{"id":163215,"date":"2021-05-14T08:50:14","date_gmt":"2021-05-14T08:50:14","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.counterpunch.org\/?p=135771"},"modified":"2021-05-14T08:50:14","modified_gmt":"2021-05-14T08:50:14","slug":"13-facts-about-american-prisons-that-will-blow-your-mind","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/2021\/05\/14\/13-facts-about-american-prisons-that-will-blow-your-mind\/","title":{"rendered":"13 Facts About American Prisons That Will Blow Your Mind"},"content":{"rendered":"

In a few minutes time you\u2019ll want to abolish prisons. If you\u2019re not ready for that intellectual and emotional transformation, then please stop reading now. Or put on your\u00a0thunder shirt<\/a>.<\/p>\n

If you grew up in the United States, like I did, then you probably think prisons are a fact of life. We just go through our day-to-day assuming that a huge chunk our population must be hardened criminals (which is very different from\u00a0hard criminals<\/em>: scalawags involved in burgling while aroused) and that without prisons these delinquents would be running everywhere, breaking things, kicking squirrels in the face, and urinating in your car window while you\u2019re at a stoplight. We just assume prisons have been around forever \u2014 as if back in caveman times they had one of the caves walled off with sticks and vines where they kept Blartho because he was a real a-hole.<\/p>\n

Yet, the truth is that large prisons were not a thing in America or really anywhere in the world until the 1800s. That\u2019s the first in this list of 13 facts about American prisons that will blow your mind. (Pared down and adjusted from my previous list of 1,234 facts about American prisons that will give you liver damage.)<\/p>\n

Number 1 \u2013 Prisons are relatively new.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The earliest penitentiary in America was\u00a0Walnut Street Prison<\/a>\u00a0in Philadelphia, which opened in 1773. Even in Europe before that time \u2014 despite having a few dungeons where they had one or two guys they really hated sitting there for 40 years, living off termite stew \u2014 there were no jails holding millions or even thousands of people. This means that in the history of humanity, locking large percentages of your population in a penitentiary ranks as a rather new advent. We lived hundreds of thousands of years without doing it, and somehow we got by. Prisons are kinda like nuclear weapons and nipple clamps: We\u2019ve gone basically the entirety of human history without them, but now that they\u2019re here, we think we\u00a0must\u00a0<\/em>have them or all is lost.<\/p>\n

Number 2 \u2013 Prisons and capitalism go hand-in-hand.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Angela Davis makes the point in her book\u00a0Are Prisons Obsolete?<\/em><\/a>\u00a0that the exponential growth of prisons correlated with the rise of industrial capitalism, which began around the 1830s. Once a man\u2019s worth was measured in labor hours, taking that away from him could be viewed as a punishment. Furthermore, even though prisons became common during the 1800s and 1900s, America didn\u2019t become the world\u2019s largest prison state until the 1980s. (Ronald Reagan and the racist Drug War truly are the gifts that keep on giving.)<\/p>\n

Before the 19th century, there were other punishments for breaking laws. This is not to say that 40 lashes for stealing a loaf of bread is the\u00a0correct\u00a0<\/em>punishment, but if you were to ask modern day prisoners if they would prefer five years behind bars living in a bunk bed with a gassy roommate named Lars or 40 lashes, I bet 90% would take the whip.<\/p>\n

We act as if we\u2019re morally superior to those who came before us, but shall we not consider that locking someone away for 20 or 50 years is 100 times\u00a0worse<\/em>\u00a0than some whipping? I\u2019m not saying let\u2019s start beating the shit out of everyone who runs a stop sign. I\u2019m saying that a truly moral society would find alternative punishments, such as community service, instead of destroying lives.<\/p>\n

Number 3 \u2013 The Land of The Free holds 22% of the world\u2019s prisoners.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Two-point-three million people now inhabit U.S. prisons every year out of a global total of nine million. That means 22% of the world\u2019s prisoners are in the Land of The Free. The U.S. is the\u00a0largest prison state<\/a>\u00a0in the world (which means we\u2019re also the largest prison state in the galaxy) with\u00a0698 prisoners per 100,000<\/a>\u00a0people. According to a\u00a0report published by The Institute for Criminal Policy Research (ICPR) in 2018<\/a>, the next closest country is El Salvador at 572 per hundred thousand. Some other countries of note: Rwanda has 511 per hundred thousand, Russia has 331, and China has 121 per 100,000. So next time someone tells you we need to place sanctions on China because they don\u2019t treat their people well, you might want to mention that China has essentially one-fifth the imprisonment rate of the U.S. As a wise man once said, \u201cHe who has stones shouldn\u2019t throw glass houses.\u201d \u2026Don\u2019t quote me on that.<\/p>\n

Number 4 \u2013 Prisons are Slavery 2.0.<\/strong><\/p>\n

It may seem like the complexity of prisons and their interconnectedness with our societal fabric make them intractably crucial\u2014one cannot even\u00a0imagine\u00a0<\/em>a society without human cages\u2014but there have been other institutions in America\u2019s past that seemed crucial. Many thought society could not function without slavery. It turned out \u2014 wait for it \u2014 we could. (Another example is chamber pots. We thought we couldn\u2019t live without those, but it turns out shitting in a soup bowl by your bed is not the best plan.)<\/p>\n

