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Summary Of Are Prisons Obsolete By Angela Davis

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Overview of Readings Chapter Five in Angela Davis’ book, Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003), describes the prison industrial complex (PIC) as a network of agencies, governments, corporations, and institutions which benefit from and promote mass incarceration and inhumane free labour in the ultimate pursuit of profit (p. 84); profit being a major theme in this reading. What fuels this slavery in disguise is exactly what fueled its classical counterpart — structural racism and the ideology of racialized peoples' inferiority (p. 85). This racism is evident in the continuous social destabilization of vulnerable populations, followed by their criminalization through legalities and policing, which leads to their ultimate incarceration. The latter of the …show more content…

The last of which causes the destabilization of communities and an increase in imprisonment of vulnerable populations, thus increasing profits and starting the cycle all over again. Reflection of Readings in Relation to the Course This cycle is mirrored by another topic discussed in class — the school-to-prison pipeline. The exponential prison expansion and its consequent leaching of community development funding means that resources like affordable housing, recreational amenities, accessible food, and available education, which racialized and disadvantaged populations rely on, cease to exist (p. 88). Without said resources, and with the ever-present racism and over-policing that these groups experience, those vulnerable become the “perfect candidates for prison” (p. 16). Once incarcerated it becomes hard to gain an education, let alone transferable skills which would help one work, and financially reintegrate into outside society (Jackson et al., 2022, pp. 24-26. The syllable of the

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Davis also notes, the growth of the penal industry within the last three decades in particular, and the last century more generally, is also related to the backlash against emancipatory movements worldwide. In the United States, the end of slavery and the growth of civil rights of African American people were clearly related to the exponential growth of the rate of imprisonment of black people in America. Again,Davis argues just as the end of slavery was once seen as unimaginable, current thinking would have us all believe that it is impossible to imagine the end of

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Over the last thirty years, the prison population in the United States has increased more than seven-fold to over two million people, including vastly disproportionate numbers of minorities and people with little education. For some racial and educational groups, incarceration has become a depressingly regular experience, and prison culture and influence pervade their communities. Almost 60 percent of black male high school drop-outs in their early thirties have spent time in prison. In Punishment and Inequality in America, sociologist Bruce Western explores the recent era of mass incarceration and the serious social and economic consequences it has wrought.

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I hope this letter finds you well. I just wanted to share some thoughts on racism, slavery, and the prison system after reading this recently. I read important points in Angela Davis' book, "Are Prisons Obsolete," in one chapter. The chapter, titled "Slavery, Civil Rights, and Abolitionist Perspectives Toward Prison," talks about prison/jail and slavery and how closely they resemble each other. It explores the continuation of racism even after the abolition of slavery, also speaking out on continued exploitation.

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Angela Davis, political activist, scholar, and speaker has been such a prominent figure throughout the Black Panther Party till now with the Black Lives Matter Movement. A woman such as she, and countless others who showed the evils of white America and as well fought for the social injustice of African Americans in the United States. Has paved the way for many movements that exist today. Davis' book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, shows that the time for prisons is approaching an end. She argues for "de-carceration", and for the change of our society as a whole.

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In her other book chapter 5 “Are Prisons Obsolete?” Angela Davis conveys the ideology of imposers using racism’s and prison labor for profit in advantage to the elites. She expresses her claim by including the data of black males

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It has been over a decade since Michelle Alexander published “The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness.” Her book delves into the complex nuances of mass incarceration in the United States, more specifically pertaining to the criminal justice system’s deeply-ingrained racial biases. She argues, as in reference to the title of her work, that mass incarceration effectively serves as a new form of Jim Crow discrimination and calls for large-scale reform. But in the time since the book’s original release, there have been many significant developments in terms of policy, public opinion, and social movements which warrant elaboration on the themes originally discussed by Alexander. In chapter 3 of “The New Jim Crow,” the

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Eduardo Mendieta constructs an adequate response to Angela Davis’ Are Prisons Obsolete? in his article, The Prison Contract and Surplus Punishment: On Angela Y. Davis’ Abolitionism. While Mendieta discusses the pioneering abolitionist efforts of Angela Davis, the author begins to analyze Davis’ anti-prison narrative, ultimately agreeing with Davis’ polarizing stance. Due to the fact Mendieta is so quick to begin analyzing Davis’ work, the article’s author inadvertently makes several assumptions about readers of his piece. For instance, Mendieta assumes that readers will automatically be familiar with Angela Davis.

