Are Prisons Obsolete?

Angela Davis argues for the total abolition of the prison system, asserting that incarceration serves as a tool for social control rather than a solution to crime. She examines the historical transition from corporal punishment to the penitentiary, linking the rise of modern prisons to the legacies of slavery and Jim Crow. The text details the growth of the prison-industrial complex, where corporate profit motives drive a continuous expansion of the inmate population. Davis specifically analyzes how gendered violence and racial bias are baked into the architecture of state discipline.

Readers interested in political theory and social justice utilize this framework to imagine a society that prioritizes education and healthcare over state-sanctioned confinement. It appeals to activists and students who want to understand the structural roots of mass incarceration in the United States. One walks away with a concrete set of alternatives to the carceral state, focusing on restorative justice models and the disinvestment from policing. It provides the intellectual vocabulary necessary to challenge the assumption that prisons are a permanent fixture of civilization.