The purpose of the website is to analyze primary and secondary sources that speak on the evolution of prisons, the history of mass incarceration to make a claim for why a post carceral state is necessary and provide a concept for how a post-carceral state would work. Carceral thoughts tends to focus on prisons and the people in them; however, the "carceral state" encompasses many working parts constructed to control a "problem population that represent a threat to the existing system of government and class rule “keep society from falling into chaos"; "The problem population consisted of individuals that exhibited status inconsistencies in the 1800: poor whites, white criminals and free blacks (Adamson, Punishment After Slavery Southern Penal System, p. 556). Currently the "problem population" based on federal Wars on drugs, crime, poverty and terrorism, are drug users in ethnic or poor communities, African Americans, Mexicans, and Muslims.
This is your chance to find the answers to your questions by doing these three things:
1) Be provided with facts about the history of prisons and the mass incarceration crisis, which reflect the current carceral state in the United States.
2) Answer your personal questions based on our main arguments.
3) Decide if you are persuaded to adapt your perception.
The History of Prison discusses the development of institutions, laws and processes focused on removing and controlling target populations. Prisons, Asylums, Plantations, Reservations and Immigrant detention centers each have a similar yet unique way of capturing individuals, creating lines of separation with corrosive, careless and dehumanizing tactics. Individuals residing in these institutions often express being forgotten, treated inhumanly and living without basic needs. In the Attica Manifesto of July 2,1971 prisoner organized and created a list of demands simple seeking the rights and privileges of all American people in the midst of being murdered , brutalized and framed on various criminal charges( Attic Prison Uprising 101: Short Primer).
The History of Mass Incarceration covers the rise in number persons in prison through a process of elimination with Federal policies and public opinion/ misconceptions. Federal Initiatives such as Crime and Punishment, and overlapping Wars on Poverty, Crime, Drugs, and Terror throughout American History has legally and effectively taken people from society, stripped them of their rights and placed them in jails, prisons.
Why Post- Carceral Society is Necessary reviews intentional targeting, the effects of imprisonment throughout history and the various carceral systems. Subsequently the system is designed to fill beds instead of curing deeper social issue. Early in her book Are Prisons Obsolete, Angela Davis points out Mass incarceration generates profit as it devours social wealth and thus it tends to reproduce the very conditions that lead people to prison (A. Davis, p. 17)
How the Our Post-Carceral Concept works is reconstruction of institutions, employment descriptions and laws associated with crime and punishment, derived from the analysis of the historical and current carceral state in the United States of America. The key point within this conception returning the title of “human being” back to persons legally labeled, “criminals, detainees, deplorable, feeble-minded, inmates, prisoners, property of the state, unfit for society”. In the poem Prick Poison by Kinnari Jivani she speaks on her experience stating, "...but I look like you. laugh ,sob, breathe, grow like you. See, I am human, too. Society labels me "criminal" if you too- keep seeing me distantly then this wall will grow tall and fat (Interrupted Life, p.352-54, K. Jivani is an incarcerated woman poet).
The creators of this website do not believe one time-period, president, or event caused the current state of Mass Incarceration the United States. They agree the driving force and the most common theme within the carceral system is white supremacy and control over those considered “less than”.
Jen J.- "Tyranny"
James J- “It is an ugly system. I do not understand how States are having a hard time funding prisons they take money away from convicts and their families. For example, parking at the Broward Conty Main Jail is $10, sending money for phone calls have a $10 charge on top of the money sent to the convict. If a convict does not use money sent to them with a month the state takes it away.” “even defendants before convictions are dehumanized and forced to pause their life. My mother had a case open since 2010 and has been restricted from leaving her county, lives under separation order from family members yet must be ready attend hearings.”
Shayna K.- My thoughts are that the Judicial system with lawyers, Judges and the entire encarceration process needs help!! I feel that instead of helping people, we are quick to lock them up and allow them to fall into a vicious cycle they cannot get away from. Not many know, but I have a brother in prison. This is his second time around! Had he gotten REAL help years ago, perhaps he could have conquered the evil that took him and turned him into someone we no longer knew. Perhaps a mandated rehab when he was just 16 would have helped, not a simple fine from a judge. Perhaps stricter consequences for drugs would have woken him up years ago. Instead he received small consequences to his actions. Causing those actions to become bigger and bigger. Prison only taught him a lesson for a short time. The evil thing called Heroine took him once again, and our failed system did not give him any way to truly change. I no longer have a relationship with him over his choices. However maybe he could have made better ones had he had the opportunity to seek help. That's just a few of my thoughts on that.
Perrisa N- Please do this. I'm not sure what I could do to help but this subject hits home for me and is extremely sensitive. I could only imagine how this site would not only expand but reach people who may need more information or find solace in learning what incarceration is, how it works, its history, who is effected, and a trillion other things.
Dustin N.- It's an easy way out versus dealing with the underlying problems that plague society and individuals. Rehabilitation is necessary, not incarceration that causes further harm.
Kyrah S.- In my opinion, the government Is mass producing law enforcement, laws, and prisons. By doing so, They are taking away basic human privileges, and hygiene practices, keeping people in cages like animals. I believe they give women welfare so they don't need a man. So families are broken, and women stay on welfare and the fathers are sent to prison. Instead of rehabilitating the non violent offenders we make it nearly impossible for them to recover. Sending them in a broken record routine. The governments doesn't care because they get tax breaks and are basically getting paid to keep women on welfare. Just like companies get tax breaks to hire felons. I believe the YouTube video ten monkies in a cage with a ladder and bananas best interprets our governments reasoning (which I believe they do what they do, because that is the only way they know) if you ask me, it starts at education, and educating young children on life, and consequences, and choices. Teaching them morals, values and respect. I could go on for awhile. But that pretty much sums it up in a nutshell.
Crystal B.- I think its great that you're doing this! I don't have a really great understanding of all the issues involved but a good book I've come across is The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander.
Sarah T.-( shared a link to her Instgram, Page where she details her one night in jails for a DUI in Arizona) Please read this. Comments included. Please: https://www.instagram.com/p/BMMIeVLj52a/