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Author’s argument #1 In her book The New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander uses a large-scale historical analysis to conceptualize the intractable failures of the American incarceration system. Central to her overall argument is the claim that the prison system was intentionally designed to perpetuate the discrimination and social death of Black people in an era where laws permit outright anti-Black legislation. In order to support her historical analysis of the motivation behind the carceral system, Alexander traces the fall of formally racist institutions to modern legislation that, she argues, accomplishes the same goal without using explicitly racist language. Alexander engages in a three-step investigation into the process that transformed

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For instance, tackling issues such as health care and education, which provide severe inequality and adversity, would create an equal and safer society that would thus reject any need for criminal behavior, Davis herself suggests, “Rather, positing decarceration as our overarching strategy, we would try to envision a continuum of alternatives to imprisonment-demilitarization of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free physical and mental care to all…” (Davis 107). It is clear that prisons and

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Her thesis coins the term the “New Jim Crow” as a way to refer to the discrimination and inequity of the prison-industrial complex as a new form of bondage against poor people, and people of color. The New Jim Crow is a caste system which puts poor people and people of color into second class citizenship by incarcerating them and stripping them of their rights

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It highlights the system's persistent racial biases and systemic inadequacies, suggesting that racial superiority was maintained by discriminatory laws and practices even after slavery was legally abolished. Mass incarceration is shown in the movie as a modern form of racialized social control that promotes poverty, disenfranchisement, and institutional racism. Through interviews, it analyzes the catastrophic impact on individuals and communities, challenging viewers to critically evaluate the relationship between race, politics, and criminal justice, and arguing for serious reform and a reevaluation of cultural

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After reading multiple works in my current prison literature class, I cannot help but to form questions and theories in regards to the literature we have read. After researching and studying the following pieces of literature: Focault’s Discipline and Punish, Thoreau’s Civil Disobedience, MLK’s Letter from Birmingham Jail, and the Angela Davis Autobiography, I have discovered ideas and questions that go beyond the pages. These pieces of literature are not only accounts, but ideas. These ideas are the spark and evidence to social change. The spark and the evidence help create protest.

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The mass incarceration of black men serves to define the meaning and significance of race in America today. Previously, race (black) was defined as slaves; today, race (black) is defined as criminals. Thus, mass incarceration perpetuates and deepens a pre-existing pattern of racial segregation and isolation. African Americans are being sold to private prisons and are warehoused in prisons for long time and once they get out of prison, they are labeled and destined to carry a stigma that extends to the family members, friends and even to their

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I: Abstract Young Black youth are being stripped from the school system and shipped off to prison at a higher rate than any other race today in America. The school-to-prison pipeline is endangering the future of children everyday by removing them from their school environments and into the Criminal Justice System As of 2012, Black youth made up about 16% percent of the population in the United States, but made up over 70% of youth involved in school related arrests and made up nearly 40% of the youth currently incarcerated. The rate at which Black girls are being incarcerated is rising and are less likely to have their cases dismissed.

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Over 2 million people are currently being held in United States prisons, and while the U.S. may only hold 5% of the world’s population, it houses 25% of its prisoners. In the past few years, America’s prison system has fallen under public scrutiny for it’s rising incarceration rate and poor statistics. Many Americans have recently taken notice of the country’s disproportionate prisoner ratio, realized it’s the worst on the planet, and called for the immediate reformation of the failing system. The war on drugs and racial profiling are some of the largest concerns, and many people, some ordinary citizens and others important government figures, are attempting to bring change to one of the country 's lowest aspects.

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