Exile Nation Project
Posted by Ty on January 31st, 2011From Exile Nation:
The “Land of the Free” punishes or imprisons more of its citizens than any other country. The United States hosts just 5% of the world’s population, yet a full 25% of the world’s prisoners. At 2.5 million, the US has more prisoners than China. Not more prisoners per capita, more prisoners.
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An additional 5 million are under “Correctional Supervision” (probation, parole, or court monitoring), leaving 1 in 31 Americans under constant State control, prompting The Economist to declare that “never in the civilized world have so many been locked up for so little.”
The Exile Nation Project is a documentary archive of interviews and testimonies from criminal offenders, family members, and experts revealing the far-ranging consequences of the War on Drugs and the American Criminal Justice System.
This captivating oral history puts a human face on the Americans subjugated by the US Government’s 40 year, one trillion dollar social catastrophe: The War on Drugs, a failed policy underscored by fear, politics, racial prejudice and intolerance steeped in a public atmosphere of “out of sight, out of mind.”
The project will unfold over a two year period, beginning with the release of this feature-length documentary and continuing with a weekly release of one complete long-form interview from each of the 100 participants in the project, meant to represent the 1 in 100 Americans who are currently behind bars.
When the stories hit home, policies begin to change.
The Exile Nation Project is made possible by a generous grant from the Tedworth Charitable Trust and openDemocracy, in association with Exile Nation Media. All content is non-commercial and available for free distribution under a Creative Commons license.
About the Director:
Charles Shaw is an award-winning journalist, author of the critically-acclaimed memoir, Exile Nation: Drugs, Prisons, Politics & Spirituality, and Director of the documentary film, The Exile Nation Project: An Oral History of the War on Drugs & the American Criminal Justice System.
Charles serves as Editor for the openDemocracy Drug Policy Forum and the Dictionary of Ethical Politics, both collaborative projects of Resurgence, openDemocracy, and the Tedworth Charitable Trust.
Charles’ work has appeared in Alternet, Alternative Press Review, Conscious Choice, Common Ground, Grist, Guardian UK, Huffington Post, In These Times, Newtopia, The New York Times, openDemocracy, Planetizen, Punk Planet, Reality Sandwich, San Diego Uptown News, Scoop, Shift, Truthout, The Witness, YES!, and Znet. He was a Contributing Author to the 2008 Shift Report from the Institute for Noetic Sciences, and in Planetizen’s Contemporary Debates in Urban Planning (2007, Island Press). In 2009 he was recognized by the San Diego Press Club for excellence in journalism.
Charles is the former Editorial Director of Conscious Enlightenment Publishing (Conscious Choice, Common Ground, Whole Life Times, and Seattle’s Conscious Choice), the founder and publisher of Newtopia, former head writer for the nationally syndicated radio show Reality Checks, former Senior Staff Writer for The Next American City, and a Contributing Editor for Worldchanging.
His activist work has been featured in Democracy NOW!, WLS-ABC 7 (Chicago), Associated Press,Chicago Tribune, San Francisco Chronicle, In These Times, Metroland NY, Knight Ridder, TimeOUT Chicago, and the Washington Post. He served as an official with the Green Party of the US and IDEAL Reform (Illinois Drug Education and Legislation), an organizer for the Chicago Social Forum and BioEthics 2006, as a judge for “Drug Reporting” in the 2006 AltWeekly Awards, and on the Host Committee for the 2007 Chicago Green Festival and the Advisory Council for the Green Street Project, a capacity and community building initiative between the City of Chicago and the not-for-profit sector.
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