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In her book Are Prisons Obsolete?, Angela Davis makes a beautiful argument against the legitimacy and true purpose of prisons in the United States. In doing so she explores the origins of these institutions and prompts the reader to reflect on the racial injustices in this country that have led to the massive build up of the prison industrial complex as we have come to know it. Some of what is brought to light in regards to prisons and the justice (injustice system?) system in her book were things that I was previously aware of, yet still caused me to think deeper about why we imprison people at the rate that we do in this country. I didn’t realize how much I needed this book and the information in it until I got my hands on it. My hope is that at least some of the ideas from this reading make their way into the public discourse around prisons.
This Reading had an impact on me personally because I have been indirectly affected by the mass incarceration that has taken place over a period of time in this country and continues till today. My father was arrested in 1993, when I was 1 year old, and he spent the next 14 years incarcerated in multiple federal prisons. I could never understand what my father could have done to have all those years taken from him. I didn’t understand how, unless he had taken someone else’s life, this could be fair or just. I had some sense even as a kid that my father was somehow a product of a system designed to lock people away for these long sentences. This book reinforced that thought and furthered my understanding of why it is that this design exists. The evolution, for lack of better work, of this prisons system, from its slave roots to the gigantic economic power that it has become is well documented and examined in this short book.
I used to take the stance that I don’t believe that prisons are obsolete. My reason being that I thought that there were people who legitimately needed to be in prison. I also felt that people who labeled themselves as prison abolitionist and who demanded all prisons be shut down were not being realistic. However, after reading this book, I thought about the legitimacy of prisons. Their origins were the first thing that caused me to question this. I have a lot of thought around this topic, so many that it would be hard for me to write all of them down. However, I’ve expressed some of them in a form of a poem. I hope the gives some insight into my thoughts around prison and the questions Angela Davis raises is one we need to really consider as a people and as a country.
To be or not to be I ask of thee
not a him or a her, but an entity.
This system so easily overlooked until we are thrown underneath,
has affected so many branches on my family tree.
It seems to me it can only be, since this country has no history of peace.
At least for People that Look like me.
Lock em up and throw away the key, but is money the motivation for this decree.
We started as slaves then worked for lease.
We must capitalize the economist plead.
But to what end and by whose hands
and from whose design did they execute these plans.
Take time to reflect and question please
Have prisons become or always been obsolete?