The Prison Industrial Complex Puts Us All in Prison: Five Ways the PIC Takes Advantage of Us All12/31/2022 So what is the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)? "...the United States has developed a prison-industrial complex—a set of bureaucratic, political, and economic interests that encourage increased spending on imprisonment, regardless of the actual need. The prison-industrial complex is not a conspiracy, guiding the nation's criminal-justice policy behind closed doors. It is a confluence of special interests that has given prison construction in the United States a seemingly unstoppable momentum. It is composed of politicians, both liberal and conservative, who have used the fear of crime to gain votes; impoverished rural areas where prisons have become a cornerstone of economic development; private companies that comprise the roughly $35 billion spent each year on corrections not as a burden on American taxpayers but as a lucrative market; and government officials whose fiefdoms have expanded along with the inmate population. Since 1991 the rate of violent crime in the United States has fallen by about 20 percent, while the number of people in prison or jail has risen by 50 percent." (The Atlantic) This was in 1998. It is the same today. I can only tell the story of the Prison Industrial Complex from my personal perspective as the sister of someone who is incarcerated. Sure, I am biased by my love for my brother Darrell. I am also biased by my love for humanity and my feeling that there should be more kindness in the world.Taking into consideration the current events concerning the incarceration of Brittney Griner and how most of us on this side of the world (specifically the United States) viewed her experience, it seemed the perfect time to address how we treat our incarcerated here in the US. Now is also a time of gratitude and transition; right now is when we can be thinking of how we want to be an agent for change in the coming year. Having a loved who is incarcerated is hard; an understatement and definitely something that needs to be said. I believe that often, for those who don’t know what it is like to stay connected with a loved one who is incarcerated, there is a thought that these people should be thrown away, forgotten and therefore anything that happens behind bars is well deserved. I’d counter that humane treatment should never be sacrificed for the sake of punishment. My brother Darrell is really funny. He is very creative and smart. I always wanted to be able to draw like him. He went to art school, but for video production. He introduced me to my love for comic books. The first video game I ever played was with him. I can only tell the story of the Prison Industrial Complex from my personal perspective as the sister of someone who is incarcerated. Sure, I am biased by my love for my brother Darrell. I am also biased by my love for humanity and my feeling that there should be more kindness in the world. Right now, Darrell is serving his sentence in a Florida state prison -run by the government, not a private prison. Private prisons only make up about 8% of the total number of prisons interestingly enough. A few months ago my family and I found out he was placed in solitary confinement (also called isolation or 'the box'). He was told he'd be in solitary confinement for 30 days. The United Nations classifies solitary confinement over 15 days to be a form of torture. This is happening in the United States at this very moment. Not some country foreign to my brother where he's been captured for being a spy or drug possession; in the U.S.A. My brother was being subjected to treatment considered torture by the United Nations, of which the US is a member. There was no official notification of any kind from the prison. No letter. No email. No call. My brother would've simply been 'disappeared' for days. There seems to be no obligation felt to tell family or friends anything. It seems, they believe, my brother is property to do with as they wish. In an imaginary exchange I have with some random contrarian in my head, they say to me: "If you do the crime, you do the time." My brother's real crime was not being able to afford a lawyer. When my brother was first arrested my Mom was going through cancer treatment. We were financially challenged to say the least. Then to this antagonist I'd respond: "Is this really the way anyone should ‘do’ any time? Being tortured? With all of the issues in our legal system, would you want to take the chance that one day you might be subject to the inhumane practices you are a proponent of?" I can also counter with facts such as: "The United States represents only about 4.2 percent of the world population and it houses nearly 20 percent of the world's prison population; which points to the over incarceration of the American population. Also: in the United States, about 2.3 million people were or are currently incarcerated and even more under constant supervision (probation, house arrest, bail). Maybe the fact that those numbers and figures are connected to real people with families is even more powerful? Maybe the fact that so many people are serving sentences for drug use and possession might make a difference? My brother being in prison is why I began to advocate for prisoners being treated humanely but understanding that there are millions of other families going through the same thing and incarceration's devastating effect on communities is what keeps me going. Though my brother’s experience is harrowing, it is by no means the worst of what the incarcerated and families of the incarcerated experience. In addition to the inhumane treatment here are five more reasons why things in this system need to change: 1. Friends + Family: If You Want to Communicate, You Will Have to Pay. Monetizing all aspects of the life of an inmate has become the primary motivation to keep the system just the way it is. Having a loved one in prison is hard. Not for all the reasons you might think. I am not only grateful that I can speak to my brother, I am grateful I have the funds to do so. In order to stay in contact with my brother I have several options:
