Mass Incarceration – Abolitionist Perspective

ASSIGNMENT

You will play
the role of a Black Lives Matter transgender abolitionist leader born in the
year 2000 who grew up in Bedford-Stuyvesant (Brooklyn) in the midst of
gentrification.
Bear in mind
that being an abolitionist does not mean to argue for an end of punishment. It
does not mean anybody can do anything and walk away with it. It means that you
believe (1) that the end of slavery is an ongoing, not a finished, process
(many still experience its many legacies) and, (2) that incarceration preserves
the racial hierarchies and ideologies emerged during slavery. It also means
sustaining that the purpose of the penal system is not so much to protect
society from dangerous criminals but rather, to control impoverished racial minorities.
In other
words, what needs to be abolished is not punishment but the social function of imprisonment
as a control system targeting specific racial groups and social classes. If the
prison system really focused on dangerous criminals, it would be visibly
reduced (probably to something like 5% of its current size). Most importantly,
the prison population would no longer respond so strongly to such a specific
racial and class profile.

Your report
will be read in the National Congress, in the context of a debate on criminal
justice reform. Your dream is a world free of racism with equal opportunities
to all. Those who defend the prison system know you are a BLM community
activist and will use that information to disqualify you: your arguments should
be convincing not only for people who think like you but also for those who do
not think like you.

Your report will have a total of 500 words, excluding citations and titles.The format will be similar to the discussion forums (ASA style, introduction, conclusion, etc.)
In the introduction (1 paragraph) you will explain what you will be talking about and mention what kind of sources you will be using to support your findings. Define key terms (such as “mass incarceration”). Provide an outline of what you will discuss, and briefly mention your major argument.
The main body (discussion – 3 paragraphs) will be a presentation and critical interpretation of your major findings. Findings will include at least 3 statistics. Use the qualitative sources to elaborate arguments. Use this section to anticipate counter-arguments.
To conclude (1 paragraph), offer two recommendations of reforms towards de-carceration. You can guide yourself using the question that opens the last chapter of Angela Davis’ book Are Prisons Obsolete?

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