As Angela Davis brilliantly argues, supported by well documented examples and references, prisons are an accepted part of our society - we take them for granted, and unless we have the misfortune of coming into contact with the system, they have become omnipresent and thus invisible. Angela Y. Davis shows, in her most recent book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, that this alarming situation isn't as old as one might think. Having to put a person in the prison seems to be the right to do; however, people forget to look at the real consequence of the existence of the prisons. Angela Davis addresses this specific issue within her book, Are Prisons Obsolete? She defines the PIC as biased for criminalizing communities of color and used to make profit for corporations from the prisoners suffering. Tightening the governments budget forces them to look for other ways to make up for the, In theory, there is no reason why prisons should work. Get help and learn more about the design. This nature of the system is an evident of an era buried by laws but kept alive by the prejudices of a flawed system. Essay about Are Prisons Obsolete Analysis. Mendietas act of assuming that readers will already be familiar with Angela Davis and her work, as well as the specific methods of torture used by certain prisons, may cause readers to feel lost while reading the. The present prison system failed to address the problem it was intended to solve. But contrary to this, the use of the death penalty, Angela Davis in her book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, argues for the overall abolishment of prisons. Additionally, while some feminist women considered the crusade to implement separate prisons for women and men as progressive, this reform movement proved faulty as female convicts increasingly became sexually assaulted. It throws out a few suggestions, like better schooling, job training, better health care and recreation programs, but never gets into how these might work or how they fit into the argument, an argument that hasnt been made. According to the book, it has escalated to a point where we need to reevaluate the whole legislation and come up with alternative remedies that could give better results. by Angela Y. Davis is a nonfiction critical text, published in 2003, that advocates for prison abolition. Chapter 1-2 of Are Prisons Obsolete? by A. Davis. Those that are incarcerated challenge the way we think of the definition incarcerated. In other words, for the majority of people, prisons are a necessary part of modern society. The following paper is a reflection on the first two chapters of Angela Davis book Are Prisons Obsolete? What if there were no prisons? May 7, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/chapter-1-2-of-are-prisons-obsolete-by-a-davis/. Chapter 5 Summary & Analysis Chapter 5 Summary: "The Prison Industrial Complex" Davis defines the prison industrial complex as the complex and manifold relationships between prisons, corporations, governments, and the media that perpetuate rising incarceration rates. Are Prisons Obsolete? This is one of the most comprehensive, and accessible, books I have read on the history and development/evolution of the prison-industrial complex in the United States. The first private contract to house adult offenders was in 1984, for a small, 250-bed facility operated by CCA under contract with Hamilton County, Tennessee (Seiter, 2005, pp. Eduardo Mendieta constructs an adequate response to Angela Davis Are Prisons Obsolete? 162-165). As of 2008 there was 126,249 state and federal prisoners held in a private prison, accounting for 7.8 percent of prisoners in general. The reformers believed that there was a way that better methods of rehabilitating the criminals could be applied (Anyon, 2014). 1. The prison industrial complex concept is used to link the rapid US inmate population expansion to the political impact of privately owned prisons. As a result of their crimes, convicts lose their freedom and are place among others who suffer the same fate. It attempts to deconstruct the idea of prisons, it proposes that punishment never was and never will be an effective antidote to crime, and that under capitalistic, racist, sexist, and classist societies, prisons are bound to be exploitive, oppressive and discriminatory institutions. She is marvelous and this book along with the others, stands as testimony to that fact. Eye opening in term of historical facts, evolution, and social and economic state of affairs - and a rather difficult read personally, for the reflexions and emotions it awakens. According to Alexander, Today, most American know and dont know the truth about mass incarceration (p. 182). Jacoby and believes that inmates that havent committed a huge crime should not experience horrors in prison? From the 1960s to 2003, US prison populations grew from 200,000 to 2 million, and the US alone holds 20% of the world's prison population. This is leading to prisoners going to different places and costing the states more money to build more prison 's. This concept supports the power of the people who get their power from racial and economic advantages. A deeply revelatory read that made me revisit a lot of assumptions I had made about the origins and purpose of prisons and the criminal justice system generally. (2018), race is defined as the, major biological divisions of mankind, for. Michel Foucault is a very famous French intellectual who practiced the knowledge of sociology. In addition, some would be hanged especially if they continued with the