...Journal for Critical Animal Studies, Volume 10, Issue 2, 2012 (ISSN1948-352X) Beyond Dehumanization: A Post-Humanist Critique of Solitary Confinement Lisa Guenther Abstract What does it mean to be treated like a nonhuman animal? In this paper, I analyze the discourse of “dehumanization” in Madrid v Gomez, a 1995 Eighth Amendment case concerning the treatment of prisoners at California’s Pelican Bay Supermax Penitentiary. I argue that the language of dehumanization fails to describe the harm of solitary confinement because it remains complicit with a hierarchical opposition between human and nonhuman animal that rebounds against prisoners, especially those who have been racialized and/or sexualized as less than human. Humanist discourse neglects the sense in which both human and nonhuman animals are affective, corporeal beings who rely upon the support of others for their own capacity to orient themselves within a mutually-perceived world. Drawing on the testimony of inmates in solitary confinement, and situating this testimony in relation to the political and scientific history of US incarceration practices, I develop a post-humanist critique of solitary confinement. Keywords: Solitary confinement, sensory deprivation, intercorporeal Malebranche would not have beaten a stone as he beat his dog, saying that the dog didn’t suffer. Merleau-Ponty, Nature, 166 Certain carceral practices are often condemned – both by prisoners and by their legal or political advocates –...
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...Correctional Facility in Mississippi houses 1,200 boys and young men. An NPR news investigation into the juvenile prison examined public records associated with federal grants paid to the Walnut Grove Youth Correctional Facility. Those records showed how Warden Brick Tripp and his deputy wardens had been receiving checks for $2,500 to $5,000 as "supplemental salaries" for administering federal Title 1 education funds (Burnett 3). In a phone interview, Cole stated he had no knowledge of the warden and the deputy dealing with educating students. In attempt to get further evidence behind the reward of salaries, the attempt was met with a declined interview from the warden. Furthermore, it was not made clear why the deputy was receiving bonus checks. GEO Group's Paez who was asked why the prison administration was receiving supplementary paychecks from federal education grants, which have nothing to do with the civil rights lawsuit or Justice Department investigation, replied with no comment (Burnett 3). NPR wondered if this was normal. Considering the town of Walnut Grove is so small, where inmates outnumber citizens 2 to 1. The people of the town primarily rely on the prison. 200 prison jobs helped fill the void when a shirt manufacturer and a glove maker closed and moved overseas several years ago (Burnett 3). This “sweet deal” for the Walnut Grove enables the prison to pay the town $15,000 in lieu of taxes - which comprises nearly 15 percent of its annual budget. That is a lot...
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...Prosecutors are willing to use corrupt tactics, unethical and unfair plea deals to send more people to jail. While politicians get big money to flex their muscles and create new ways to lock more people up, people are left out of the political process, from opportunities and, afraid for their futures. A prison's funding is based on the number of prisoners it holds and the security level it provides, therefore profit comes by getting more prisoners, building more cells and units. Thus, the system will be there to fill the cells with the help from lawmakers, local police and federal agencies. To maintain the overflow of prisoners, the spread a propaganda through TV shows and made up stories about a crime which prompt law enforcements to partially and unjustly round up people of color in the name of public safety....
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...Durgun Nov. 2. 2015 The prison industrial complex is a system created by private businesses in order to expand prisons and profit by increasing the number of people who are jailed in their prisons. It’s a system in which there is little to no care for the rights of prisoners or their rehabilitation rather the entire purpose is to make as much money as possible. In order for the prison industrial system to be successful there is a need for a steady supply of prisoners. These prisoners usually tend to be lower income minorities who can be easily taken advantage of and jailed without being able to defend their rights. In order to advocate for and protect the rights of minorities and women, feminists in the prison abolitionist’s movement have taken a stand to call for an end to the expansion of prisons for profit. One major problem with the prison industrial complex is that it takes advantage of minority groups in society who aren’t able to defend their rights properly. These groups are usually stuck in poor communities in which they usually find themselves missing necessary supplies or services in order to thrive and survive. These people are also grossly undereducated due to the lack of funds being provided for their schools or their communities. As a result many of them end up feeling like they have to commit crimes in order to attain a better living situation or to survive in their communities. The people who support the prison industrial complex realize that the conditions...
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...http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/1998/12/the-prison-industrial-complex/4669/2/ GEO Group Argument that private sector can handle prisons better and cheaper than the government Somethings should not be for profit http://core.ecu.edu/soci/juskaa/SOCI2110/Prison_Industrial_Complex.htm http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Prison_System/Masked_Racism_ADavis.html http://www.prisonsucks.com/ Paper Topic: The Prison Industrial Complex [Name of Writer] [Name of Professor] [Course Title] [Date] Prison Industrial Complex Prison Industrial Complex – Origin and Establishment The term prison industrial complex ‘ refers to an American criminal justice system that has been substantially transformed by almost three decades of rapid growth and by the increasing importance of private interests in criminal justice policy ... All these factors combined to provide an opening for private sector involvement in prison management and speculative prison building The third factor contributing in the transformation of the American corrections system can usefully be referred to as what Sir Leon Radzinowicz calls penal regression ... the machinery of justice in a democratic society should never be cut off (Radzinowicz , 1991 ) In the American case , massively disproportionate incarceration rates among communities of marginalized peoples , a growing tolerance for violence as a means of social control , and the replacement of rehabilitation with punishment...
