked second, Texas fifth, Alabama sixth, and Florida eighth. The same study, One in 31: The Long Reach of American Corrections, finds that one of every 31 U.S. adults is under some form of correctional supervision. Whereas 2.1 million people were in the correctional system in 1982, that number has grown to 7.3 million today. The national rate of incarceration has increased by 272 percent since 1982.
A budget moral framework
<p>This month, the Republicans in the U.S. House of representatives have passed their budget resolution (the <em>Ryan plan</em>, named for Chairman Paul Ryan of the House Budget Committee) for the next federal fiscal year; it is meant to serve as a framework for actual spending bills in the coming months. It is touted as debt and deficit reduction—all from cutting domestic programs like Medicare and Medicaid—and it has trillions of dollars of tax reductions over the next ten years.</p>
What is more important than debt, deficit, and tax reduction?
By Fr. Fred Kammer, SJ
The Death Penalty in Dixie
<p>Despite both recent Supreme Court jurisprudence and the widely held American assumption that official racial discrimination ended with Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s, the legacy of official racial discrimination is alive and well in the last capital of the Confederacy—Caddo Parish (Shreveport), Louisiana. </p>
The enduring legacy of the Confederate flag and racism
By Alex Mikulich, Ph.D.
Despite both recent Supreme Court jurisprudence and the widely held American assumption that official racial discrimination ended with Civil Rights legislation of the 1960s and 1970s, the legacy of official racial discrimination is alive and well in the last capital of the Confederacy—Caddo Parish (Shreveport), Louisiana.
What costs $230 billion dollars by 2021?
<p>The new U.S. House Republican majority is proposing what it calls the <em>Repealing the Job-Killing Health Care Law Act</em> (H.R. 2). Several enormous problems exist for this legislation besides the fact that it will not be considered in committee before a full house vote, not be amendable, not pass the Democrat-controlled Senate, and would be vetoed by President Obama. First, repeal will cost $230 billion over the next ten years, projects the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office (CBO), and a likely $1.3 trillion over the following decade. Second, there is no evidence that it is “job-killing.”</p>
CBO says proposed health care repeal will cost a trillion dollars more in the following decade
By Fr. Fred Kammer, S.J.
Mississippi's missed Katrina recovery
<p>In a new report authored by Reilly Morse, Mississippi Center for Justice senior attorney, the center documents the shortcomings of Mississippi’s post-Katrina housing recovery. The report is entitled Hurricane Katrina: How Will Mississippi Turn the Corner?</p>
Report documents unfulfilled promises and 5,000 families without permanent housing
by Fred Kammer, SJ, JSRI Director
In a new report authored by Reilly Morse, Mississippi Center for Justice senior attorney, the center documents the shortcomings of Mississippi’s post-Katrina housing recovery. The report is entitled Hurricane Katrina: How Will Mississippi Turn the Corner? Among its key findings are these: