Are Prisons Obsolete?
Angela Y. Davis
In this book, Davis argues that prison helps us to see problems in our society. Reveals that prisons are becoming the last resort for people to live in when they don’t have shelter or health care.
Research has shown that long prison sentences have little impact on crime. It’s there in the penal institutions prisoners are more likely to commit crimes by further exposing them to all sorts of criminal elements. Is prison an effective form of punishment? Reform is one of the most important reasons why prisons are vital. If they provide the right services and opportunities that would support rehabilitation to prevent a return to crime. Some areas are:
- Improving prison’s mental health and tackling substance misuse.
- Improving prisoners’ progress in Math and English.
- Increasing the number of offenders in employment and accommodation release.
Reform is about equipping someone with the necessary tools to successfully navigate life’s difficulties without resorting to crime. Life after prison is when prisoners would need support once they are released. It could include a number of things; because these people have to readjust back into society.
Davis speaks of re-incarceration which is the opposite of incarceration, meaning reducing the number of people in prison or confinement. Eliminating our dependence on systems, ideologies, and logic that cage and confine.
The rampant violence and chaos within prisons also lead to high re-offending rates, especially for violent crimes. Within the prison, violence and sexual abuse are rampant. Convicts often have to use violence to prove themselves to other inmates in order to be accepted into the social circle.
Prisons are not doing their just do, they are not helping prisoners at all. The government uses prisons for two reasons:
1). Protection of the public
2). Punishment – to deprive offenders of their liberty and certain freedoms enjoyed by the rest of society, and it acts as a deterrent.
Prison reform can be a solution. States need effective leadership and public support to accomplish prison reform measures.
Should prisons be abolished? If so, what would replace them? The alternatives to incarceration: Probation, restitution, community service, and/or rehabilitation services. These would be more appropriate sentences for non-violent, non-serious offenders.
If we seek to reduce the harm we need to abolish our current system. A system of incarceration, no matter how much we try to reform it, does nothing to reduce the violence that marginalized people experience every day.
Davis challenged us and to confront human rights catastrophe in our jails and prisons. She cogently argues the contemporary practice of how incarceration is closer to new age slavery to any system of criminal justice. We need transformation of the society as a whole.