Incarceration does not only affect those that are in prison but also the families and communities the prisoners are from. When it comes to visitation at San Quentin, Megan Comfort argues that visitors are treated as criminals because of the control they have to go through before visiting. Visitors mostly comprised of women. Most of the time, these women were forced to learn the hard way of visitation on their own. In some ways it seems as though the COs know they have control over these women and their time, so they cross boundaries such as, sexualizing their outfits and taking away their personal belongings. Comfort uses these examples as a way to explain that once these women enter the prison, they are under the control and order of the prison …show more content…
Prisoners are racially separated into gang affiliations. The problem lies in how the system determines who is gang affiliated. The COs question the prisoners about where they are from and who they know. These answers determine where one is placed. Lopez-Aguado refers to this process as, “prisonization.” Prisoners who identities are given to them, end up believing that they belong to these groups. This process also affects communities. Lopez-Aguado studied at a juvenile detention center and a continuation school. The youth involved are also grouped based on their gang affiliation. Most of these youth are already exposed to these identities because they come from communities where incarceration is common. As a result, the cycle of incarceration continues. One youth named Manuel explained that his brothers told him to choose the Bulldog identity because that will protect him. Manuel sadly wishes he could live a normal life and when asked what is normal to him, he said that it meant not living with the thought of eventually being in prison. Through this reading, we understand that identity is the biggest risk when it comes to being in prison. Once in prison, “felon,” becomes your