So when America first ended slavery, the people accustomed to owning slaves exclaimed, \u201cWhy I dare say, I don\u2019t fancy this one bit! I need an incredibly cheap form of labor that I can heavily abuse and for which I\u2019ll not pay a buffalo penny!\u201d Well, guess where they found their new slaves? Prisons. Which brings us to:<\/p>\n

Number 5 \u2013 The 13th Amendment to the Constitution ended slavery and\u00a0<\/strong>legalized<\/em><\/strong>\u00a0it.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The 13th amendment has a big, juicy loophole.\u00a0It reads<\/a>, \u201cNeither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States.\u201d That \u201cexcept\u201d has impacted millions of lives for the worse.<\/p>\n

As Davis\u00a0wrote<\/a>, \u201cSouthern states hastened to develop a criminal justice system that could legally restrict the possibilities of freedom for newly released slaves. Black people became the prime targets of a developing convict lease system, referred to by many as a reincarnation of slavery. \u2026 [Authorities often declared unlawful anyone who was] guilty of theft, had run away [from a job, apparently], was drunk, was wanton in conduct or speech, had neglected job or family, handled money carelessly, and . . . all other idle and disorderly persons.\u201d<\/p>\n

So Black folks found themselves imprisoned for behaviors that usually weren\u2019t illegal and that white people often partook in freely. I can verify that 53% of my white friends are regularly idle. (In fact, it\u2019s their defining characteristic.) And how many white people are careless with money? I heard Charlie Sheen once gave a guy $10,000 in exchange for $9,000.<\/p>\n

Point being \u2014 authorities arrested people of color for non-crimes and then threw them in prison where they could be bought for pennies in the convict lease program. Why does this sound familiar? Oh, that\u2019s right. It basically continues to this day.<\/p>\n

Number 6 \u2013 Prison Labor Continues Today<\/strong><\/p>\n

Currently inmates are still used for jobs like\u00a0sewing \u201cMade in America\u201d labels<\/a>\u00a0on clothing that\u2019s not made in America or\u00a0fighting California<\/a>\u00a0wildfires because the state only has to pay them $3 per day. State officials generally claim such programs are different from the convict lease program of the 1800s in the same way the people behind\u00a0Firecracker pops<\/a>\u00a0claim they\u2019re different from\u00a0Bomb Pops<\/a>. We know they\u2019re the same goddamn thing. I know sugar water mixed with red-40 when I taste it!<\/p>\n

The U.S. differs from other countries. Since most other countries didn\u2019t have to solve their \u201cBlack people problem,\u201d they didn\u2019t need to invent reasons to lock up all the people of color. Therefore in other countries theft, for example, is indeed illegal, but it won\u2019t result in years in prison because then the punishment is morally\u00a0worse\u00a0<\/em>than the crime. Yet, here in the Land of Liberty, you can end up serving\u00a0twenty years<\/em><\/a>\u00a0for stealing\u00a0candy<\/em>. Angela Davis\u00a0points out<\/a>, these false crimes \u201calso served as subterfuge for political revenge. After emancipation, the courtroom became an ideal place to exact racial retribution.In this sense, the work of the criminal justice system was intimately related to the extralegal work of lynching.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other words, the courtroom became the more bureaucratic and polite \/ elite \/ erudite way of lynching people.<\/p>\n

Number 7 \u2013 A few people get filthy rich off of imprisoning millions of people.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Companies collect billions of dollars from the Prison Industrial Complex now, which gives them all the more reason to make sure it keeps going. These companies in turn\u00a0fund many of our politicians<\/a>\u00a0\u2014 both federally and in many states. Some states\u00a0have contracts<\/a>\u00a0with private prisons guaranteeing their prisons will remain up to 90% full. That makes as much sense as having a contract with the fire department guaranteeing a certain number of terrible fires. And it\u2019s not just private prisons \u2014 companies make money from all forms of prisons and jails.<\/p>\n

Number 8 \u2013 Black Americans are the most imprisoned people in the world.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Remember when I said the U.S. has 698 prisoners per 100,000 compared to China having 121? Well, if prison rates of African American were listed in the same way, they would have an incarceration rate of\u00a01,501<\/em>\u00a0per 100,000<\/em><\/a>\u00a0(down from 2,300 a decade ago). Please pause a minute to try to wrap your brain around that number. Black Americans have a rate of imprisonment that is over 12\u00a0TIMES<\/em>\u00a0that of China. One in three Black men between 20 and 29 are in some way subjected to our prison system right now. If prison rates of African Americans were listed alongside countries, they would have the highest rate of any country.<\/p>\n

Let me see if I can simplify this a little. \u2026Our prisons are\u00a0WILDLY\u00a0<\/em>racist.<\/p>\n

Did I clear that up? Our prison system has racist origins, a racist past, a racist present, and a racist future (one can assume). So if you say to yourself, \u201cI think our prison system is working great,\u201d then you\u2019re really saying, \u201cI\u2019m super racist.\u201d<\/p>\n

