Are prisons obsolete?

Davis, Angela Y. (Angela Yvonne) 1944- (author.).

Summary: From the Publisher: Amid rising public concern about the proliferation and privatization of prisons, and their promise of enormous profits, world-renowned author and activist Angela Y. Davis argues for the abolition of the prison system as the dominant way of responding to America's social ills. "In thinking about the possible obsolescence of the prison," Davis writes, "we should ask how it is that so many people could end up in prison without major debates regarding the efficacy of incarceration." Whereas Reagan-era politicians with "tough on crime" stances argued that imprisonment and longer sentences would keep communities free of crime, history has shown that the practice of mass incarceration during that period has had little or no effect on official crime rates: in fact, larger prison populations led not to safer communities but to even larger prison populations. As we make our way into the twenty-first century-two hundred years after the invention of the penitentiary-the question of prison abolition has acquired an unprecedented urgency. Backed by growing numbers of prisons and prisoners, Davis analyzes these institutions in the U.S., arguing that the very future of democracy depends on our ability to develop radical theories and practices that make it possible to plan and fight for a world beyond the prison industrial complex.

Record details

ISBN: 116643656X
ISBN: 9781166436568
ISBN: 9781583225813
ISBN: 1583225811
ISBN: 1609801040
ISBN: 9781609801045
Physical Description: 1 online resource (128 pages)
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Publisher: New York : Seven Stories Press, [2003]
Copyright: ©2003

Content descriptions

Bibliography, etc. Note:	Includes bibliographical references (pages 119-127).
Formatted Contents Note:	Acknowledgments -- 1: Introduction: Prison reform or prison abolition? -- 2: Slavery, civil rights, and abolitionist perspectives toward prison -- 3: Imprisonment and reform -- 4: How gender structures the prison system -- 5: Prison industrial complex -- 6: Abolitionist alternatives -- Resources -- Notes -- About the author.
Restrictions on Access Note:	Restrictions unspecified
Reproduction Note:	Electronic reproduction. [Place of publication not identified] : HathiTrust Digital Library, 2019.
System Details Note:	Master and use copy. Digital master created according to Benchmark for Faithful Digital Reproductions of Monographs and Serials, Version 1. Digital Library Federation, December 2002. http://purl.oclc.org/DLF/benchrepro0212
Action Note:	digitized 2019 HathiTrust Digital Library committed to preserve
Source of Description Note:	Print version record.