We Are Responsible for the Prison Industrial Complex

[damnedifIknow]

I have been thinking a lot about violence at the hands of the state -- the police state we have become -- and the prison industrial complex (PIC) that we've developed. And since I work in higher education, I have been thinking especially of everyday abolition in the college setting. Police violence has become more acceptable to us, reinforced by the training we get in school. To abolish the PIC, we must change our daily interactions and ways of being. And we cannot just tweet about abolition. We need to live it."

*On Last Week Tonight John Oliver had a segment about municipal fines. The core of his argument was that fines and punishment for minor crimes are part of living in community. Oliver says he's not advocating that minor offenses go unpunished, but that we should have the "right to fuck up once in a while without completely destroying our lives." He describes the "fuck barrel" as a system of fines added when someone is unable to pay the original fine, which might land the person in jail for failure to pay the fines. My question is, why are we ok with these fines for minor infractions in the first place? Do municipal fines make our communities safer? Do police make our communities safer?

Incite! reminds us to always ask, "How do we commit to an ongoing development of all members of the community, and the community itself, to transforming the political conditions that reinforce oppression and violence?" For me, without this community transformation, abolishing the PIC is not possible."

Here are some examples that range over a wide field of harmful patterns of thought and actions that contribute to the prison industrial complex:

"Calling out" instead of calling into dialogue and accountability about harmful speech and actions.
Teaching children that some people are "bad people" instead of teaching that it is the actions that are harmful, not the humanity of the person.
Our calls for more police instead of better education and greater equity.
Punishing drug use instead of setting up better resources to end poverty, like livable wages!
Hostile communication with neighbors about such matters as their dog wandering.
Misogynistic and sexist language
Labeling people "aliens"
Outsourcing labor "we" don't want to do

Questioning and changing these everyday patterns will help set up stronger and safer communities, one step in working towards a world without cages. "

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/justin-adkins/everyday-abolition-we-are-responsible-for-the-prison-industrial-complex_b_6952198.html

[marym625]

1. K&R!

Good post.

Good luck. Last time I posted "we are responsible" got my ass whooped.

[damnedifIknow]

2. All part of living in the "fuck barrel" I suppose

Never thought of it that way until now.

[marym625]

3. hmm.

Don't know exactly what you mean

[Cheese Sandwich]

4. I feel like the people responsible for the Prison Industrial Complex are specific people...

...and specific organizations, with names and addresses.

So it's like for-profit prison companies, police unions, prison guard unions, prison construction contractors, ya know like people who give money to politicians to keep the prison industry rolling. People who try to keep the war on drugs going too, people who try to block reforms. Probably like the alcohol companies and pharmaceutical companies, and people who work in the drug enforcement bureaucracy. Also a lot of the lawyers and judges too, the people in the criminal justice system who serve themselves or turn a blind eye to the many problems.

And of course the politicians who protect all these special interest groups by setting the laws.

Personally I don't feel responsible for the prison industrial complex at all, or that I did anything to contribute to a culture that causes it. Maybe only responsible for not protesting enough.

But there is something wrong in the culture though and that is when people and especially the news media treat law enforcement like saints and instead of scrutinizing their actions.