The kind of stories that real journalists should be doing but so rarely do. America is land of the free? More like country of mass imprisonment. Here’s Democracy Now!:
We turn now to a major new investigation by Shane Bauer, one of three Americans detained in 2009 while hiking in Iraq’s Kurdish region near the Iranian border. He and Josh Fattal were held for 26 months in Iran, and Sarah Shourd—now Shane’s wife—was held for 13 months, most of it in solitary confinement.
Well, seven months after being freed from prison in Iran, Shane Bauer began investigating solitary confinement in the United States. Now, his first major… articlesince his release, he finds California prisoners are being held for years in isolation based on allegations they’re connected to prison gangs. Evidence against them might include possession of, quote, “black literature” or writings about prisoners’ rights. Shane’s report appears on the cover of the new issue of… Mother Jonesmagazine. It’s called: “Solitary in Iran Nearly Broke Me. [Then] I Went Inside America’s Prisons.” “We throw thousands of men in the hole for the books they read, the company they keep, the beliefs they hold. Here’s why.”