habit. The notion of a prison industrial complex insists on understandings of the punishment process that take into account economic and political structures and ideologies, rather than focusing myopically on individual criminal conduct and efforts to "curb crime." The US prison contains 2 million prisoners, or twenty percent of the world's total 9 million prison population. Choose skilled expert on your subject and get original paper with free plagiarism School can be a better alternative to prison. The creation of the prisons seems to be the good solution in regarding of securing social safety; yet, there are many bad consequences that appear to affect the prisoners the most, which those effects involve exploitation of the prisoners labor, wasted capital resources that can be used to do other things that can help improve the community, and the way the prisoners are treated is similar to the way slaves were treated. Davis calls for the abolition of the present system. He demonstrates that inmates are getting treated poorly than helping them learn from their actions. However, one of the main problems with this idea was the fact that the prisons were badly maintained, which resulted in many people contracting fatal diseases. To put into perspective, the number of individuals increased by 1600% between 1990 and 2005 (Private Prisons, 2003). It is concerned with the managerial, What is incarceration? Davis." Davis cites a study of California's prison expansion from 1852 to the 1990s that exemplifies how prisons "colonize" the American landscape. In the section regarding the jails, she talks about how the insane are locked up because they pose of a threat to the publics safety not confined somewhere. Prison is supposed to put an end to criminal activities but it turns out to be the extension; crime keeps happening in and out of the prison and criminals stay as, Though solitary confinement goal is not to deteriorate inmates mental health, it does. Proliferation of more prison cells only lead to bigger prison population. From a historical perspective, they make an impression of a plausible tradeoff between the cruel and barbaric punishments of the past and the need to detain individuals that pose a danger to our society. WALTERBORO, S.C. A series of revelations have emerged in the more than monthlong murder trial of Alex Murdaugh, the disbarred South Carolina lawyer accused of killing his wife and son. Fortunately, those times have passed and brutal and inhuman flogging was replaced by imprisonment. However, the penitentiary system still harbors a number of crucial issues that make it impossible to consider prisons a humane solution to crime. when faced with the ugliness of humanity. This led him to be able to comprehend the books he read and got addicted to reading. Since its initial development back in the 1600s, the death penalty has taken a different course in the way it is utilized. Many inmates are forced in to living in horrible conditions that threaten their health and wellbeing. At this time, there are thirty-one states in which the death penalty is legal. Mixed feelings have been persevered on the status of implementing these prison reform programs, with little getting done, and whether it is the right thing to do to help those who have committed a crime. This causes families to spend all of their time watching after a family member when they dont even know how to properly treat them. That part is particularly shocking. With adequate care and conditions, released inmates will able to find jobs, start families, and become functioning members of society rather then returning to, In the documentary film Private Prisons, provides insight on how two private prisons industries, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA) and Geo Group, generate revenue through mass incarceration. Its become clear that the prison boom is not the cause of increased crime but with the profitability of prisons as Davis says That many corporations with global markets now rely on prisons as an important source of profits helps us to understand the rapidity with which prisons began to proliferate precisely at a time when official studies indicated that the crime rate was falling. While discussions on the economics of the prison system is not that popular, the present proliferation of prison cells and the dialogues about privatization can be an evidence of its enormous earning potential and the desire of some individuals to take advantage of this benefit. According to the book, the legislation was instituted by white ruling class who needed a pool of cheap laborers to replace the shortage caused by the abolition of slavery. We should stop focusing on the problem and find ways on how to transform those problems into solutions. Although prisoners still maintain the majority of rights that non-prisoners do according to the law, the quality of life in private prisons is strictly at the mercy of millionaires who are looking to maximize their profits (Tencer 2012). Naturally the prisons are filled with criminals who not only bring with them a record of past wrong but also an attitude of anger and or survival when they walk behind the walls of prison. While the US prison population has surpassed 2 million people, this figure is more than 20 percent of the entire global imprisoned population combined. I find the latter idea particularly revealing. The more arrest in the minority communities, mean more money towards their, This essay will discuss multiple different races and ethinicities to regard their population make up within the prison system. We have