Imprisonment Questions Angela Y Davis Are Prisons Obsolete Why does Angela Y Davis want us to think about the obsolescence of the prison Because prisons have become a normal part of life We need to find new ways to not be dependent on prisons for sectors of the economy and as the only way of punishing crimes We need to find new terrains of justice to enforce the law Prison industrial complex becoming dependent on prisons for our economy Angela Davis wants us to think about the obsolescence of the prison because she believes that we need to reform our ways of punishment in order to better benefit all The prison industrial complex is becoming too big of a problem in the U S prisons have a disproportionate impact on communities of color the prison industrial complex competes directly with other modes of human development and prisons create collateral consequences and invisible punishments We as a society have become too dependent on prisons and too complacent with how criminals in our country are punished we tend to think of the prison as disconnected from our own lives and Davis wants us to be more aware of the negative effects it has on these individuals as well as our country as a whole and the need to find new forms of punishment Jeffrey Reiman The Rich Get Richer and the Poor Get Prison 8th ed What is a crime by any other name Why does Reiman ask What s in a name A crime by any other name is an act that causes as much social harm as an act that is considered a crime but isn t typically considered a crime Example A large company compromises on safety precautions to save money and accidentally causes the death of a few workers Normally killing someone is considered murder but it isn t considered murder in this scenario What does Reiman mean by likening the criminal justice system to a mirror What kind of mirror does he think it is Please understand the two deceptions on page 66 67 The human justice system is a carnival mirror that presents a distorted image of what threatens us Who and what crimes we see in this mirror are functions of the decisions we make about who and what is criminal This mirror not only reflects what we see as criminal but also has a hand in creating it Two deceptions we think that the criminal justice system is protecting us but really it is only protecting us from some threats and not others Secondly if people believe the first deception then they believe that the justice system only reacts to the gravest threats to one s well being people do not realize that there are other possibly more dangerous threats out there What is Reiman s main point about the role of human decision making in the criminal justice system It is our decisions that define what a crime or who a criminal is We basically shape the entire justice system through our decisions What is Reiman s argument about the greatest harms and dangers society faces What role does economic inequality play Our society diverts our attention from the most damaging crimes that are going on and we do not stop these crimes from taking place In short poverty hurts injures and kills just like crime A society that could remedy its poverty but does not is an accomplice in crime Asha Bandele The Prisoner s Wife Describe some of the ways it seems as if Asha Bandele is inside prison too Her freedom and rights are limited like a prisoners strip searches etc because she wants to visit her husband in prison She is trapped within the rules and sentencing of her husband s case in hopes that he will be released soon How do Asha and Rashid sustain their love in a prison context They keep their hope up that he will get out soon She continuously visits him and they refuse to give up What does Asha Bandele learn as the prisoner s wife that she didn t know before as a politically active college student That the conditions in the prison not only affect the prisoners but affect those involved in the prison system Prisoners lose rights as they go in and still as they leave and even visitors are violated of basic rights For those of you who have family members in prison what aspects of Bandele s memoir were most engaging or thought provoking for you Don t have any family members in prison Joelle Fraser An American Seduction A Portrait of a Prison Town Give one example of what Fraser means when she writes the profound truth of a prison town is that its future is sentenced as surely as the inmates It is bound to face the collateral consequences that most prison towns face The residents are always promised more jobs and economic prosperity but in reality it messes up the towns dynamic and permanently alters its residents attitudes and way of life What according to Fraser are some of the collateral consequences of becoming a prison town An increase in gangs domestic violence prices strip mall development transient prison employees vacant housing and the developers who avoid prison towns Terms Crime criminal acts and criminals are socially created Crimes by any other name are those acts which do social harm and are comparable to criminal acts in the amount of suffering and harm they cause but which are typically not thought of as criminal Decisions are made as to what will be called crime and who will be treated as a criminal Crime is not a simple objective threat it is a reality that takes shape as is it filtered through a series of human decisions running the full gamut of the criminal justice system and beyond The criminal justice system is a mirror that shows a very specific and according to Jeffrey Reiman distorted image of the dangers that threaten us The Prison industrial complex refers to a condition in which prisons are not at the fringes of economic development and social reproduction but are major forces in it Like the military industrial complex the prison industrial complex is a set of bureaucratic political and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment regardless of the actual need The prison industrial complex is not a conspiracy guiding the nation s criminal justice policy behind closed doors It is a confluence of special interests that has given imprisonment in the United States a seemingly unstoppable momentum Politicians using fear of crime to gain votes rural communities looking for economic development private companies seeking lucrative markets and government contracts government officials seeking to gain political power prison guard unions are all part of the complex Imprisonment