Money, Politics, and the Prison System

Midterm Review February 17, 2016

Nikhita Jain and Marius Young

Are Prisons Obsolete? By Angela Davis

• Davis’s main argument:• Privatized prisons are working as a catalyst to

continue the ideologies that closely relate to slavery

• Davis’s research and data: • Sentencing Project’s study in 1995 found that

1 in 3 black men between ages 20-29 are in prison or jail (over 800,000 black men)

Are Prisons Obsolete?By Angela Davis

• How did the United States choose incarceration?• (Hint: consider the history, other types of

punishment, rise of capitalism) 43

• Why does Angela Davis call herself and people who share her ideology abolitionists?107• (Hint: Prison systems connections to slavery, )

Serving LifeDirected by Lisa Cohen

• Where is Angola and what is the significance of this location?• Louisiana • Reputation as the most violent prison

• What are the Warden’s Goals?• Humanize prisoners

• What motivates the inmates?• What is good about the hospice program and

what is not good (if anything)?

Race to Incarcerate by Marc Mauer

• Three Strikes Laws• Three felony sentences and life without parole

• Role of War on Drugs• Reagan (1981-1989) • Blame the individual, not society • Mandatory sentencing for drug crimes was a way to bring crime

under federal jurisdiction

• Why did the US get in to the “race to incarcerate”• (Hint: media sensationalism of crime, mandatory sentencing,

response to baby boomer generation, privatization of prisons)

• What drove the need to put bodies behind bars?• ( Hint: Prison Industrial Complex, Commoditization of bodies)

Into the AbyssDirected by Werner Herzog

• What was revealed about the execution process in Texas?• Executions take 9 minutes of suffering to complete.

They can take up to 10 years to be processed for execution*

• What crimes had been committed?• (hint: murder and theft explain…)

• How old was the inmate who was getting executed?• (hint: he was 18 at the time of the crime.)

• What do you think Herzog was trying to say?• Herzog is trying to explain how inhumane it is to

sentence people to the death penalty

Money, Politics, and the Prison System

Midterm Review February 17, 2016

Nikhita Jain and Marius Young