Week Three, Post Two (Synthesis & Connection)

When beginning to understand the intricacies of the American Prison system, it is first crucial to understand the basic definitions of words that are used often and the impact that they hold. First, the word “prisoner” is defined to be a person deprived of his liberty and kept under involuntary restraint. Second, a “witness” is a person who has personal knowledge of something or something serving as proof. When learning about the effects the American Prison System has on the lives that it touches, it is crucial to understand who is affected. Furthermore, it’s important to know that the United States has the largest prison system on Earth and to get a greater understanding of it, this class will be based on studying the opinions of social scientists, historians, legal scholars, and most importantly, the writings of prisoner’s themselves.
The problem with prisons actually comes in multiple parts. Plato’s opinion includes the thought that the limited perception of man leaves him measuring the world with only the distorted reflection of reality. Prison not only destroys man’s perception of himself, but also his family and the community in which he comes from. The only effective rehabilitation system to be proven is a trifecta of increased visitation and connection with family and friends, quality drug and alcohol treatment, and lastly increased action to high education. The most crucial part of rehabilitation is repentance while still allowing individuals to see themselves as human, which is one of the biggest things that the current prison system is lacking.
The first week of this class was used to explain and understand how prison was adjusted and adapted to be used as racialized population control, the push and pull between rehabilitation ideals, and how, unfortunately, our prison system has faltered more than triumphed.
Prison, in reality, is not natural nor inevitable. Modern-day prison is rooted in slavery and is considered to be the only institution to have never evolved since the 18th century. It was adjusted during the Civil Rights Movement to incarcerate more people of color, but that just proves that our prison system reflects social, economic and political change as opposed to crime rates or types.
Pre-Revolution prisons were made to just be temporary until inmate faced trial and often a fatal punishment because the ideal punishment was considered to be public humiliation, beatings, and hangings. After the Constitution was established, prisons were cleaner, safer, and they had vocational options. However, guards wore felt over their shoes to silence their movements and to further enforce total solitary confinement. This caused extensive mental damage on prisoners.
The South in the 19th Century wasn’t any better, which allowed prisons to implement a convict leasing system after the Civil War. During that time period, all people-of-color were considered one step away from prison, and the prison was used to hurt and keep poor black people from succeeding in their communities. When it came to convicting leasing, many factory owners kept the motto “if one dies, get another”. It is this prison model that best mirrors our current system of mass incarceration.
The 20th-Century prison does not look much better either. It was shifted in an attempt to contain the Civil Rights Movement. 1968-1973 was a time with a lack of consensus regarding rehabilitation, and in this time “prison committed crimes against the criminal”. Prisoners were used to do work on farms, to build roads, and respond to natural disasters. During this time, people began to realize that criminals were adopting behaviors to survive prison, and were brutalized by the environment. It was also during this time that prisoners began to write about their experiences. Lastly and most interestingly, we know through research that education, structured activities, and companionship are crucial parts in maintaining humanity and allowing prison to have a positive impact on people’s lives, yet we still do not implement it.
The new learning from this past week connects to the overarching theme of justice through providing a solid foundation in regards to the history of prison as well as the complexities of theory in regard to how prison can be most effective and whether it should be used to benefit the community or the prisoner (or are those two concepts maybe not as mutually exclusive as they are made out to be?).  Which this theory and history now understood, I can begin reading the writings of prisoners throughout many different time periods and have the proper historical context as to what justice meant in that time and whether or not it was truly fulfilled.