many dedicated professionals working to make it function right. which covers the phenomenon of prisons in detail. Description. Davis raises many questions and challenges about the use of prisons in today's world. The number of people incarcerated in private prions has grown exponentially over the past decades. In addition, solitary confinement, which can cause people severe and lasting mental distress after only 15 days, breaks individuals down and leaves them with lasting negative ramifications. If you use an assignment from StudyCorgi website, it should be referenced accordingly. We have come now to question the 13th amendment which states neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction. This leads us now to question how we ourselves punish other humans. They are thrown in prisons with their biological sex and had to deal with discrimination and abuses both from the prison officials and their inmates. StudyCorgi. Are Prisons Obsolete? Offers valuable insights into the prison industry. My beef is not with the author. As a result, an effort to abolish prisons will likely seem counterintuitive. The inmates themselves think that sitting in solitary creates monster and, Without laws and governmental overseeing, private prisons can restrict the amenities available to prisoners. Angela Yvonne Davis is an American political activist, scholar, and author. (85) With corporations like Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing, Alliant Techsystems and General Dynamics pushing their crime fighting technology to state and local governments. It is for this particular reason that Davis says we must focus on rehabilitation and provide services for inmates while incarcerated and before they are released. Perhaps one of the most important, being that it could jeopardize our existence, is the debate of how to deal with what most everyone would consider unwanted. Hence, he requested a dictionary, some tablets and pencils. While discrimination was allegedly buried with the Thirteenth Amendment, it continued to affect the lives of the minorities in subtle ways. All these things need to be stated again and again, so there is no complaint so far. The book reported that money is made through prison constructions and supply of consumable products needed by the prisoners, from soap to light bulbs. This book The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander has made me realized how the United State has one of the largest population in prison. Need a custom essay sample written specially to meet your Um relato impressionante que nos transporta para as tenebrosas prises americanas. I am familiar with arguments against the death penalty, and the desire to abolish it seems evident to me. Lastly, she explains the treatment necessary for the insane and the, In chapter Are Prisons Obsolete? Angela Davis strictly points out factors in results of the elites methods to be in total control. Imprisonment and longer sentences were instituted to keep communities free of crime; however history shows that this practice of mass incarceration has little or no effect on official crime rates. The book encourages us to look beyond this direct scope and understand the motives behind the legislation. Its written very well, it doesn't oversimplify anything, yet at the same time Davis' style is very approachable and affective. The New Jim Crow is an account of a caste-like system, one that has resulted in millions of African Americans locked behind bars and then relegated to a permanent second-class statusdenied, In chapter two, of The New Jim Crow, supporting the claim that our justice system has created a new way of segregating people; Michelle Alexander describes how the process of mass incarceration actually works and how at the end the people that we usually find being arrested, sent to jail, and later on sent to prison, are the same low class persons with no knowledge and resources. Simply put, at this point, just making the people ask themselves, Should we even consider abolishing prisons? is a major milestone in our roadmap for improvement, and the author achieves this goal successfully. Incarceration serves as a punishment for criminals due to their actions against the law. She is a retired professor with the History of Consciousness Department at the University of California, Santa Cruz, and is the former director of the university's Feminist Studies department. Are Prisons Obsolete? Davis." New leviathan prisons are being built on thousands of eerie acres of factories inside the walls. The US prison contains 2 million prisoners, or twenty percent of the worlds total 9 million prison population. Using facts and statistics, Gopnik makes his audience realize that there is an urgent need of change in the American prison system. Prisons are a seemingly inevitable part of contemporary life. While the figure is daunting in itself, its impact or the lack of it to society is even more disturbing. In, The Caging of America, by Adam Gopnik explains the problems in the in the American criminal justice system focusing more on the prison system. "Chapter 1-2 of Are Prisons Obsolete? by A. Instead of solving the crime problem, prison system introduced a social ill that needs to be addressed. She grounds her argument in the racist, sexist and corporate roots of the corrections system of America. Registered address: Louki Akrita, 23 Bellapais Court, Flat/Office 46 1100, Nicosia, Cyprus In My Time in Prison, Malcolm Little states how he learned and expanded his knowledge while he was in the prison by dictionary and books, and how these affected