Are Prisons Obsolete?

By, Angela Y. Davis

 

            In this, article Angela Y. Davis is analyzing whether or not the prison system needs to be reformed or abolished. By reading through this article, I started to notice that most of the United States prisons are located in California, and created during an era which world economy was globalized in; many factories closedown, or moved out of the states especially in California. Many minorities that worked in these factories lost their jobs, housings, and incomes in general. Many of these workers were manual laborers with limited education. At the same time, informationalism that needed higher education was introduced to this devastated areas.

            One of the main reasons that I think prisons turned from institution to industry was the increasing amount of people who were looking to illegal activities to gain money and create their own ground-rules. In addition, many minorities like Black, Latino/a, and Chinese, from the fear of white communities, and comfort that they felt in their own communities started living in quarters that were left out of the main urban plans. As the article describes, many of these events happened around the 1970’s until now. By this time, the prisons shifted from being a place to go to and reflect on what criminals did wrong, to an industry that tries to accommodate more inmates’ per-square-feet rather than a system in search of ways to help correct a criminals path and to release them back to society. Everyone is entitled to fix his or her wrong doings by doing their fair share of time in prison and coming out as a new person.

            Most of the countries that have low rate of prisoners, like Saudi Arabia, Emirates, and most Muslim nations are due to the harsh criminal laws that the public is subjected to. For example in Saudi Arabia if someone steals something and are caught, the law would amputate part of the thief body, in public viewing, and some public exactions, so they have almost zero criminals in their country.

For the second part of this reading, my opinion is that the prison system was created to correct a criminals path. I believe that a prison is a place where one can learn to better shape their future by learning a trade and even to become literate. I do not agree that prison is the same as slavery, because the choice of food, interaction and work are limited. Slavery was something forced on an innocent individual, and it would be a disgrace to use the word slavery, to define a person who has either monetarily or physically hurt another person. A prisoner is not someone who has earned free-living expenses and shelter by committing a crime there for I do believe that they would need to pay back to the community who is spending their tax money on the correction and rehabilitation of these individuals. I believe in the programs set by authorize and human rights organization that help excavates to find jobs and to be reinstated into the community.         

1.      If a criminal victimized you or someone you knew, would you want them serving their time in prison where they would be subjected to change their behavior and learn a trade or would you rather have them not serve time in prison?

2.      Do you agree with the second article that a prisoner is the same as a slave?