Are Prisons Obsolete?

Description

Since the 1980s prison construction and incarceration rates in the U.S. have been rising exponentially, evoking huge public concern about their proliferation, their recent privatisation and their promise of enormous profits. But these prisons house hugely disproportionate numbers of people of colour, betraying the racism embedded in the system, while studies show that increasing prison sentences has had no effect on crime. Here, esteemed civil rights activist Angela Davis lays bare the situation and argues for a radical rethinking of our rehabilitation programmes.

Angela Davis, a long-time member of the Communist party and the Black Panthers, became only the third woman in history to appear on the FBI's most wanted list. Wrongly charged with taking part in a conspiracy to free George Jackson by arming prisoners in a California courthouse, Davis spent sixteen months behind bars, until her subsequent acquittal on all charges. A Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Davis has been involved in prison activism for the last thirty-five years. She is author of many books, including Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Her new book, forthcoming from Random House, is Prisons and Democracy.

"As useful an exposition of the current dilemmas of the women's movement as one could hope for." - Los Angeles Times Book Review