Golden Gulag class notes

•The problem
==> Prison system is a burgeoning social space/mechanism which was implicated in issues of income, jobs, gender, urban development, etc. the raise in spending strongly suggests that it was something that changed state structure, local and regional identities, and social identities as it became part of the state economy and infrastructure
•What is prison supposed to do and why?
==> Govern people through retribution, deterrence, rehabilitation, incarceration, prisons protect social stability, current ideas of rights/freedoms (especially democracy)
•The dominant and counterexplanations for prison growth
==> Is the crime – “crackdown” true?
− Drug epidemic/threat to public safety
− Structural changes in employment
==> Why prisons now? Why does the state change?
− Racial cleansing – new slavery
− Pursuit of profits (surplus cash/privatization of public)
− Rural urban competition
− Reform school
•Looking backward to look forward
==> More resistance, more criminals
==> 1968 – increase in profit and wealth because of war
==> racial hierarchies
==> shift in the job market/power
==> surplus didn’t create prisons, but it helped
•From reform to punishment
==> Rehabilitation → incapacitation
==> Changed in 1977
==> Before 77, parole boards contained many problems
==> Cheaper to punish than reform
==> CA legislature wanted parole officers to be more liberal when invoking parole violations, thus more convicts returned to prison but crime didn’t increase
•Capital for construction
==> In order to expand prison construction, rapidly turned to borrowing (LRBs) to avoid political backlash (tax).
==> This allowed for prison expansion that included nonviolent criminals and an entirely new social policy
•Siting the prisons
==> Considerations
− Land – rural agricultural l(and?) taking up land surplus
− Communities/NIMBY – which communities can organize
− Politics – LA prison battle legislature
− Economics – powerful landholders selling idle land at inflated prices, promised jobs for labor surplus, fewer employers dependent on traditional economy
•Producing more prisoners
==> Increase in prison legislation
− Drug recriminalization, profiling of criminals
− 3 strikes – new demographics of prison (race, incomes, nature of crime)
•Industrializing punishment
==> Not as much focus on where the crimes came from, but more about how to control those committing the crimes
==> Financing the prisons: how they got the $ and why they got the amounts they did, not really any strict rules about the allocation of $
==> Growing population → increased crime → increased needs for prisons thus need for more $ to improve efficiency
==> Increase in requirements for prison workers who were not taught as much about where the crimes came from but more about the efficiency and control of the system