Problems after Prison Abolition

Angela Davis provides a strong argument for the abolition of prisons. Her discussion of the prison industrial complex alludes to larger institutionalized racism as a significant cause for the perpetuation of the problems she discusses. Her writing led me to think of a world where prisons did not exist and of some of the strange societal problems we would have to deal with.

Davis discusses how the prisons not only strip the incarcerated of their time and livelihood but also of the fact that it isolates them from their family and communication with the outside world. Countless abuses of inmates have been discovered throughout the history of prisons and the thought that a prisoner will be violated and traumatized is not only normalized but expected. If abolition of prisons were to truly be implemented, then what degree of reparations would be provided to the wronged prisoners? If the government were to abolish the flawed system then they would be acknowledging the flaws and abuse that they had forced upon these inmates.  Not only have these men been denied the potential wages for all their years of incarceration, but they have been isolated and cut from their families. Worse yet, the people who have been released in the past are denied jobs for their criminal records and suffer an economic stipend because of the punitive systems legacy in their lives rather than a rehabilitative system.

Davis discusses the prison industrial complex at length and is very critical of “the punishment industry [which] reap profits” from the disenfranchisement of others (16). On top of the demand for the reintegration of what Davis claims to be two million people at the time of writing into the economy, there would be a further owes on the government to provide some kind of stimulation for the employees of the prisons and local communities reliant on the industry.  It’s disturbing to acknowledge the vacuum and pressure on the economy that righting a social wrong would produce.

Davis further acknowledges the sheer volume that the prisons themselves occupy as spaces, discussing the historical growth of the industrial complex, which led to the current thirty three state prisons in California alone (13). The facilities are industrial, impersonal and often in remote locations, removed from populated areas so as to help hide them from the general population in order to make them feel safe. The prisons represent a large amount of government infrastructural investment, and without any plan to revitalize or renovate the buildings, they pose as another barrier of sunk cost against abolishing prisons. Furthermore, the spaces created from these potentially former prisons would have a marked social stigma as the sight of institutionalized racism and abuse.

Overall I see a lot of issues after the abolition of prisons which are interesting to address. Claims for reparations, the need to reintegrate both detainers and detainees into the economy, and even the physical presence of prisons themselves would pose serious challenges should abolition be truly adopted.