Soc 329 Parenti

Chapters 8-11 Prisons

Parenti focuses on the violence that characterized the early massive growth of prisons as “get tough” policies emerged across the country and how the violence caused by the growth became the pretext for more growth.

The growth of bureaucracy, gangs, and torture has changed the forms of this violence over the last decade and the economic collapse has put a spotlight on prisons again.

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Chap 8 The Rise of Big House Nation

Two sources of the imprisonment binge:

1. The “rational management” of surplus pops

2. By-product of conservative “get tough” policies (plus backlash against prisoners rights

movement)

Attica (1971) as turning point

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Chap 9 Prison as Abattoir

As prisons grew (and partly result of rights backlash)

prison admins sought and got removal of virtually all oversight of prisons – by courts, media, etc.

From conservative point of view, prisoner rights movement

led to riots (like Attica) and reversal required crackdown on prisoners rights (make prison conditions much

worse!) and this was ugly – and hidden from public view

Soc 329 Parenti

As imprisonment grew prisons soon became overcrowded in states across the country -- the numbers of prisoners grew much faster than new prisons were built.

(get tough while cutting taxes)

Admins and guards found that provoking violence among prisoners (usually against each other, but riots worked too) was most effective way to get budget increases.

Something like this also happened with juvie prisons (like the Calif Youth Authority & NY juvie system)The more they deteriorated, the higher the budgets

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Chap 10 Balkans in a Box

Prison management style became divide and conquer

The use of rape to terrorize/divide prisoners --and manipulating race/ethnic/gang conflicts

These institutionalize terror as a way to control prisoners – SHUs are the ultimate torture of prisoners

Racial skewing contributed to this – targeting minorities for high rates of imprisonment

Soc 329 Parenti

The growth of gangs in the US has been largely a by-product of this --

Prisons use race/ethnicity to divide/control prisoners

Prisoners form gangs to defend against violence

Gangs spread to outside when prisoners are released and

become institutionalized in the illicit economies of the badlands – workforce going in and out of prison.

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Chap 11 Prison Industrial Complex?

From NIMBY to begging for prisons -- Why? Some econ revitalization for small towns etc.

Policy: overall not a replacement for military spending

What drives it economically? Usual critical explan: Revitalization? Private prisons? Prison labor?

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Not econ revit - “tiny islands in a sea of stagnation”

Private prisons - inefficiency and political opposition (private prisons now pretty much a failure) Prison labor - “slave labor is inefficient”

So Parenti concludes that the binge is driven by the overall assault on the working class

Soc 329 Parenti

Recommendations -- do less! (this is now common among critical crims)

Epilogue – at the time (1999) the binge was leveling off

Then Sep 11, 2001 followed by a new war on terrorism

And the binge accelerated again now driven by politics

Then the economic collapse and state bankruptcies