Alternatives to the Prison-Industrial Complex

          Sheila presented me with a difficult task- imagining an alternative to the prison-industrial complex. The struggle of replacing an institution that is not only so large and powerful was complex, but specifically analyzing how other structures and systems of social inequality influence and maintain the prison-industrial-complex, led me to question the purpose and function of other large institutions, such as education, which also serves as a system of racialized social control.

           It was difficult to choose images and ways to represent what I learned about the complexities of replacing the prison-industrial complex, especially when the maintenance of the prison-industrial-complex is contingent and reinforced by many actors and forces, such as global capitalism and arms trading, that interact and influence each other in intricate, interlocking webs. I decided to mostly use words to express what I learned through analyzing the four texts. I was hoping that through this project I would show how violent and criminal the prison-industrial complex is and find solutions that my fellow students and I could use to reimagine how society and we personally could view incarcerated people, punishment, possibilities for rehabilitation, and the purpose of incarceration.

            I do not feel that this project could have ever been fully completed because there are always other resources, scholars, and programs that I could have explored and used as tools to reimagine a society based on assessing and understanding more “whole” characters; people’s weakness, strengths, backgrounds, and complex personhoods. I also think that if I had spent more time connecting linkages between education and over incarceration, and given specific examples of the school-to-prison pipeline, I would have presented a more complex and well-explained assessment of the large societal and personal issues underlying the problems and conflicts that the prison-industrial complex creates and reinforces. I could have more fully and deeply explored a specific reintegration or rehabilitation program. I learned about many ways that non-white people are disenfranchised. Though I was not able to examine alternative methods to prison in a completely comprehensive way, the connections I made between different societal concerns such as social inequality, racism, lack of access to comprehensive and experiential education, and other processes of disenfranchisement, was a profound and difficult experience.