Catherine Portacio
Introduction to Constitutional Law
Dr. Beahm
In the United States alone there are just about 2 million people currently incarcerated; that is more than 20 percent of the entire global imprisoned population. Angela Y. Davis is a professor of history of consciousness at the University of California who shows, in her book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, how alarming the US prison system situation isn’t as old as one average individual may think. Just about 30 years ago the entire prison population stood nearly at 200,000 people in the US; that is a tenfold hurdle in just one generation. Davis started off by explaining the drastic change in the number of prisons built in California; 3 prisons were built between 1852 and 1952; from 1984 to the present, over 80 facilities were constructed which now house about 160,000 people. According to Davis imprisonment has become an ordinary dimension of community life for men in working-class, Black, Latino, Native American and a slight percentage of Asian Americans, it has also become a continuous increasing issue for women in society.
Davis points out astonishing facts of the involvement of inmates in prison construction, …show more content…
Her book may not outline the maneuvers of prison systems as much as other books, but her work demonstrates a deep analysis and statistical evidence as well as the understandings of society’s movement in the minimal amount of chapters and pages provided in this book. Her deep opinion and extensive research is viewed as a powerful look at incarceration; one that reveals much about my own perceptions of incarceration and criminal justice. However, the book left me thinking about these issues that were presented but I wanted to get past the problems and read more about the ideas for change that could perhaps help move past prison institutions and create something
Introduction to Constitutional Law
Dr. Beahm
In the United States alone there are just about 2 million people currently incarcerated; that is more than 20 percent of the entire global imprisoned population. Angela Y. Davis is a professor of history of consciousness at the University of California who shows, in her book, Are Prisons Obsolete?, how alarming the US prison system situation isn’t as old as one average individual may think. Just about 30 years ago the entire prison population stood nearly at 200,000 people in the US; that is a tenfold hurdle in just one generation. Davis started off by explaining the drastic change in the number of prisons built in California; 3 prisons were built between 1852 and 1952; from 1984 to the present, over 80 facilities were constructed which now house about 160,000 people. According to Davis imprisonment has become an ordinary dimension of community life for men in working-class, Black, Latino, Native American and a slight percentage of Asian Americans, it has also become a continuous increasing issue for women in society.
Davis points out astonishing facts of the involvement of inmates in prison construction, …show more content…
Her book may not outline the maneuvers of prison systems as much as other books, but her work demonstrates a deep analysis and statistical evidence as well as the understandings of society’s movement in the minimal amount of chapters and pages provided in this book. Her deep opinion and extensive research is viewed as a powerful look at incarceration; one that reveals much about my own perceptions of incarceration and criminal justice. However, the book left me thinking about these issues that were presented but I wanted to get past the problems and read more about the ideas for change that could perhaps help move past prison institutions and create something