I thought we quickly moved through an incredibly complex topic yesterday. Maybe we'll talk more about it this afternoon. But challenging the Prison Industrial Complex is not an new idea, although it's often characterized as radical. Is it though? Will it ever fit on a 3x5 card? The prison system and "criminal justice" generally in the American sense is entangled in so many of our social woes, fears and deeply structural inequities.

I'm not one for phobias, but my biggest fear in life is incarceration-- and not because of I'm thinking about some risky, questionable behaviors. It's because I've had the "privilege" to walk in and out of one several times and each time the sense of relief and indignity was all too palpable. Prisons have a silencing effect. Not simply marginalized, but silenced. I'm wondering what any of you think would fit on that 3x5 card. Some of my thoughts:

• end racist practices in the "justice system"
• restructure penal schemes with a focus on restorative justice and rehabilitation
• allow better visitation/monitoring
• cease censorship of studies/exposes about prison populations
• equalize programs/opportunities for incarcerated women

it seems so much would have to change on the "outside" before any of it is reflected within. And if you don't think prisons should change, why not? Sorry for the unrefined nature of this post, I haven't eaten lunch yet. -- MiaWhite - 24 Jan 2008

I think drug convictions and the entire "War on Drugs" need to be restructured. Although usage rates are identical between black and whites, blacks are arrested at a much higher rate. This is both a result and cause of increased police presence in black and minority neighborhoods. Thus higher and higher incarceration rates for minorities (particuarly blacks) are driven by the war on drugs. This high level of incarceration continues to uproot the social capital in these communities.

I'm not sure of the solution. I think it begins by changing the way we punish drug users (not dealers). Non-incarceration for drug use will help to slow the downward spiral in these communities.

Note this is only one solution. I think there are many problems with our justice system, most of which are based on racially-biased incarceration.

-- AndrewHerink - 24 Jan 2008

[added some formatting to original post] -- IanSullivan - 24 Jan 2008

Yeah what is this "war on drugs" thing anyway? How long have we been fighting it, and in what way ARE we fighting it? I spent a few months doing data entry of criminal records and I can tell you that most of the people going out are coming right back. Prison does nothing to solve drug addiction and nothing to solve poverty - two of the main reasons people find themselves in prison (over and over again). I seriously believe that some people are in situations so desperate that crime is actually the most rational response.

Our prison system is clearly a failure. We should expose them (as you said Mia) and open them up to public scrutiny. I think we should assume we know nothing (fair bet really) and take a fresh look at the situation - ask ourselves who ends up in prison and why? Then be willing to consider new solutions, and my guess is that we ought to focus our attention on "rehabilitation" much more than we are now.

Of course, the other possibility is that the prisons aren't failing at all - they just aren't aiming at correction. Are prisons just a place to throw away segments of society that might be a problem for institutions in power?

-- ErikaKrystian - 29 Jan 2008

The idea that the prisons aren't necessarily failing but just aren't really trying to correct and rehabilitate prisoners is an idea that I agree with. Often times, those that come out of jail and are ready for a new start have their enthusiasm curbed by society's reaction to them. Many of them aren't able to "start anew" and feel disenfranchised with the whole system--which sometimes leads them back to behavior that put them into prison in the first place.

The war on drugs is a huge crock in my opinion, and generally serves as a less clandestine way to continue to put more black males in jail. The differences in the punishments that white and black drug users receive (ie, the differences in sentences for crack cocaine and powder cocaine) lead me to no other conclusion.

-- NicoleMedham - 29 Jan 2008