History & Background OF THE PRISON INDUSTRIAL COMPLEX

Readingsforthissessionfocusedonconnectingthedots betweenthePICandgovernment,media,corporateinterests.-andunderstandingthePICasmoderndayslavery.Wetalked aboutforcedlabor,whyprisonersaren’tpermittedtounionize, andconnectionsfromthePICtoboththemilitaryandmedical industrialcomplexes.

“Prison is a place where you forget the sound of a baby’s cry. You forget the sound of a dog’s bark or even the sound of true laughter and joy.” ~Darrell

“In Angela Davis’ “The Prison Industrial Complex,” she points out a lot of different truths about how we (minorities) are targeted by racist police policies.. abused by the modus operandi of corrupt courts (D.A.’s and Judges) and then exploited by the forced prison profiting labor. And it is forced, because if we “refuse assignment” we will lose accumulated credit and other privileges... once incarcerated, prisoners are seen as profit...” ~Ayanna

The metaphor Lisa used was that there's too much money in prisons, prisons are a business, and a world without them would be like imagining a world without guns. The technology of violence is the technology of money.

“In the readings there's such a clear way that the manifestation of carceral-ness is in so many levels of our society, this web. I'm thinking about how we were just sharing about the interruption of communication inside and outside and how this web of literally imprisonment, literally, the physical space, the metaphor of incarceration, interrupts the speed of communication or the speed of change.” ~Audrey

“Over the years, I’ve been around and seen the worst conditions, the worst that could befall a human being. I’ve been in the middle of riots where people were trying to kill each other, all set in motion by cops who stood 2 floors up and watched with smiles.”

~Orlando

“It seems like that logic of containment, like that whole idea of trying to isolate groups of people and institutionalize them is what needs to shift and be broken up.” ~Clio

“The logic of separation as safety seeps into so many social dynamics, that like distance makes you safe. We internalize that as well as confinement makes you safe… Someone else being confined and you being far away. Distance and confinement.” ~Ary

“While it captures the ‘racialization’ of prison, it is shocking how [Angela Davis] defined the relationship between the military industrial complex and the PIC. ‘These two complexes mutually support and promote each other and, in fact, often share technologies.’ I found that so disturbing. To understand that I AM CURRENTLY the RAW MATERIAL she is describing… hardens my heart, and WILLS ME to activism, and fighting the only fight that matters… ABOLITION.” ~Ms. Kelli hospital’s, or any other mega corporation.” ~Amy