The news may be fraying your nerves, with fresh information flashed in front of us every few minutes. So much so that we can find ourselves missing the slow, thoughtful, considerate words that our brains – and souls – need. This weekly update can provide that for you. We do this by distilling the best of the web and recommending just three links every week that you absolutely must see.
No fluff, no fuss, just three exceptional reads. Here are this week’s recommendations:
The Gruesome Attraction of Prison Tourism Is Being Challenged at Last (Hope Corrigan / Mother Jones)
On the penitentiary’s TripAdvisor page, there are pictures of smiling children sitting in the electric chair. (Tom Stiles, the tour director, said that the West Virginia Penitentiary tour “does not try to disrespect an inmate or an inmate’s life. It does not try to disrespect the institution itself. We tell historical facts.”) The Missouri State Penitentiary in Jefferson City encourages visitors to take photos in the facility’s old gas chamber used to execute 40 inmates, over half of whom were Black. The facility offers an eight-hour overnight ghost tour, asking attendees if they can survive the night on “the bloodiest 47 acres in America.” Texas Prison Museum, where the gift shop sells branded “Solitary ConfineMINTS,” displays nooses, images of a lethal injection execution, and a defunct “Old Sparky,” and lets visitors pose for pictures in a replica prison cell.
“The family secret”: how rape is hushed up in Britain’s armed forces (Isobel Thompson / The Economist)
The stories go on. In 2014, Jennifer told her commanding officer that she’d been sexually assaulted in a car by a higher-ranking colleague. “Because I reported it, I was seen as an enemy of the Royal Navy. And then I was treated as such.” She says she was given extra duties and started to suspect that she was being punished for speaking up. She was also required to work in close proximity to her alleged attacker. “I kept asking to be moved and they refused every time. They said I had to get to know him.” When her case eventually went to a military court, the authorities housed her on the same base as the defendant. Before the trial, Jennifer had been contemplating suicide. The day the accused was acquitted she was taken to hospital for psychiatric care. She stayed for five weeks.
Direct action to protest homophobia (Mx. D. E. Anderson)
https://twitter.com/diannaeanderson/status/1536351872008732673
Image: Massimiliano Donghi