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. The US prison contains 2 million prisoners, or twenty percent of the worlds total 9 million prison population. 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. As a result of their crimes, convicts lose their freedom and are place among others who suffer the same fate. One of the many ways this power is maintained is through the creation of media images that kept the stereotypes of people of color, poor people, immigrants, LGBTQ people, and other oppressed communities as criminal or sexual deviants alive in todays society. Instead of spending money in isolating and punishing people who had violated the laws, we should use the funds to train and educate them. The US has the biggest percentage of prisoner to population in the whole world. Then, on her first line of the chapter she begins with For private business prison labor is like a pot of gold No strikes. She noted that transgendered people are arrested at a far greater rate than anyone else. Reform movements truthfully only seek to slightly improve prison conditions, however, reform protocols are eventually placed unevenly between women and men. 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. The prison system is filled with crime, hate, and negativity almost as much as the free world is. We should change our stance from punishing criminals to transforming them into better citizens. For your average person, you could see a therapist or get medication. [D]emilitarization of schools, revitalization of education at all levels, a health system that provides free physical and mental care to all, and a justice system based on reparation and reconciliation rather than retribution and vengeance (Davis, 2003, p. 107) are some of her suggestions. 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. These people sit in solitary confinement with mental disorders and insufficient help. There was no impact of the system beyond the prison cells. As the documentary goes om, Adam starts to lose it. However, once we dive a little, In America we firmly believe in you do the crime you must do the time and that all criminals must serve their time in order of crime to be deterred. Chapter 2 Summary & Analysis Chapter 2 Summary: "Slavery, Civil Rights, and Abolitionist Perspectives Towards Prison" Slavery abolitionists were considered fanatics in their timemuch like prison abolitionistsbecause the public viewed the "peculiar institution" as permanent. Active at an early age in the Black Panthers and the Communist Party, Davis also formed an interracial study . But overall it 's a huge bureaucracy that consumes resources in order to incarcerate people. Mass incarceration is not the solution to the social problems within our society today but a great majority has been tricked into believing the effectiveness of imprisonment when this is not the case historically. Prisons are probably partially responsible for it, in some way a product of it, and are probably helping to keep that problem around. Again, I find the approach suitable for reflection. This led him to be able to comprehend the books he read and got addicted to reading. An excellent read, but of course, its Angela Davis so I expected as much. Davis book presented a very enlightening point of view about the prison system. It is easy to agree that racism at this point is a major barrier to the development of humanity. 7 May. 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. The reformers believed that there was a way that better methods of rehabilitating the criminals could be applied (Anyon, 2014). Due to the fact Mendieta is so quick to begin analyzing Davis work, the articles author inadvertently makes several assumptions about readers of his piece. Jeff Jacoby, a law school graduate and Boston Globe columnist, describes in his article Bring Back Flogging modern systemic prison failures and offers an alternative punishment: flogging. "Chapter 1-2 of Are Prisons Obsolete? by A. Are Prisons Obsolete By Angela Davis Sparknotes. In this book, Davis argues for the abolition of the prison system entirely. While the US prison population has surpassed 2 million people, this figure is more than 20 percent of the entire global imprisoned population combined. It gives you lots of insight into what women in prison have to go through. 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. By continuing well County Jail. Lately, I've been asking myself, "what would Angela do?" The . 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. While serving as a punishment to criminals, incarceration can create, Every civilization in history has had rules, and citizens who break them. "Chapter 1-2 of Are Prisons Obsolete? by A. Two years later Organizations like Safe OUTside the System, led by and for LGBTQ people of color, who organizes and educates on how to stop violence without relying on the police to local businesses and community organizations and offers ways to stop social violence. The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness. 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. Education will provide better skills and more choices. 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." With her characteristic brilliance, grace and radical audacity, Angela Y. Davis has put the case for the latest abolition movement in American life: the abolition of the prison. Graduateway.com is owned and operated by Radioplus Experts Ltd when faced with the ugliness of humanity. Throughout the book, she also affirms the importance of education. Could turn to the media for answers, but more times than not prisons are used as clich plot point or present a surface level view that it does more harm than good. One argument she made was the transformation of society needs to change as a whole. According to Davis, women make up the fastest-growing section of the prison population, most of them are black, Latina and poor. For generations of Americans, the abolition of slavery was sheerest illusion. 