There was contraband planted in my brother’s personal space after being removed from the space of another inmate. There was video of a guard doing this. The other inmate admitted to the contraband belonging to him. My brother was still punished. The system is about penalization, not rehabilitation. 3. The Public Has Been Made to Believe That Any Poor Treatment That Takes Place In a Prison Is Deserved. Quite a bit of the treatment that takes place within prison walls is inhumane. There Is no oversight. Once again, solitary confinement over 15 days is considered a form of torture by the United Nations. The United States is a member. Apparently my brother was placed in solitary confinement for not opening his locker. The administration does not need my brother to open a locker. They can and have done it before. Would this be a reason to put anyone in solitary confinement? There was no legitimate hearing to determine if the accusations were true; no reasonable way for an inmate to defend themself. There has been a rise in the use of solitary confinement in prisons over all. "On a given day last year, an estimated 55,000 to 62,500 people had spent the previous 15 days in solitary confinement in state and federal prisons, often in cells smaller than a parking space." (Prison Policy Initiative) Here are other reasons the prison administration needs accountability and more oversight:
5. This Is the New Slave Plantation. Prisoners just being in prison ensure profit. There are minimum population requirements. Many private entities provide services and products to the prisons. Prisons are often the cottage industry of small towns. If you still believe everyone who is incarcerated belongs there and deserves whatever treatment they receive, here are a few facts via book The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander:
One last, but the most important thing we lose to a system that has been allowed to disrupt the youth of many generations: Community. “Social capital is lost when an individual is incarcerated. How much social capital is lost is hard to accurately estimate, [there is] a strong correlation between lower income [that has been determined] if an adult is incarcerated in their youth in comparison to those who are not incarcerated. People incarcerated at a younger age lose the capability to invest in themselves and in their communities. Their children and families become susceptible to financial burden preventing them from escaping low-income communities. This contributes to the recurring cycle of poverty that is positively correlated with incarceration. Poverty rates have not been curbed despite steady economic growth. Incarceration leads to more incarceration by putting families and communities at a dynamic social disadvantage. “(Wikipedia) Though my perspective of the prison industrial complex is a very personal one, it is no less valid when tallying the losses we all suffer as a society. This coming year I’d ask that we all take into consideration how we can raise our voices to dismantle or at least work to change this very broken system.
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Note: for the sake of this piece I will speak specifically about African African American communities but this is an issue that occurs in other communities of color as well. Perhaps not as prevalent, but still present. mon•u•ment \mŏn′yə-mənt\ noun. something erected in memory of a person, event, etc., as a building, pillar, or statue 2 : a written legal document or record : treatise 3: a lasting evidence, reminder, or example of someone or something notable or great contemporary art: “In its most basic sense, the term contemporary art refers to art—namely, painting, sculpture, photography, installation, performance, and video art—produced today.” (iesa.edu) “While classification can be difficult, Contemporary Art collectively is much more socially conscious than any previous era in art has been. A lot of art, particularly since the late 1980s, has been connected with one contemporary issue or another: feminism, multiculturalism, globalization, bioengineering, and AIDS awareness, for example.” (thoughtco.com) Like the ubiquitous Martin Luther King Streets, Roads, Highways, and Boulevards in communities of color, there is also the Martin Luther King Jr. and/or the Malcom X mural in cities around the United States, from coast to coast. Sometimes there may be a bust on a pedestal in a park; even more rare, a full sculpture of one of the civil rights figures, but it does happen. Now replace the names of these prominent civil rights leaders and/or athletes with the names of others -- Rosa Parks, Frederick Douglass, Angela Davis, and James Weldon Johnson to name a few -- and you have what makes up the width and breadth of public art in the African American community. Sometimes these artworks (usually murals) expanded to include what’s happening in regard to policing and current events; this year Breonna Taylor and George Floyd have had a heartbreaking admission into an ever growing group of African Americans killed by police officers and a collection of artwork being created to memorialize them as symbols of injustice people of color have had to endure. When monuments to Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders are put in neighborhoods specific to the primary demographic they are believed to represent --in this case African American--then these figures become African