The inmates in our carceral state are made up of\u00a021% Hispanics and 38% Blacks<\/a>\u00a0even though the American population is only\u00a018% Hispanic and 13% Black<\/a>. Once you add in other non-white races, our insane prisons are filled with over 65% people of color.<\/p>\n

Number 9 \u2013 Police departments have admitted to targeting people of color.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

New York\u2019s\u00a0stop-and-frisk program<\/a>\u00a0is perhaps one of the best known efforts to abduct young men of color who were doing nothing wrong and try to find a reason to put them in jail. So please disabuse yourself of the liberal polite view of policing \u2014 \u201cLet\u2019s arrest this guy for having an open beer. Oh, he\u00a0happens\u00a0<\/em>to be Black.\u201d The way it really works is \u2014 \u201cLet\u2019s arrest this guy for being Black. Oh, he\u00a0happens\u00a0<\/em>to have a beer with him. How convenient for us. It makes the paperwork easier.\u201d New York City is 43% white, but\u00a0only 7% of arrests<\/a>\u00a0for open alcoholic beverages are on white people. (And trust me, as a white guy who used to live in NYC and walk around with open alcoholic beverages all the time, the lack of arrests is not because white people don\u2019t break this law.)<\/p>\n

Number 10 \u2013 Prisons are not about rehabilitation.<\/strong><\/p>\n

The goal of American prisons is no longer rehabilitation (if it ever was). Now their only goal is incapacitation. Many prisons have little to no education programs and very few books. Internet access is often rare or expensive. Current inmate and longtime political prisoner\u00a0Mumia Abu Jamal said<\/a>, \u201cWhat societal interest is served by prisoners who remain illiterate? What social benefit is there in ignorance? How are people corrected while imprisoned if their education is outlawed? Who profits \u2014 other than the prison establishment itself \u2014 from stupid prisoners?\u201d<\/p>\n

Number 11 \u2013 So much for #MeToo.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

While the #MeToo movement has swept across the country, the Prison Industrial Complex not only tolerates sexual assault, it perpetrates it. Female inmates almost always find themselves the victims of strip searches by guards, and often internal searches \u2014 which means exactly what you think it means. Here\u2019s another way to phrase this:\u00a0State-sanctioned sexual assault<\/em>.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s used in much the same way sexual assault has been used over the years \u2014 to make people feel humiliated and powerless. So it\u2019s time to do the same thing to the Prison State that we did to Matt Lauer, Charlie Rose, Les Moonves, and 900 other sleaze balls \u2014\u00a0Cancel it.<\/em><\/p>\n

Number 12 \u2013 Prisoners have long been used for medical research and it is not over.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As Laura Appleman of Willamette University\u00a0wrote<\/a>, \u201cThe standard narrative of human medical experimentation ends abruptly in the 1970s, with the uncovering of the\u00a0Tuskegee syphilis study<\/a>. My research shows, however, that this narrative is incorrect and incomplete. The practice of experimenting on the captive and vulnerable persists.\u201d<\/p>\n

We can all sleep soundly at night knowing that we still have human guinea pigs in this country.<\/p>\n

Number 13 \u2013 The mainstream media gets in on the action too.\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

Corporate media perpetuates the idea that crime is\u00a0always\u00a0<\/em>raging out of control, which then creates a fervor for harsher sentences among both the population and lawmakers. \u201cEven during years<\/a>\u00a0when homicide rates were cut in half, stories about homicides multiplied exponentially,\u201d writes Davis.<\/p>\n

So our media doesn\u2019t just manufacture consent for war, they manufacture consent for our catastrophic prison state.<\/p>\n

I\u2019ll let Angela Davis\u00a0sum this all up<\/a>: \u201cThe prison functions ideologically as an abstract site into which undesirables are deposited\u2026 This is the ideological work that the prison performs \u2014 it relieves us of the responsibility of seriously engaging with the problems of our society, especially those produced by racism and, increasingly, global capitalism.\u201d<\/p>\n

The American prison system is not a way to deal with crime. It\u00a0is<\/em>\u00a0a crime.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a way to deal with harm to society. It\u00a0is\u00a0<\/em>a harm to society.<\/p>\n

One hundred years from now, no one will remember what this particular small-time law-breaker did or that one did, but they\u2019ll remember that the United States was the largest prison state in the world, perpetrating a forever war against our own people.<\/p>\n

The post 13 Facts About American Prisons That Will Blow Your Mind<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n

This post was originally published on CounterPunch.org<\/a>. <\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In a few minutes time you\u2019ll want to abolish prisons. If you\u2019re not ready for that intellectual and emotional transformation, then please stop reading now. Or put on your\u00a0thunder shirt. If you grew up in the United States, like I did, then you probably think prisons are a fact of life. We just go through More<\/a><\/p>\n

The post 13 Facts About American Prisons That Will Blow Your Mind<\/a> appeared first on CounterPunch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":291,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[22],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163215"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/291"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=163215"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163215\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":163345,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/163215\/revisions\/163345"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=163215"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=163215"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/radiofree.asia\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=163215"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}