his life. ), they have been fast growing in recent decades and taken advantage of for their corporate profit value - or another form of slavery. By instituting a school system that could train and empower citizens and criminals, the government will be able to give more people a chance for better employment. We should change our stance from punishing criminals to transforming them into better citizens. May 7, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/chapter-1-2-of-are-prisons-obsolete-by-a-davis/. Extremely eye opening book. Inmates protested the use of prison phone calls, stopping one of any ways private corporations profited from the prison system, as a way to get a law library. Following the theme of ineffectiveness, the reform movement that advocated for a female approach to punishment only succeeded in strengthening, Summary: The prison reform movement was a generally successful movement led by Dorothea Dix in the mid-1800s. However when looking at imprisonment it is important to consider the new penology. Imprisonment is one of the primary ways in which social control may be achieved; the Sage Dictionary of Criminology defines social control as a concept used to describe all the ways in which conformity may be achieved. This will solve the problem from the grassroots. Che Gossett, a self identified black trans/gender queer femme, who fights to normalize transgender identities because of the criminalization of queer people. In this journal, Gross uses her historical research background and her research work to explain how history in the sense of race and gender help shape mass incarceration today. (mostly US centered). New York: Open Media, 2003. I was waiting for a link in the argument that never came. Angela Davis questions in her book Are Prisons Obsolete whether or not the use of prisons is still necessary or if they can be abolished, and become outdated. In this book, we will see many similarities about our criminal justice system and something that looks and feels like the era of Jim Crow, an era we supposedly left behind. Reform movements truthfully only seek to slightly improve prison conditions, however, reform protocols are eventually placed unevenly between women and men. To this day governments struggle to figure out the best way to deal with their criminals in ways that help both society and those that commit the crimes. Prisons are a seemingly inevitable part of contemporary life. While this does not necessarily imply that the US government continues to discriminate, the statistics presents an alarming irregularity that is worth investigating. In consonance with the author, books had opened his eyes to new side of the world, During seventeenth century flogging was a popular punishment for convicted people among Boston's Puritans. in his article, The Prison Contract and Surplus Punishment: On Angela Y. Davis Abolitionism. He spent most of his time reading in his bunk or library, even at night, depending on the glow of the corridor light. One argument she made was the transformation of society needs to change as a whole. In the colonial days, American prisons were utilized to brutally punish individuals, creating a gruesome experience for the prisoners in an attempt to make them rectify their behavior and fear a return to prison (encyclopedia.com, 2007). Billions of profits are being made from prisons by selling products like Dial soap, AT&T calling cards, and many more. Prisoners follow a strict rules and schedules while following the culture within the walls among other prisoners. Davis, a Professor of History of Consciousness at University of California Santa Cruz, has been an anti-prison activist since her own brushes with the law in the early 1970s. StudyCorgi. Understanding the nuts and bolts of the prison system is interesting and sometimes hard. It does that job, sometimes well, sometimes less than well. It is a solution for keeping the public safe. (2021, May 7). prison, it should cause us to wonder whether we should not try to introduce better alternatives. Yet, according to White (2015) unethical and immoral medical experiments were also conducted on inmates leading to health failures. He also argues that being imprisoned is more dangerous than being whipped, because the risk of being beaten, raped, or murdered in prison is, In the world we live in today there is, has been, and always will be an infinite amount of controversies throughout society. We should move the focus from prison and isolation to integration to the society and transformation to a more productive citizen. With prison becoming a new source of income for private corporations, prison corporations need more facilities and prisoners to increase profits. , analyzes the perception of our American prison systems. All rights reserved. Just a little over 30 years ago the entire prison . report, Are Prisons Obsolete? Following the theme of ineffectiveness, the reform movement that advocated for a female approach to punishment only succeeded in strengthening, Inmates are constantly violated by cellmates and prison guards, both physically and sexually. That is the case in Etheridge Knights Poem Hard Rock Returns to Prison from the Hospital for the Criminal Insane, which is built around the initial anticipation and eventual disappointment of a notorious inmate making his return to a prison after being treated at a hospital. Angela Davis, activist, educator, scholar, and politician, was born on January 26, 1944, in the "Dynamite Hill" area of Birmingham, Alabama. She traced the increase in women prison population from the lack of