c111 cia #4

Angela Y. Davis on Prisons

• We need to abolish prisons, not reform them, because, like slavery, prisons perpetuate social and economic inequality

Davis’ recommendation for alternatives to incarceration (pt. 1)

• No prison-like substitutes; no electronic monitoring or house arrest as replacements.

• Use multiple community systems, not one “new prison” (education, health care, communities, and justice systems)

• Remove police; make schools supportive, not pipelines to prison.

• Offer community-based, voluntary, & free mental health & drug treatment.

• Stop criminalizing drug use, sex work, and poverty-related behaviors.

Davis’ recommendation for alternatives to incarceration (pt. 2)

• Stop jailing undocumented people; protect immigrant rights.

• Use restorative & reparative justice; focus on repairing harm/healing, not punishment.

• Address root causes like racism, sexism, homophobia, poverty, and inequality.

• Provide social support like jobs, housing, living wages, and community programs.

City of Inmates – Hernandez’ Chapter 5 (pt. 1)

• LA used policing and jails as tools to eliminate marginalized groups from the city, especially Native people, Mexican workers, Blacks, queer communities, and the poor.

• “Vice squads” were used to control working-class, racialized, LGBTQ+ communities—not just “morality.”

• Police targeted dance halls, cabarets, and clubs to control marginalized communities under “morality” laws.

• Police used vague laws to criminalize LGBTQ+ for simply being in public (indecency or loitering).

City of Inmates – Hernandez’ Chapter 5 (pt. 2)

• Police labeled street-economy workers “immoral” to justify arresting and removing them.

• Elites shaped “public morality” so police could target people who didn’t fit norms.

• LA used constant arrests, fines, and harassment to push marginalized people out of the city—its “logic of elimination.”

• Police raided and shut down clubs and bars for racialized and queer communities to break up networks and enforce conformity.

Coleman Livingston Blease

• South Carolina senator known for openly white supremacist politics and pro-lynching positions.

• He shifted the focus from controlling authorized migration to criminalizing border crossing

• Congress passed Blease’s bill, the Immigration Act of March 4, 1929

→ Made it a federal crime to enter the U.S. illegally, which greatly increased immigrant incarceration.

Main Theories of Punishment

• Utilitarianism: Forward-looking; focuses on the greater good of society, and any punishment should benefit society as a whole

• Deontology: Judges the morality of an action based on whether it is right or wrong, rather than the consequences; retributive