Week Four, Post Two (Synthesis & Connection)

When literacy became more and more common, so did convict writing in prisons throughout the country. Often times, these writings were used for religious purposes to teach people what life as a sinner would look like, but eventually, it was also used for financial gain as there was an overwhelming fascination from communities surrounding what life like a prisoner was like and what the people who did end up in prison were like. Were they human like everyone else? What was different? These writings inevitably began to expose the prisoner’s humanity as well as the conditions they were forced to live in, and for that reason, people in power began to work to constrict their speech. Early prison writings (starting in the 17th century) included execution accounts, last words, and final warnings. Some writings included experiences in jail, and some had a religious tone and purpose in them. Unfortunately, many inmates were still illiterate, and could not tell their story. For those who could, people in power limited them to only communicate with few people of whom they permitted and worked hard to keep them from documenting their lives in prison.
Eventually, there was a decrease in limitations on prisoner expression and writing. William Coffey is famous for his 1823 public expose on prison life, accounting for the experience of both himself and others around him. He wrote that it was to be used for public utility and wanted the world to hear the story. One account of a prisoner explains that there are three key things to remember about the prison system: the experience is not personal, but collectively endured, that the conditions are openly supported by the public and the people in power, and that no one knows how each individual’s experience affects them specifically. Reed, a black man living in prison made the connection in the 1850’s that prisons were the new plantations and that those in prison became a whole new/different population of people in society.
Most interestingly, prison worked as a system of population control. Black codes were set in place, creating laws specifically for black people than white people did not have to abide by, which created a “neo-slave” narrative throughout the United States. It is this concept that helped Michelle Alexander coin the prison system of mass-incarceration as the New Jim Crow. In reality, the prison system simply prioritizes the caging and exploitation of bodies, and the narrative of prisoners and criminals were read and sold as “adventure stories” in order to further turn a profit off of their hindered existence instead of the protest literature it was meant to be.
The way that the prison system works to hinder the speech of prisoners and target the black population specifically connects directly back to the overarching theme of justice as it shows a lack of justice through the system that was built specifically to embody it. The prison system is supposed to bring justice to communities and the individuals that have committed crimes through rehabilitation, but in reality, it has been proven time and time again throughout this week's learning that it is instead used for profit and race-based population control instead.