The prison industrial complex is a perpetuation of slavery. The Thirteenth Amendment, which abolished slavery, was ratified in 1865, creating a loophole which has allowed slavery to continue within the U.S. prison system. The 13th Amendment was modified to state that “Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction.” Prison abolition focuses on a restorative and transformative type of justice, where prisons are not the default. As it is, a thorough understanding and critique of the prison system is essential to finding solutions to combat systemic oppression.
The Prison Industrial Complex allows for the incentivizing of incarcerated people in America because of the appeal of profits. The shared interests of government and private prisons allow for the use of surveillance, policing, and imprisonment to exploit incarcerated people for labor. The United States criminal justice system is also rooted in racism. Statistically, Black persons in the U.S. are three times more likely than whites to be charged with a felony, and five times more likely to be locked up. One of the main problems
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In order to do this it is necessary to get out of the “carceral” mindset that dominates our society. I think focusing on punishing people for committing crimes does more harm than good. Instead, I think it would be beneficial to focus on building societies where people don’t feel the need to harm others or steal. Our current (capitalist) system does nothing to disincentivize crime or prevent crimes from occurring. I propose that we give people access to the resources they need, whether that be socially, financially, health-wise, etc. These factors alone, when guaranteed and ensured for each person, are statistically proven to reduce