The painting is my answer to “Are Prisons Obsolete?” Yes, there is a better world to be made that addresses our social issues with compassion. The book gives many examples of life affirming institutions and practices that will be needed to replace the prison industrial complex, while there isnt an exact example given there is room for possibilities and imagining for a multitude of things that can replace prisons. Given the historical context, the bias, the collusion of rehabilitation being equal to punishment, the capitalistic profit off the harm of black and brown bodies, and so on are enough to know this isnt working. The most profound thing I learned from the book was the intersection of race, gender, and criminality especially as black women become the fastest growing population of new prisoners!
An aside: I wish the book had discussed a cultural perspective to black behavior within the critique of the prison system and the PIC. And the ways that behavior can be changed so that blackness is not targeted.
