10/28 Mass Incarceration, New Jim Crow, Prison Abolition

Dear Philosophers,

Next week we will delve into three related issues having to do with contemporary social justice: mass incarceration, racism and the legacy of slavery, and the prison abolition and restorative justice movement. I cannot make it to class on Monday, Oct. 28th and I'm looking to find someone to screen Ava Duverney's Netflix documentary "The 13th" in class for you. Check in with this blog for more information about next week's schedule. In the meanwhile, read and watch the documents below. :)

Texts for this class

1. 1. Read: John Washington, "What is Prison Abolition?"

2. Watch: Angela Davis on Prison Abolition vs prison Reform



2. Listen: Michelle Alexander on mass incarceration and war of drugs



Other texts

1. Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?

2. To hear about my own experiences teaching in a women's prison you can check out my paper "Teaching in Angela's Cave"

Questions

How does the U.S. criminal justice system create and maintain racial hierarchy through mass incarceration? 

How does the current system of mass incarceration in the United States mirror earlier systems of racialized social control?

What is needed to end mass incarceration and permanently eliminate racial caste in the United States?

What would a society without the need for prisons look like?

A. Some Facts about Race and Mass Incarceration

1. We imprison more people than any other country.

2. The U.S. has over 2.4 million behind bars, an increase of over 500% in the past thirty years

3. We have 5% of the world’s population; 25% of its prisoners

4. People of color represents 60% of people in cages

5. One in eight black men in their twenties are locked up on any given day

6. Lifetime likelihood of a white man being incarcerated: 1 in 17

7. Lifetime likelihood of a black man being incarcerated: 1 in 3

8. Black men are 6.5% of US population and 40.2% of incarcerated population

9. 75% of people in state prison for drug conviction are people of color although blacks and whites see and use drugs at roughly the same rate. In NYS, 94% of those imprisoned for a drug offense are people of color.

10. The number of drug offenders in state prison has increased thirteen-fold since 1980

11. 5.3 million Americans are denied their right to vote

12. Over the past two decades, state spending on prisons grew six times the spending of higher education.