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. This concept supports the power of the people who get their power from racial and economic advantages. Generally, the public sought out the stern implementation of the death penalty. While I dont feel convinced by the links made by Davis, I think that it is necessary for people to ponder upon the idea and make their own conclusions. Incarceration is the act of placing someone in prison. As the United States incarceration rate continues to increase, more people are imprisoned behind prison walls. Extremely eye opening book. Its for people who are interested in seeing the injustice that many people of color have to face in the United States. In addition, it raises important ethical and moral questions and supports the argument with responsibly collected and well-organized data. that African American incarceration rates can be linked to the historical efforts to create a profitable punishment industry based on the new supply of free black male laborers in the aftermath of the Civil War. (Leeds 62) Imarisha explains why the majority of these movements are lead by woman: Working-class mothers whose children had gone to prison. to help you write a unique paper. All these things need to be stated again and again, so there is no complaint so far. Billions of profits are being made from prisons by selling products like Dial soap, AT&T calling cards, and many more. At the same time, I dont feel the same way about prisons, which are perceived more like a humane substitute for capital punishment than an equally counterproductive and damaging practice. It is not enough to punish a person who had committed a crime; we need to find a way to help them reform and reintegrate to the society. Prosecutors have indicated they will seek life in prison without the possibility of parole for the murders, sparing him the death penalty. convict-lease system that succeeded formal slavery reaped millions to southern jurisdictions (and untold miseries for tens of thousands of men, and women). 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). Although the things they have done werent right but they are still people who deserve to get treated right. In fact, President Lincoln codified the prison incarceration system in the Emancipation Proclamation that indicated no slavery would take place in America unless a person was duly convicted of a crime (paraphrased) (White, 2015). Instead of solving the crime problem, prison system introduced a social ill that needs to be addressed. As she quite correctly notes, American life is replete with abolition movements, and when they were engaged in these struggles, their chances of success seemed almost unthinkable. In its early days, the death penalty was greatly used and implemented for several offenses. Imprisonment has not always been used for punishment, nor has it always thought about the prisoners themselves. It also goes into how racist and sexist prisons are. US Political Surveillance and Homeland Security. The number of people incarcerated in private prions has grown exponentially over the past decades. It is not enough to build prison complexes; we need to look beyond the facilities and see what else needs to be done. She adopts sympathetic, but stern tone in order to persuade advocates towards the prison abolishment movement. Most of these men have mental disorders. Some of them were raising their grandchildren. Proliferation of more prison cells only lead to bigger prison population. 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. For instance, Mendieta assumes that readers will automatically be familiar with Angela Davis. Aside from women, the other victims of gender inequality in prisons are the transgendered individuals. I appreciate everything she has done, and I did learn lots from this, but my two stars reflect my belief that it was presented/published as something it was not, an argument regarding the abolition of prisons. 4.5 stars. Rehabilitating from crime is similar to recovering from drug abuse, the most effective way to cut off from further engagement is to keep anything related out of reach. My perspective about Davis arguments in chapter 5 are prisons obsolete she has some pretty good arguments. Davis makes a powerful case for choosing abolition over reform, and opened my eyes to the deeply racist structures inherent in the prison system. Prison affects more than just the prisoner; the families, friends, employers, and communities of the incarcerated also pay a price. This part of the documentary was extremely important to me. in his article, The Prison Contract and Surplus Punishment: On Angela Y. Davis Abolitionism. It did not reduce crime rate or produce safer communities. 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. It is clear that imprisonment has become the normative criminal justice response and that prison is an irrevocable assumption. We should stop focusing on the problem and find ways on how to transform those problems into solutions. 764 Words4 Pages. Negros, afro-americanos, asiticos e principalmente as mulheres so vtimas destas instituies de tortura. Just talk to our smart assistant Amy and she'll connect you with the best Also, they are stationed in small cells chained up which is torturing them, and only the rich can afford to be sent to hospitals where they take much better care of. May 7, 2021. https://studycorgi.com/chapter-1-2-of-are-prisons-obsolete-by-a-davis/. 