government support for womens welfare. Prisoners do data entry for Chevron, make telephone reservations for TWA, raise hogs, shovel manure, and make circuit boards; limousines, waterbeds, and lingerie for Victoria's Secret, all at a fraction of the cost of 'free labor. (A. Davis 85) Angela Davis is a wonderful writer as well as activist; as she expresses, The prison-industrial complex is a corrupt political system that consists of overpowered politicians whose sole ambition is exploiting poor, uneducated, and under-privileged Americans to make money. It is not enough to build prison complexes; we need to look beyond the facilities and see what else needs to be done. County Jail. 764 Words4 Pages. Moreover, because everyone was detained in the same prisons, adolescent offenders would have to share the same living space with adult felons, which became another serious problem in that adolescent were less mature and could not protect themselves in such environments. Columnist for the Boston Globe, Jeff Jacoby in his essay "Bring back flogging" asserts that flogging is superior to imprisonment and advocates flogging as an excellent means of punishment. Davis traced the evolution of the prison system from a slave camp to todays multimillion industry serving the interests of the chosen few. US Political Surveillance and Homeland Security. There was the starting of the prison libraries, literacy programs and effort towards lessening of the physical punishments like cruel whipping. presents an account of the racial and gender discrimination and practices currently in effect inside (mainly US) prisons. Lately, I've been asking myself, "what would Angela do?" Some people ask themselves, "What would Jesus do?" The brutal, exploitative (dare one say lucrative?) The articles author also assumes that readers are familiar with specific torture tactics used on prisoners,the United States is facing one of its most devastating moral and political debacles in its history with the disclosures of torture at Guantanamo, Abu Ghraib, and other such prisons (293). However, there are many instances in which people are sent to prison that would be better served for community service, rehab, or some other form of punishment. We just need to look at the prison population to get a glimpse of its reality. (2021) 'Chapter 1-2 of Are Prisons Obsolete? by A. Davis'. StudyCorgi. book has made me realized how easily we as humans, jump into conclusion without thinking twice and judging a person by their look or race without trying to get who they are. The stories that are told in the book, When We Fight, We Win by Greg Jobin-Leeds, are of a visionary movement to reclaim our humanity. Search. The white ruling classes needed to recreate the convenience of the slavery era. Yet, as they represent an important source of labour and consumerism (Montreal's VitaFoods is mentioned as contracted in the 1990s to supply inmates in the state of Texas with its soy-based meat substitute, a contact worth $34 million a year. The book outlined the disturbing history behind the institution of prisons. When in prison, we see that those who were in gangs are still in gangs and that those who were not, are likely to join during their sentence. Chapter 1 Summary & Analysis Chapter 1 Summary: "Introduction: Prison Reform or Prison Abolition?" Davis begins her examination of prison reform by comparing prison abolition to death penalty abolition. Chapter 10 of Criminological Theory by Lilly et al. Why is that? In this book, mass incarceration not only refers to the criminal justice system, but also a bigger picture, which controls criminals both in and out of prison through laws, rules, policies and customs. Judge Clifton Newman set sentencing for Friday at 9:30 a.m . From a historical perspective, they make an impression of a plausible tradeoff between the cruel and barbaric punishments of the past and the need to detain individuals that pose a danger to our society. Although, it wasnt initially the purpose when Rockefeller started the war on drugs, but he started something bigger than he couldve imagined at that time. The number one cause of crimes in the country is poverty. Davis's purpose of this chapter is to encourage readers to question their assumptions about prison. Violence in prison cells are the extension of the domestic violence. Very informative and educating. In essence, the emphasis on retribution within prisons actually makes society more dangerous by releasing mentally and emotionally damaged inmates without a support of system or medical treatment. While the figure is daunting in itself, its impact or the lack of it to society is even more disturbing. Some of them were raising their grandchildren. However, it probably wont be abolished due to the cash flow that it brings to some of the largest corporations in the, First, there is a long list of negatives that the prison system in America brings. Incarceration is used to stripe the civil rights from people of color, such as voting rights, to guarantee the marginalization of many people of color. Movements lead mostly by women of color are challenging the prison industrial complex concept, looking for the elimination of imprisonment and policing; creating substitutes to punishment and imprisonment. A compelling look at why prisons should be abolished. Analysis. I believe Davis perspective holds merit given Americas current political situation. Have the US instituted prisons, jails, youth facilities, and immigrant detention centers to isolate people from the community without any lasting and direct positive impact to the society?