4 ms·

U.S. jails/prisons are designed specifically to make the inmate's life as miserable as they are allowed to by law. Trust me, if jails/prisons could ban books or

U.S. jails/prisons are designed specifically to make the inmate's life as miserable as they are allowed to by law. Trust me, if jails/prisons could ban books or commissary, they would. What you describe is what the Swedish prison system is all about. https://mic.com/articles/109138/sweden-has-done-for-its-prisoners-what-the-u-s-won-t#.mQMRZKmf6 https://mic.com/articles/109138/sweden-has-done-for-its-pris.... This is a system designed to make people not only pay for their crimes but to help them rehabilitate and reintegrate into society. Pretty much the polar opposite of the US system of mass incarceration with a revolving door attached to the end.

throw1257 9y ago
Maybe this is a good thing.
tuxxy 9y ago
>if jails/prisons could ban books... They sorta have. If you want to send a book to an inmate, it must be paperback, must be brand new, and shipped from the retailer. The books cannot have "controversial" material. I've heard of some tech books getting rejected because of "hacking". I know all of this because I have participated in my local Anarchist Black Cross events which is a prison abolition group. Often times, we would hear about some of the prisoners we wrote to having to undergo solitary confinement for some amount of time for minor rule violations. The US prison system as a form of rehabilitation is a cruel joke. Prisoners are treated as scum the moment they enter with no rights. Worse, when prisoners leave, they expect the inmates to adjust back to life normally while employers can discriminate against the former inmates, and the government still treats them like scum. Often times, former inmates can't even rent housing anymore and political/social elites act so surprised that homelessness is on the rise.
- kolpa 9y ago
  The US prison system is largely a loophole to recreate slavery without violating the letter of the 13th Amendment. http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/gilmoreprisonslavery.html http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/gilmoreprisonslavery...
  - jnbiche 9y ago
    Despite black Americans being incarcerated at greater rates than white Americans, there are far more white Americans incarcerated than there are black Americans. So if the objective was to re-create slavery, they did a very poor job out of it. No, our prison system hurts all races: white, black, Asian, native, etc. And sadly -- because of the racism prevalent in US society -- if we want true prison reform, we have to educate people that prison affects all communities, and not just communities of color. Because there will never be reform as long as around 30% of America's white population believes that prison mainly hurts black people. Just like it took heroin to finally wake white Americans up to the fact that the drug war is hurting us all, so we must find a way to wake people up to the fact that the prison system is terrible burden to us all. Repeating the false claim that prison is primarily a black problem only prolongs the problem.
    - r00fus 9y ago
      Slavery isn't entirely synonymous with racism. Just mostly so. The elite need their lower class.
      - isleyaardvark 9y ago
        Yep, racism came later. Racism developed to justify slavery. Slavery didn't come into being due to racism.
    - aseipp 9y ago
      OP never said anything about race or incarceration statistics -- he just said the prison system is a mechanism to recreate slavery. To Americans, the word "slave" has a very, very particular meaning -- revolving around the nature and history of black people in our country. But it should not, and can not, not be divorced from the abstract concept of what slavery is. Slavery is about power, and slaves come in many forms and fashions. And if you forget that, you'll be made a slave yourself. You don't have to be in chains to be one. This is what OP is referring to -- not that prisons and their systems seek to reintroduce "black american slavery", but to reintroduce, and normalize, the abstract concept of 'slavery' in society, all on its own. That's much more dangerous. You see it in a lot of places where people talk about the lives prisoners lived, during and after release -- go check the comments on any news article. You'll see how many people think it is "just" that said convict has their entire being and life crushed. That it's good, good that they're a slave, in return for the crimes they committed. This isn't really very different from what you're saying, in a sense -- that everyone is set back when we lose track of these things. But the difference between "slave" meaning "black american slaves" and "slave as a concept" is an important distinction to draw. There's an important ontological gap, there. Frederick Douglass took note of this well over 150 years ago: > The power of the antebellum slaveholding class, after all, resided not only in its direct domination of black slaves, but in its ability to divide and exploit an even larger multiracial working class. Douglass knew how well this system worked from bitter personal experience: As a hired slave in Baltimore, he was assaulted by white dockworkers with bricks and handspikes. Yet he remained clearheaded about who benefited from this racial violence. As he wrote in 1855: “The slaveholders, with a craftiness peculiar to themselves, by encouraging the enmity of the poor, laboring white man against the blacks, succeeds in making the said white man almost as much a slave as the black slave himself…. Both are plundered, and by the same plunderers.” https://www.thenation.com/article/the-enduring-struggle/ https://www.thenation.com/article/the-enduring-struggle/
- songshu 9y ago
  In addition to the general prohibitions, Texas have an explicit list of banned books. Reproductions of it have appeared in the media but there is no way of knowing the current up to date list. And many states claim that book deliveries are a source of contraband and impose restrictions on them (max 2 books at a time etc)
tropo 9y ago
If you don't lock criminals away in miserable conditions, victims and their family members turn toward private punishment. People will get revenge. It can be official, with a proper trial and all, or it can be unofficial, with the victim's family dishing out whatever sort of justice they prefer. The whole reason for a criminal justice system is to satisfy people who would otherwise take matters into their own hands. There are a heck of a lot of people who would do it, and nearly every potential victim has a family member who would insist on doing the dirty work.
- brokenmachine 9y ago
  Most US prisoners are there because of victimless drug crimes.

