This is an encore presentation of a program first broadcast in April.

Hello and welcome to Behind the News, my name is Doug Henrywood, today prison and post-liberalism.

Wanda Bertram will talk about a new study of the demographics of the inmates of state prisons

and the historian James Chappell will explore the topic of post-liberalism, notably the thought of the reactionary Catholic Adrienne Vermeule.

The US has about 2 million people behind bars about half of them in state prisons.

Who exactly are these people condemned to a miserable existence?

As you might suspect, most of them are people who have been treated very badly by American society,

poor, largely black and brown, often first arrested in their teens,

and in and out of the so-called criminal justice system for much of their lives.

And they're getting older.

The Prison Policy Initiative, a nonprofit that studies mass incarceration with the aim of rolling it back,

is just out with a report based on a federal survey that profiles state prisoners.

We're joined by Wanda Bertram, a writer who works with a group to discuss its findings.

She'll also talk about the vexing history of bail reform in New York State.

In January 2019, the state legislature ended cash bail for most misdemeanor and non-violent felony charges.

The idea was to keep poor people who can't make bail out of confinement because jails are horrible places.

Almost immediately, the reform came under attack from cops, prosecutors, and the tabloid press,

and it's been steadily weakened ever since.

Here's Wanda Bertram.

Before we get to the substance of this, just draw some distinctions here.

We're talking about prisons to start with, right?

And, of course, there are other detention facilities.

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