"Prison Town, USA" on PBS
Check for local listings at http://www.pbs.org/pov/local_broadcast_v3.html.
In the 1990s, at the height of the prison-building boom, a prison opened in rural America every 15 days. "Prison Town, USA" tells the story of Susanville, one California town that tries to resuscitate its economy by building a prison  with unforeseen consequences.
Prison Art Exhibit at the International Lutheran Center
You are cordially invited to attend a free reception celebrating the opening of a special prison art exhibit at the International Lutheran Center. Ex-prisoner Dennis Sobin, a classical and jazz guitarist with ten CDs to his credit, will provide live music.
Rumors of a DEA Blog Prompt Curiosity & Concern
Adweek profiles The Adfero Group, whose VP Christopher Battle is helping the DEA Foundation improve its image and promote its ridiculous museum.
How about this:
"DEA Blog: Replacing Stats and Policy With Anecdotes and Hyperbole"
[DEA] has also asked Adfero to create an interactive Web site that will include blogs and virtual tours of the museum. Right now, the only Web site that exists is a page about the museum on the DEA Web site. Plans to include a blog and a speaker's bureau are also under discussion.
A DEA Blog, huh? Sounds just awesome. Let's hope it's more interesting than the compost pile that passes for a blog over at ONDCP. I wanna see candid posts like "If Potent Pot Doesn't Kill These Hippies, We Will," or "Top 10 Sick People We Don't Care About."
So far the only thing we know about this blog is that it will be completely devoid of any intellectual value. They're already prepared to promise us that much:
The group's strategy going forward is to take its slogan, "Hope through education," and "take the debate about drugs out of the realm of statistics and policy and move it into the realm of personal stories," says Battle.Is this a tacit acknowledgement that the discussion of stats and policy inherently disadvantages them? Because, as true as that is, I certainly wasn't expecting them to admit it. That should be their blog motto for sure, and I'm so glad they're giving our tax-dollars to a fancy consulting firm to help them brainstorm these sorts of things.
How about this:
"DEA Blog: Replacing Stats and Policy With Anecdotes and Hyperbole"
Even Anti-Meth Activists Oppose the Drug War
Tom Siebel is a multimillionaire philanthropist who funded terrifying anti-meth ads in Montana. His work has been praised by ONDCP, but now he's speaking out against the drug war.
The nation's drug policy "is a little bit crazy," Montana Meth Project founder Tom Siebel said Thursday.
...
Pointing out that the skyrocketing rate of incarceration is mostly because of drug offenses, Siebel said, "it used to be that we put people in jail who we were scared of. Now we put people in jail we're mad at."
Prison doesn't work, he said.
"They just get a better education," Siebel added. "It's like a graduate school program in drug distribution." [Great Falls Tribune]
Tom Siebel absolutely hates meth, and yet he also opposes the drug war. How can this be? Maybe his aggressive anti-meth ads are actually some sort of drug legalization conspiracy, because everyone knows that only "pro-drug groups" would ever criticize the wisdom of trying to arrest our way out of the drug problem.
Of course, Tom Siebel's work and his words demonstrate that people who care about victims of drug addiction can simultaneously oppose drug abuse while advocating commonsense policies that emphasize public health and reject mass incarceration. Having previously heaped praise upon Tom Siebel, will ONDCP now accuse him of being "pro-drug"?
Regardless, it is becoming increasingly obvious that ONDCP couldn't alienate anti-drug activists, the U.S. Congress, and the academic community any faster if they were actually doing speed themselves.