Journal Response Angela Davis wrote “Are Prisons Obsolete?” as a tool for readers to take in her knowledge of what is actually going on in our government. In chapter five of “Are Prisons Obsolete?” it starts the reader out with an excerpt from Linda Evans and Eve Goldberg, giving them a main idea of what she thinks the government is doing with our prisoners. Then, on her first line of the chapter she begins with “For private business prison labor is like a pot of gold No strikes. No union organizing. No health benefits, unemployment insurance, or workers' compensation to pay. No language barriers, as in foreign countries. New leviathan prisons are being built on thousands of eerie acres of factories inside the walls. 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 …show more content…
It makes me wonder the same thing about the judges, the lawyers, the Supreme Court and even the government itself. Who said we wanted this type of government and it was the best solution? Which brings us back to the question, “Are prisons obsolete?” When I read Angela Davis’ book, Are Prisons Obsolete? , I was scared that it actually was, only because it is not fair to the workers (to an extent). It is cruel to have someone work for you under harsh conditions, even if it is a criminal. Around the times of segregation and racism, it was hard for a black male to walk to the store without being harassed, and it was hard for a black lady to school without being judged and bullied. That being said, if policemen had racism thoughts or their coworkers did, it was hard to tell who the real criminal
This website covers the issue of prison overpopulation. This issue affects prisons all across the country. The first feature the website provides a list of each of the fifty states. Choosing a state will take you to a page that provides the number of incarcerated prisoners currently being held and the total cost to run the prison per day. The website also has a section that has articles explaining why prison overcrowding is a problem.
Angela Davis has her own way with valid background to support her way of thinking, She is amazingly
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. It is no surprise that the United States has the highest incarceration rate in the world. The United States represents approximately 5% of the world’s population index and approximately 25% of the world’s prisoners due to expansion of the private prison industry complex (Private Prisons, 2013). The number of people incarcerated in private prions has grown exponentially over the past decades. To put into perspective, the number of individuals increased by 1600% between 1990 and 2005 (Private Prisons, 2003).
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. Although, it wasn’t initially the purpose when Rockefeller started the war on drugs, but he started something bigger than he could’ve imagined at that time. The prison system has been proven to be ineffective, and costly waste of resources. However, it probably won’t be abolished due to the cash flow that it brings to some of the largest corporations in the
This country is very hypocritical in its so-called Christianity of forgiveness. A man does the time that is imposed by the judicial system but spends the resting of his nonprison life paying and repaying for a wrong done years ago. It is not surprising that the recidivism rate is so high among released prisoners. If so few employers will hire former prisoners, how are they to live; it is impossible for them to become productive citizens of the
Are you upset that you are being used for cheap labor? Did you deserve to have all of your rights stripped after you were incarcerated? Or are you just happy time passes faster and you have a sense of purpose because of a prison work program? Abby Stein, author of Back on the Chain Gang: The New/Old Prison Labor Paradigm, obtained her Ph.D. in
The authors Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans, writers, and filmmakers, published "The Prison Industrial Complex." This text discusses how the government and private corporations increase mass incarceration for profit. The text states, "For private business, prison labor is like a pot of gold. No strikes. No union organizing.
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.
Prompt 2 First Draft Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a term used to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to social, economic, and political problems. Angela Davis is a journalist and American political activist who believes that the U.S practice of super-incarceration is closer to new age slavery than any system of criminal justice. She defines the PIC as biased for criminalizing communities of color and used to make profit for corporations from the prisoner’s suffering. 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.
If one thinks jails in modern-day U.S. society are bad, then he /she should consider exploring the detention facilities of other societies. Societies such as the one in Anthem (written by Ayn Rand) had a detention facility called the Palace of Corrective Detention which had horrible conditions compared to modern American jails. In the modern-day U.S. society people have more freedoms and liberties compared to Anthem 's society. After a close examination of Anthem, it is noticeably clear that the U.S. society is more progressive than the society in Anthem, which is glaringly obvious by contrasting modern-day U.S. jail with the Palace of Corrective Detention in Anthem.
The government treats prisoners as if they are nothing in this world. The U.S prison system needs to be reformed by building new and better prisons and making it more humane and fair. Looking back to the prison history. Incarceration has not always been a common form of punishment. Back then people wanted to reform and change the way
In chapter “Are Prisons Obsolete?” Angela Davis strictly points out factors in results of the elites methods to be in total control. African Americans are highly accounted for in incarceration as an addition to the prison industrial complex. Mental health conditions are then vulnerable in the prison community which helps the cycle. This Cycle as she describes, is a great catalyst towards business and global economics.
Are prisons not paying people enough? If so, should prisoners be paid minimum wage? The answer is no, prisoners should not be paid minimum wage for multiple reasons. The taxes and cost would be much to high, they’re in prison for a reason and a punishment is well deserved and if prisons paid high amounts then people could possibly go their on purpose.
This preconceived notion could not be farther from the truth. In reality, these reform movements are idiotically placing a bandaid over the tremendous issue that the prison system is. An imbalance of reforms between women and men, unrestrained sexual abuse in women’s prisons, and tyrannical gender roles are just three of countless examples of how prison reform movements only create more misfortune and fail to provide any real solution to worsening prison conditions. Perhaps instead of conjuring up additional ideas on how to reform prisons, America’s so-called democratic society should agree upon abolishing prisons as a whole. This being said, it is crucial to identify ongoing issues in today’s society, understand how they contribute to unlawful behavior, and seek a solution.
No, prisons should not be abolished. They should not be abolished but they to be more specific in the crimes that are considered federal. Also they need to reevaluate the amount of time given to certain crimes. Criminals need to be reprimanded for their own actions but some actions need other alternatives to imprisonment. Rapists receive years of imprisonment for the crime they have committed as far as discipline.