Quotes about prison-industrial-complex
The term "prison-industrial complex" refers to the intricate and often controversial relationship between the government, private industry, and the penal system. This concept highlights how the expansion of the prison system is driven not only by crime rates but also by economic and political interests. It underscores the idea that incarceration has become a business, with profits being made from the construction and operation of prisons, as well as from the labor of inmates. People are drawn to quotes about the prison-industrial complex because they encapsulate the complex emotions and ethical dilemmas surrounding this issue. These quotes often provoke thought and inspire dialogue about justice, human rights, and the societal impacts of mass incarceration. They serve as a powerful reminder of the need for reform and the importance of examining the systems that govern our lives. By engaging with these quotes, individuals can gain a deeper understanding of the systemic issues at play and reflect on the broader implications for society.
Prison is a wound we keep tucked in those parts of the country that can’t afford to turn it away, who need its jobs or revenue, who must endure the quiet violence of its physical presence—its “Don’t Pick Up Hitchhikers” warning signs, its barbed fences—the same way a place must endure the removal of its mountaintops and the plundering of its seams: because a powerful rhetoric insists we can only be delivered from our old scars by tolerating new ones.
In 1972, fewer than 350,000 people were being held in prisons and jails nationwide, compared with more than 2 million people today (10),
Many of the forms of discrimination that relegated African Americans to an inferior caste during Jim Crow continue to apply to huge segments of the black population today—provided they are first labeled felons.
And maybethere are smallcracks in our wallsand we start to seea sliver of lightshine throughin each other
When you find yourself in dark places, there's always a light somewhere in that darkness, and even if that light is inside of you, you can illuminate your own darkness by shedding that light on the world.
Moreover, it is not merely a matter of a few white people being sadistic; whiteness as a category is, in part, maintained by ritualized violence against black people and white consumption of spectacularized images of antiblack violence. (pgs. 91-92)
The existing criminal justice model poses two main questions in the face of social harm: Who did it? How can we punish them? (And increasingly, how can we make money from it?). Creating safe and healthy communities requires a different set of questions: Who was harmed? How can we facilitate healing? How can we prevent such harm in the future? --S. Lamble
In other words, their [police] survival and expansion becomes bound up with their capacity to use the police power and the court system to loot residents. (pgs. 21-22)
This is central to the development of feminist abolitionist theories and practices: we have to learn how to think and act and struggle against that which is ideologically constituted as "normal".