throw1257 9y ago

Maybe this is a good thing.

tuxxy 9y ago

>if jails/prisons could ban books... They sorta have. If you want to send a book to an inmate, it must be paperback, must be brand new, and shipped from the retailer. The books cannot have "controversial" material. I've heard of some tech books getting rejected because of "hacking". I know all of this because I have participated in my local Anarchist Black Cross events which is a prison abolition group. Often times, we would hear about some of the prisoners we wrote to having to undergo solitary confinement for some amount of time for minor rule violations. The US prison system as a form of rehabilitation is a cruel joke. Prisoners are treated as scum the moment they enter with no rights. Worse, when prisoners leave, they expect the inmates to adjust back to life normally while employers can discriminate against the former inmates, and the government still treats them like scum. Often times, former inmates can't even rent housing anymore and political/social elites act so surprised that homelessness is on the rise.

kolpa 9y ago
The US prison system is largely a loophole to recreate slavery without violating the letter of the 13th Amendment. http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/gilmoreprisonslavery.html http://www.historyisaweapon.com/defcon1/gilmoreprisonslavery...
- jnbiche 9y ago
  Despite black Americans being incarcerated at greater rates than white Americans, there are far more white Americans incarcerated than there are black Americans. So if the objective was to re-create slavery, they did a very poor job out of it. No, our prison system hurts all races: white, black, Asian, native, etc. And sadly -- because of the racism prevalent in US society -- if we want true prison reform, we have to educate people that prison affects all communities, and not just communities of color. Because there will never be reform as long as around 30% of America's white population believes that prison mainly hurts black people. Just like it took heroin to finally wake white Americans up to the fact that the drug war is hurting us all, so we must find a way to wake people up to the fact that the prison system is terrible burden to us all. Repeating the false claim that prison is primarily a black problem only prolongs the problem.
  - r00fus 9y ago
    Slavery isn't entirely synonymous with racism. Just mostly so. The elite need their lower class.
    - isleyaardvark 9y ago
      Yep, racism came later. Racism developed to justify slavery. Slavery didn't come into being due to racism.
  - aseipp 9y ago
    OP never said anything about race or incarceration statistics -- he just said the prison system is a mechanism to recreate slavery. To Americans, the word "slave" has a very, very particular meaning -- revolving around the nature and history of black people in our country. But it should not, and can not, not be divorced from the abstract concept of what slavery is. Slavery is about power, and slaves come in many forms and fashions. And if you forget that, you'll be made a slave yourself. You don't have to be in chains to be one. This is what OP is referring to -- not that prisons and their systems seek to reintroduce "black american slavery", but to reintroduce, and normalize, the abstract concept of 'slavery' in society, all on its own. That's much more dangerous. You see it in a lot of places where people talk about the lives prisoners lived, during and after release -- go check the comments on any news article. You'll see how many people think it is "just" that said convict has their entire being and life crushed. That it's good, good that they're a slave, in return for the crimes they committed. This isn't really very different from what you're saying, in a sense -- that everyone is set back when we lose track of these things. But the difference between "slave" meaning "black american slaves" and "slave as a concept" is an important distinction to draw. There's an important ontological gap, there. Frederick Douglass took note of this well over 150 years ago: > The power of the antebellum slaveholding class, after all, resided not only in its direct domination of black slaves, but in its ability to divide and exploit an even larger multiracial working class. Douglass knew how well this system worked from bitter personal experience: As a hired slave in Baltimore, he was assaulted by white dockworkers with bricks and handspikes. Yet he remained clearheaded about who benefited from this racial violence. As he wrote in 1855: “The slaveholders, with a craftiness peculiar to themselves, by encouraging the enmity of the poor, laboring white man against the blacks, succeeds in making the said white man almost as much a slave as the black slave himself…. Both are plundered, and by the same plunderers.” https://www.thenation.com/article/the-enduring-struggle/ https://www.thenation.com/article/the-enduring-struggle/
songshu 9y ago
In addition to the general prohibitions, Texas have an explicit list of banned books. Reproductions of it have appeared in the media but there is no way of knowing the current up to date list. And many states claim that book deliveries are a source of contraband and impose restrictions on them (max 2 books at a time etc)

tropo 9y ago

If you don't lock criminals away in miserable conditions, victims and their family members turn toward private punishment. People will get revenge. It can be official, with a proper trial and all, or it can be unofficial, with the victim's family dishing out whatever sort of justice they prefer. The whole reason for a criminal justice system is to satisfy people who would otherwise take matters into their own hands. There are a heck of a lot of people who would do it, and nearly every potential victim has a family member who would insist on doing the dirty work.

brokenmachine 9y ago
Most US prisoners are there because of victimless drug crimes.