Carceral Con
by Kay Whitlock & Nancy A. Heitzeg
Carceral Con explores the US criminal “justice” reform terrain, detailing a plethora of examples to illustrate that many reforms (while well-marketed and optimistic) often widen the net of carceral control/harm instead of shrinking it, while disregarding the desperate need for decarceration and community investment.
“The world of criminal justice reform is self-contained and self-referential. It is a world of tunnel vision and no imagination, providing no possibility of answers outside the confines of criminal justice itself.”
MY TAKEAWAYS
Our system has an obsession with attributing criminality to individuals and their supposed “moral failings”, rather than taking into account the larger socioeconomic factors at play.
While reformists may claim that racial disparity has decreased, Black Americans currently account for 40 percent of all prisoners, but only 13 percent of the US population.
Mass media supports the prison industrial complex through “exaggerated crime reporting, crime and punishment presented as profitable entertainment and the production and reproduction of…” a variety of stereotypes deeming many marginalized groups as “criminal, delinquent, or deviant”.
Private interests very heavily impact the way the prison industrial complex grows and evolves in a variety of ways.
Deceptive rhetorical strategies are often used to draw support for bipartisan reform agendas, using key catchphrases to market proposals and increase their palatability.
Reforming the police most commonly translates to rewarding the police - granting them more funding, more resources, and more authority for discretionary social control.
Many reforms involving “decriminalization” simply reclassify crimes, and in many cases do not actually reduce the amount of individuals trapped under state control.
A theme of bipartisan reform measures is the promise of cost-savings and reinvestment, which rarely actually happen for the communities receiving said promise. In reality, they’re only left with more police and more prisons.
Comparing our US prison system with other countries’ “less harsh” and less-populated systems is unproductive, as the hypothetical redesign would still lead to investment in cages.
“No matter how well-meaning the intentions are, new models, new units, new structures always help perpetuate the old carceral logic.”