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...Today, prisons all over the world is overpopulated and most of the expenses are paid in account on the taxpayers’ behalf. Some inmates are not necessarily criminals, but prison seems to be the solution to anybody that slightly troubled the law. In Julia Sudbury’s Maroon Abolitionists, anti-prison groups strongly discouraged the Prison-Industrial Complex and worked against it to prevent private corporations from making profits and focused to imply a correctional facility to better the individual. With significant increases in population of inmates yearly, it is crucial to seek improvement in correcting the system and treated with fair access. Prison-Industrial Complex (PIC) is an interaction that shares interest of all who helps expand the prison system for personal profits, from monetary profits, political power, control of resources, ownership of properties, etc… It is a system where the private corporate put their self before others and for personal benefits. Inmates are often discriminated based on their race, gender, or culture so the private prison companies can reach their potential power. In Julia Sudbury, Maroon Abolitionists, she showed that the U.S. currently incarcerates approx. 2.3 million people, similarly 762 per 100,000. There are 167,000 prisoners in all of California. 60% of those incarcerated in prison are an ethnic minority. Statistics showed that three quarters of all inmates for drug related offenses are people of color. 1 in every 8 black males in their...
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...word “education” would mean for one to be enlightened and obtain knowledge through learning. However, the kind of education received within the United States Prison Systems is actively doing the opposite. The oppressed inmate populations are ultimately being exploited for cheap labor in order to support a capitalist society that they do not benefit from. This paper will argue that the education being withheld from prison inmates is both cultural and educational imperialism. This paper will also argue that the Prison Industrial Complex is intentionally exploiting inmates to contribute to a capitalist labor market instead of receiving education they are entitled to in order to be rehabilitated, reduce recidivism, improve their lives and ultimately better benefit society. Incarceration in the United States is the main form of punishment, rehabilitation, or both as a consequence of felony and other criminal offenses. The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration with 2.2 million people currently in the nation's prisons or jails. This means a 500% increase over the past thirty years (The Sentencing Project.org). These trends have resulted in prison overcrowding, and billions of dollars being spent to house inmates, and supervise them on probation and parole after they are released, ultimately to return to prison as a repeat offender. Instead of an increased amount of funding and expansion of educational programs to keep up with the increase in inmate population, there...
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...A Critical Perspective on Prison Privatization April 6, 2015 A Critical Perspective on Prison Privatization Topic Statement: “Is the privatization of prisons for profit an ethical practice?” The topic of a country privatizing areas of industry is far from a novel idea, especially since the rise of capitalism. With the United States being widely considered the father of capitalism, it is almost expected to see the privatization of a key component of its judicial system, prison, becoming more and more common. Although the underlying function of a prison as a means of social reform has remained constant since its inception in 1750 BCE with the Babylonian Empire, externalities are beginning to influence a change in the governing bodies of penitentiaries (Roberts, 2006). With governments and taxpayers seeing the opportunities for cost savings, countries throughout the world are beginning to employ private operating models for their penitentiaries, with the U.S. being the primary driver of this change (Trivedi, 2014). Framework of the Issue A change in the operating sovereign of a prison, from federal to private, is controversial enough that the effects of this privatization have garnered the title of the Prison-Industrial Complex. The complex is a scholarly attempt to explain the intertwining of the profit-driven agendas of private prison companies and the correlated expansion of the US inmate population. Although cost savings for the government...
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...Private Corrections Linda Lewis-Nellum National American University Abstract There is a growing concern in the United States about the increase of the prison population and how it directly correlates to the privatization of correctional facilities. We will delve into the major players that own and/or invest in privately own prisons, as well as the ethical dilemmas that follow and view if this type of capitalism is beneficial to the society. Private Corrections Major Players In researching who benefitted the most from prisons being privatized, it became apparent that there are two companies, Corrections Corporation of America (CCA), headed by Henri Wedell on the board of directors and The GEO Group, with George Zoley as CEO which earn millions of dollars in profit for the incarceration of an offender. Wedell, who owns 650,000 shares in CCA, worth 25 million dollars, was asked if he felt any moral shame for profiting from a legal system that jails more people than any other country in the world to which he replied, “America allow more freedom than any other country in the world, so there’ll be a certain number of people, who take advantage of that freedom, abuse it, and end up in prison.”(Ray Downs). George Zoley, who made at least 6 million dollars in salary and bonuses is so proud of his investment, he assures his shareholders that the incarceration rate will not be dropping anytime in the near future. How can these men guarantee that there will not be a drop in the...