American history and heroes and not American history and American heroes.here is nothing wrong with a great monument, but there is also nothing wrong with art for art's sake. There is nothing wrong with artwork that discusses the environment, or self-discovery, or rainbows either. It’s also a lot like the difference between always wearing a solid color or always wearing a pattern: sometimes one might be more appropriate than another at certain points in time; It’s good to have a variety in one’s wardrobe. It is just as important to have a variety of subject matter covered in the confines of a neighborhood’s art collection. Maybe that’s a decent metaphor, maybe not, but one thing is for sure: Martin Luther King Jr. murals are created so often around the country, there is a photographer that has made a point of documenting them in the L.A. area. A favorite: a mural wall with Frida Kahlo on one side and MLK on the other. It’s fine if we have to agree to disagree. "There is nothing wrong with a great monument,
but there is also nothing wrong with art for art's sake." There is nothing wrong with a great monument, but there is also nothing wrong with art for art's sake.But the real question is why do so many of us believe that the best place and/or only place to honor American heroes of color is only in a community of color? To best illustrate why the opposite is a better operating procedure, let’s use the Martin Luther King Memorial in Washington D.C. The beauty of the MLK monument is that it is in the center of the city with other monuments paying homage to events and individuals important to American history and culture. When monuments to Martin Luther King and other civil rights leaders are put in neighborhoods specific to the primary demographic they are believed to represent --in this case African American--then these figures become African American history and heroes and not American history and American heroes. It’s an echo chamber. Was the civil rights movement only beneficial to African Americans? Of course not. So this becomes a concern. Especially now that we’ve all already agreed (once again this year) there is still crushing inequality and racism in the world, can’t we all also agree that this inequality exists in the realm of the creative as well? This creates an art and culture gap leaving communities of color without a proper spectrum of contemporary art. Here are three reasons why (sad though they may be) this is happening: Reason #1: Public Art Administrators and Private Donors Don’t Understand that African American Communities Aren’t the Only Communities that Should Be Aware of African American Contributions to American Society It seems pretty redundant to put reminders of African American accomplishments only in neighborhoods of color. Are African American communities the spaces most in need of African American monuments? Depends on the circumstances from one location to another. Are African Americans the only ones in need of being reminded of the contributions of people of color? Definitely not. Wouldn’t it make more sense to put these monuments in main thoroughfares in a city or simply a variety of communities other than predominantly African American neighborhoods in an effort to educate everyone? Of course it may make more sense in certain situations to place a memorial at the site of a specific event (for the sake of this article, specifically placing a memorial in an African American community when appropriate); but not the wholesale segregation and relegation of artworks that honor people of color to only communities of color. Reason #2: Laziness The difference between monuments and contemporary artwork seems to escape those in charge of doling out public art to all communities including primarily African American neighborhoods. The desire to make sure that if a community receives only one piece of artwork, ever, that it is something that educates, delights, as well as challenges the intellect, and expands horizons. That can be a tall order and a lot of work that some people aren’t really interested in doing. There are those who serve on art committees as volunteers or those who get paid to coordinate these programs that are half asleep during meetings or mentally out the door when the discussion of these important goals would and could be discussed. I’ve attended some of those meetings where everything is approved without genuine consideration of the community where the art is placed. Anything less than a clear, well thought out determination of whether or not a community of a particular racial demographic needs a monument or memorial is sheer apathy. Reason #3: An Underestimation of the Intellectual Savvy and Prowess of Communities of Color “The general population has a tough enough time simply attempting to decode the meanings buried in contemporary art pieces in museums, why would we put something in an African American community that they couldn’t even begin to understand or that they’d have to interpret, right?” says person who doesn’t believe contemporary art belongs in communities of color. Art isn’t always about comfort. Sometimes it is about education other times it is about vision and seeing a circumstance from a different perspective. No matter how you present it, to say that the entirety of a populace shouldn’t have access to contemporary artwork because it is believed that they won’t be able to understand it is a smidgen bigoted. Everyone deserves art; especially in communities. Public art not only provides a bridge across the art and culture gap that exists in schools but can positively impact a community economically. Any attempt to deprive any demographic racial or economic of the width and breadth of benefits that a spectrum of art can bring to a neighborhood should lay heavy on anyone’s conscience. |