WICKED PROBLEM - INFORMATIVE REPORT
Jazive Quinenoz
Yudith Villegas
Wicked Prisons
I. Introduction
Wicked is not the formal way to describe prison facilities b
II. History
A. Earliest way of imprisonment
Prisons and Imprisonment in the Ancient World: Punishments Used to Maintain Public Order | Ancient Origins Mesopotamian civilization. In the oldest known surviving law code, the Code of Ur-Nammu. Mesopotamians had a preference for the use of criminals for forced labor. For more severe crimes, the Assyrians were also known to use capital punishment. Buddhist temples were expected to be built close to prisons, which some scholars believe was as a means to help rehabilitate criminals. Ancient China, for example, its legal system was dominated by the school of Legalism. According to the teachings of Legalism, punishment for all crimes had to be universal as well as harsh. Prisons in ancient Greece were normally used to house criminals condemned to die. One of the most famous prisons of the ancient world, the Mamertine Prison, can be found in Rome
A Brief History of Prisons from Antiquity to Modern Times – The Martin Pollins Blog
B. Colonialism
The first actual prison is the Massachusetts state prison that opened in 1785, just after the American Revolution. Then came Connecticut in 1790 and Pennsylvania in 1794. Those are the first three state prisons in the world.Factory-style labor was an integral element of the Auburn prison model, named after the state prison in upstate New York. This 1890 photo shows women in a sewing workshop there. That model has had lasting effects on the design of modern penal institutions ( The Invention of Incarceration - JSTOR Daily )
From Slavery to Cells: The Origins of America’s Prison Industry Black Codes, crime to be unemployed, loiter, fail to show proof of employment. The result was a surge in arrests and incarceration, providing a steady labor force for private interests and state projects. “Convict leasing system”, renting incarcerated people to private companies for profit. War on Drugs. 1980s rise of private prison
III. Racism/ Discrimination
A. Minority Differences
a. Studies have shown that Black & Hispanic individuals are more likely to be stopped, searched and arrested by police as opposed to white people. This racism system leads to the increase of convictions and incarceration rates for the people of color.
IV. Immigration Centers. Concentration Camps
A. “Illegal Aliens” and Criminal Agents
1. Reports of physical and sexual abuse againist detainess, including childrent and pregnanat women.
2. Medical care is rejected and detainees have to face conditions that can be life threatening.
ALLIGATOR ALCATRAZ
V. Violence and Abuse
A. Beatings, stabings, rape, death
1. Mexico: Torture feeds corruption
B. Gangs
C. Corrupt Guards
1. Guards making prisoners pay weekly to monthly allowances that are kept to her own benefit. Guards allow certain prisons to become cell guards of units and also allow them to take money alliances from other prisoners..(S1E1 - Honduras) 700+ Prisoners with a cell that was made for 7 but accommodates for 22 inmates sharing vertical beds.
D. Solitary Cofinement
VI. Prison Conditions
A. Overpopulation
1. A Philippine rural prison built for 100 people occupies 500 now, 500. 160 people, 24 beds
B. Gang Affiliation
1. Philippines prison (S1E4) gangs force new inmates to join or do chores
2. How Gangs Took Over Prisons - The Atlantic
C. Illnesses
1. Tuberculosis and other airborne diseases
a) Philippine rural, given no medicine
D. Repeated Cycle
1. Prison is an escape from outside world
2. Homelessness
VII. Profit Maximization
A. How much is spent on inmates
B. How much is made per inmate
C. Wetlands
VIII. Rehabilitation Centers
A. Examples around the world
B. Therapy, group sessions
C. Drugs replacing drugs
IX. Against and Pro Prison Argument
A.
B. Prison Abolition Movement
1. Instead of Prisons Nine Perspectives for Prison Abolitionists
2. Angela Davis
a) Angela Davis on the argument for police and prison abolition | UpFront “What does it mean to have real safety, real security, free education, healthcare?” “What would it mean to not call the police when someone is in a psychotic episode, rather call a different kind of agency where they would approach the person with compassion and assistance and not guns.
X. Conclusion
Resources
e-Reader | Preventing Prison Violence | An Ecological Perspective | Ar
Colonialism, Settler Colonialism, and Embodying Violence
An example of this can be found in Canada, where the Canadian government instilled what was called the pass system, which limited First Nations peoples from leaving their reserves. If they were found to be off reserve without a pass signed by the local Indian agent (government official), they could be fined or jailed. As such, we begin to see how Indigenous bodies began to be controlled by the state through laws and justice policies (Barron, 1988). These laws and policies were based on racialised perceptions where Indigenous Peoples were constructed as violent, leading to the development of a culture of terror (Taussig, 2008) directed towards Indigenous Peoples.
Among its causes are social injustice, health issues and inequality, poverty, mental, neuropsychological and biological conditions, lack of education, impaired cognitive abilities, trauma, substance abuse, poor childhood conditions and environment
Drug abuse and addiction often go hand in hand. The Prison Policy Initiative reports that, in 2017, one incarcerated person in five faced a drug charge. Of those people, 456,000 were held for a nonviolent drug offense, including possession.
· People who need medical care, help managing their disabilities, mental health and addiction treatment, and suicide prevention are denied care, ignored, punished, and placed in solitary confinement. And despite growing bipartisan support for criminal justice reform, the private prison industry continues to block meaningful proposals.2
Studies show that people held in long-term solitary confinement suffer from anxiety, paranoia, perceptual disturbances, and deep depression. Nationwide, suicides among people held in isolation account for almost 50% of all prison suicides, even though less than 8% of the prison population is in isolation.6
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ProQuest Ebook Central - Reader
Dow, M. (2004). American gulag : Inside u. s. immigration prisons. University of California Press.