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...To an extent, it is understandable that some assessments of prisoner workers would take the position that these individuals have committed some crime, which landed them in prison. As a result, they lost the opportunity to receive the same monetary compensation of individuals who have not committed crimes. Unfortunately those who take this position must realize this issue is not muddied in what rights prisoners should be afforded in comparison to Americans who remain on the right side of the law. This conundrum stems simply from corporations and private businesses having the power to influence the criminal justice system, public services, and legislators to continue in the pursuit to fill prisons with inmates to perform work and ultimately produce profits for capitalists. This type of influence is primarily what Marx spoke of when he asserted, “ The executive of the modern State is but a committee for managing the common affairs of the whole bourgeoisie” (Marx). Page 475. The bourgeoisie, who own the means of production according to Marx’s definition, have substantial influence because of their wealth and the power that coincides with having large sums of money in a...
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...The United States of America has the highest incarceration rate in the world. America holds 5% of the world’s population, yet it houses 25% of the world’s prisoners (Walmsley 2013). The approximate amount of spending on our nations prisoners is 74 billion dollars, annually (Silver 2014). With the cost of rising incarceration in the U.S. and climbing recidivism rates, it is more apparent than ever that the American Prison Industrial Complex (“PIC”) is in great need of reform (Wagner 2014). The PIC enforces a recidivism cycle in which more than 50% of prisoners return to prison less than 3 years after release, thus being referred to by the PEW Research Center as “The Revolving Door of America’s Prisons” (2011). Not only is this cycle inflicting...
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...Critical Thinking Assignment #3 Matt Holland 1. What is the difference between an alliance and a coalition? According to the text, an alliance is a long-term ongoing unity based on common interests and common basic principles, whereas a coalition is a short-term working association based on specific short-term goals. 2. Discuss examples of coalitions Blacks have been in and the problems of each The first example the book gives us of a black coalition is the Black/Jewish coalition. One of the problems of this coalition is a myth of moral affinity between blacks and Jews based on similar suffering-historical and current. Jews are now one of the affluent and powerful groups in the U.S., but they have not shown the capacity or will they once had and demonstrated for building a coalition with African Americans in the unfinished struggle for social justice and societal transformation. These myths suggest or seek to foster a unity and commonality of interests that do not exist and thus produce a political practice and thought based on false premises problematic to African American interests. The next example the book gives us is the Democratic coalition. The problem with this coalition is it was never made up of equals or semi-equals. This coalition was an alignment based on influences not power, and thus, subject to the interests and aspirations of the persons who control it. 3. Discuss the political economic status of the ghetto as an internal colony The political...
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...indiscretion. Essentially the “pipeline” serves as a preemptive action deemed necessary to confront the danger perpetually posed by African-Americans to civilized society. In the New Jim Crow, Michelle Alexander discusses the racial underpinnings of the prison industrial complex. Alexander asserts that “more African-American adults are under correctional control toady-in prison or jail, on probation or parole-than were enslaved in 1850, a decade before the Civil War began.” (Alexander, 175) This startling reality is what leads the author to analogize the mass incarceration of African-Americans as the new slave plantation. One of the main points of contention for Alexander is the War on Drugs. For Alexander, the War of Drugs serves...
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...This paper describes the process, which lead to the school-to-prison pipeline concept. The changes that came about in the educational policies and disciplinary practices have enhanced the success of the school-to-prison pipeline concept in the Public Schools across the United States. During the 80’s, the war on drugs and cruel sentencing laws lead to an increase ratio of incarceration per capita in the United States. After the 80’s era, the 90’s brought about a zero-tolerance policy. Law enforcement was used as a solution versus the traditional measures to handle disciplinary problems by the school administration. As a result of this approach, many schools were treated as sheltered facilities which overtime lead to increased disciplinary conduct. The increase sentencing of minor offense by juveniles supported what is now referred to as the industrial prison of complex. Private prisons today, have become big business supported by the judiciary system in its sentencing and are evident by the increase sentencing of young offenders. This paper describes the connection between prison construction and the criminalization of students. In conclusion, this report will look at some policies and initiatives that have formed the school-to-prison pipeline initiative. In researching this topic, I will show the measure from the fact sheet of how North Carolina fair from School-to-Prison Pipeline. I totally find the school-to-prison pipeline to be an injustice to our youth and our society. ...
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...Profiting from punishment * As punishment is complex social, ideological and cultural terrain, it will never be an entirely rational execution of orders with clear objectives and controllable outcomes. It is has multiple and competing aims and innumerable intended and unintended consequences. In accordance with this Garland has argued “(t)he failure of modern punishment is in part the inevitable outcome of an over rationalized conception of its functions” (1991, p. 12). As prisons enable a society to separate and classify those that it deems to be ‘criminal’, the introduction of privately operated prisons further separates criminals from society because of the shifts this enables in terms of public accountability. In light of this, the ability for a private corporation to profit from nuanced state and social objectives acted out on the body of a citizen could be considered unreasonable and morally repugnant. By no means is it surprising that corporations will act to minimise costs, and cost is an obvious consideration in the delivery of any public sector function but the centrality of cost and the possibility of profit are problematic. * Prisons and penal policy should be focused on broader social objectives and questions that lead to better outcomes for all members of a society, including prisoners, as has been shown, these questions are not enabled within the current accountability arrangements. This is a view supported by Shearer (2002, p. 546) who argued that “when...
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