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. The new penology is said, not to be about punishing individuals or about rehabilitating them, but about identifying and managing unruly groups in society. Since its initial development back in the 1600s, the death penalty has taken a different course in the way it is utilized. 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. Prison guards are bribable and all kinds of contrabands including weapon, drug, liquor, tobacco and cell phone can be found in inmates hands. I believe Davis perspective holds merit given Americas current political situation. The US prison contains 2 million prisoners, or twenty percent of the world's total 9 million prison population. Why is that? "When I was coming up, it was a dangerous world, and you knew exactly who they were. , analyzes the perception of our American prison systems. This is consistent with her call for reparation. There are to many prisoners in the system. (Leeds 68). As Ms. Davis clearly articulates, the inducement of moral panics, fear- and hate-mongering is also integral 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. Though the statistics outdate it (it's even worse now), the reasons why we should no longer have prisons are just as critical as when Angela Davis wrote this. Incredibly informative and a pretty easy read. America is spending a lot of money and resources committing people into isolation without getting any benefits and positive results. 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. Understanding the nuts and bolts of the prison system is interesting and sometimes hard. Davis raises many questions and challenges about the use of prisons in today's world. Search. Correct writing styles (it is advised to use correct citations) Get original paper in 3 hours and nail the task. The US constitution protects the rights of the minority, making US the haven of freedom. Michel Foucault is a very famous French intellectual who practiced the knowledge of sociology. While this does not necessarily imply that the US government continues to discriminate, the statistics presents an alarming irregularity that is worth investigating. Capital punishment, also known as the death penalty, and the debate about its abolition is the largest point of the essay written by Steve Earle, titled "A Death in Texas. 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. The author then proceeds to explore the historical roots of prisons and establishing connections to slavery. The New Jim Crow that Alexander speaks of has redesigned the racial caste system, by putting millions of mainly blacks, as well as Hispanics and some whites, behind bars, The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander is known as one of the most important books of out time. Ms. Davis traces the history of the prison as a tool for punishment and the horrors of abuse and torture in these institutions and the exploitation of prisoners for profit through the prison industrial complex. The abolition of slavery through the Thirteenth Amendment resulted to shortage in workers and increase in labor costs. 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. Women who stand up against their abusive partners end up in prison, where they experience the same abusive relationship under the watch of the State. We now have a black president, Latino CEOs, African American politicians, Asian business tycoons in our midst, yet our prison cells still show a different picture. What kind of people might we be if we lived in a world where: addiction is treated instead of ignored; schools are regarded as genuine places of learning instead of holding facilities complete with armed guards; lawbreakers encounter conflict resolution strategies as punishment for their crime instead of solitary incarceration? 2021. African Americans are highly accounted for in incarceration as an addition to the prison industrial complex. Moskos demonstrates the problems with prison. Davis cites a study of California's prison expansion from 1852 to the 1990s that exemplifies how prisons "colonize" the American landscape. In her book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, she argues that the prison systems are no longer in use and out of date since prisons just keep increasing as each become more and more populated. Moreover, the Americans with different disabilities were kept in the prison-like houses, but the reform sought to have the establishment of some asylums. Solutions she proposes are shorter sentences, education and job training programs, humane prison conditions, and better medical facilities and service. Author, Angela Y. Davis, in her book, analyses facts imprisonment in our society as she contrast the history, ideology and mythology of imprisonment between todays time and the 1900s, as capital retribution has not been abolished yet. Some effects of being in solitary confinement are hallucinations, paranoia, increased risk of suicide/self-harm, and PTSD. 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. 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. Angela Davis, activist, educator, scholar, and politician, was born on January 26, 1944, in the "Dynamite Hill" area of Birmingham, Alabama. 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. The death penalty has been a major topic of debate in the United States as well as various parts of the world for numerous years.