Assignment 07: Human Rights and The Law
Prison population and restructuring of the state are two phrases that begin a theory. With the 70s, the prison world was being groomed in the current state it is in. Though the crime rate was dropping, prison were accumulating numbers, while also inheriting a drug issue and being rejected from employment opportunities (Gilmore, 1999, 172-173). This invented the crisis that begun the cycle of relapse in the prison world, bleeding into the 1980s and 1990s. However, in the 1990s, the crisis was more centered on race, especially anti-Black propaganda (Gilmore, 1999, 174). The prison population was exponentially growing in numbers where black Americans were being incarcerated, compared to their white counterparts. This is the crisis Gilmore discusses, and it is dated back to 1968.
For the African American community, 1968 was a prolific period. Not only does it involve civil rights being a forefront in the American population’s minds, but the Black Panther movement was on an upswing. The idea of Kenyanism, a reversion back to the African roots, was in the air, becoming more of a central idea to the average African American (Gilmore, 1999, 175). An educated African American, suave in politics and culture, is the stark contrast to the prison reality, uneducated and ignorant to current events. However, this is the type of “surplus” the prison world wanted. The prison world realized that to stop this knowledge and growth, they needed ways to discreetly scapegoat the group. This is what we see happening in the 1970s, with accusations of drug problems and crime issues surrounding the African American community.
Now, to resolve the issues of crime and drugs, prison was used as the ultimate incentive. This was the way to “fix” the problem at home (Gilmore, 1999, 177). Thanks to the prison population, a “surplus” was able to happen for the rest of the United States. Instead of having more competition for jobs, houses, cars and other essential expenses, Americans were able to consume without the fear that the media created. Instead, the “crisis” was the reason for the imprisonment, and the imprisonment in return creates the surplus. The surplus was created at the expense of an entire group of the United States, but this was ignored. To have a surplus, the media tricked the American people into concepts that were not true, and because of this false thinking, many individuals were wrongfully imprisoned or misrepresented and labeled as deviant.
