Imprisoning Spaces

Friday’s Learning Log on “(De)Colonising Land” examined the connections between colonialism, spatial politics, and resource control, complementing our earlier exploration of migration and environmental risk. In addition to international country borders, boundaries serve to produce and reinforce institutional racism through practices of redlining and zoning, as we discussed with Antonio during “Demarcating Territory”.

This session on “Imprisoning Spaces” uncovers the relationship between borders, environmental racism, and incarceration. Two abolitionists will be joining us to examine racialised trends in America’s criminal ‘justice’ system, the exploitation of prison labour for firefighting, the use of detention centres at the US-Mexico border, and more.

Bill De La Rosa

A Mexican-American, first-generation college graduate, Bill De La Rosa has dedicated himself to improving the lives of current and future immigrants. Currently a DPhil Candidate at the University of Oxford, Bill is also a Visiting Scholar at the University of Arizona’s Binational Migration Institute. During the last year, he worked in the Pima County Administrator’s Office on criminal justice initiatives ranging from police reform to drug sentencing alternatives. Bill has previously worked for the US Department of Health and Human Services as a Policy Analyst and as a Public Information Officer in the Office of Refugee Resettlement.

Bill holds a bachelor’s degree in Sociology and Latin American Studies with honors from Bowdoin College and two master’s degrees from the University of Oxford. Among his accomplishments, Bill has been named a John Lewis Fellow, a Truman Scholar, a Marshall Scholar, the 2016 National Male Hispanic Scholar of the Year, and in 2020, a Southern Arizona ‘40 under 40’ honoree for his impact in the community. Bill plans to enrol at Yale Law School after completing his DPhil.

Nico Montano

Born and raised in Spring Valley, NY, via El Salvador and Argentina, Nico is a researcher, photographer, and abolitionist based in New York. Nico holds a BA in Psychology of Juvenile Delinquency & International Criminology, an MA in Research Methods in Sociology and Social Policy, and an MSc in Gender, Media, and Culture.

Nico’s current research focuses on the experiences of people in New York City who have been charged with violent felonies or have been incarcerated at Rikers multiple times, and how the structural barriers they face can be overcome and dismantled. Previous research includes the connection between youth exposure to violence in NYC and PTSD; policing in the South Bronx; refugee detention and experiences with police in Northern England; and racial and gendered representations of Salvadorans in films about the Salvadoran Civil War. Nico centers Queer, Trans, LGBA youth, Black/Indigenous, Immigrant, Central American and Diaspora folk, using critical participatory action methodologies.

Nico teaches at the John Jay College of Criminal Justice on issues of mass incarceration in the United States; race, gender, and stereotypes; theories of justice; and the history of early prisons in the US.

Beyoncé Giselle Knowles-Carter is an American performer and humanitarian. Originally well-known as the lead singer of Destiny’s Child, she has since become one of the world’s most influential solo artists. Her words in “Freedom” call for freedom from all forms of oppression, evoking everything from slavery to incarceration, systemic injustice to personal doubt:

I’ma wade, I’ma wave through the waters

Tell the tide, “Don’t move”

I’ma riot, I’ma riot through your borders

Call me bulletproof

Kendrick Lamar is a Pulitzer-prize winning American rapper known for his solo art as well as his membership in the hip hop supergroup Black Hippy. Lamar’s lyrics in Freedom speak to the reality of police violence and prison systems:

Ten Hail Marys, I meditate for practice

Channel 9 news tell me I’m movin’ backwards

Eight blocks left, death is around the corner

Seven misleadin’ statements ’bout my persona

Six headlights wavin’ in my direction (Come on)

Five-O askin’ me what’s in my possession

Yeah, I keep runnin’, jump in the aqueducts

Fire hydrants and hazardous

Smoke alarms on the back of us

But mama, don’t cry for me, ride for me

Try for me, live for me

Breathe for me, sing for me

Honestly guidin’ me

I could be more than I gotta be

Stole from me, lied to me, nation hypocrisy

Code on me, drive on me

Wicked, my spirit inspired me, like yeah

Open correctional gates in higher desert (Yeah)

Open our mind as we cast away oppression (Yeah)

Open the streets and watch our beliefs

And when they carve my name inside the concrete

I pray it forever reads...Freedom