Source: Lecture 1, Professor Victoria Robinson
Tags: prison abolition, prison industrial complex, PIC, racial violence, carcerality, mass incarceration, Critical Resistance, war on drugs, mixed status, community engaged scholarship
The United States incarcerates more people than any comparable society, with 2.3 million behind bars and 5.1 million under some form of custodial supervision. Prison abolition challenges the assumption that caging people is necessary for public safety, while the concept of the Prison Industrial Complex frames incarceration as driven by interlocking political, social, cultural, historical, and economic forces rather than by crime alone. The "war on drugs," declared by Nixon in 1972, is a key origin point for the drastic rise in the US prisoner population.
Prison abolition
The movement and intellectual framework that advocates for the elimination of prisons and the carceral system, replacing them with alternative approaches to justice and public safety. Encompasses both pedagogy (how we teach about justice) and action (what we build instead).
Prison Industrial Complex (PIC)
The overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as responses to social, political, and economic problems. Prisons under this framework are not simply buildings; they are political, social, cultural, historical, and economic threats woven into the fabric of society.
Racial violence
Violence that is structured along racial lines, including both direct physical harm and systemic harm through institutions such as policing, courts, and prisons. A central subject of prison abolition scholarship.
Carcerality
The reach of the carceral state beyond the physical prison. Includes incarceration itself, but extends to the right to vote, access to benefits, the capacity to love and maintain family ties, and broader social participation. The "cage" is a metaphor; carcerality operates well outside prison walls.
Mixed status
A household or family in which members hold different immigration or citizenship statuses. Roughly three-quarters of students in the course live in mixed-status households, reflecting the intersection of immigration policy with everyday life. Encompasses variations in citizenship, national origin, and documentation.
Community Engaged Scholarship
An approach to academic research and learning that depends on community involvement and reciprocal knowledge exchange, rather than treating communities as passive subjects of study.
Critical Resistance
An organisation dedicated to dismantling the Prison Industrial Complex. Visited the course as a guest; frames prisons as complex, multi-dimensional threats rather than simple institutions.
Prison Nation
A term describing the United States as a society defined by its reliance on incarceration as a primary tool of governance and social control.
2.3 million people currently behind bars in the United States
5.1 million people under custodial care, which includes parole, probation, foster care, and other supervised arrangements
The prisoner population is not limited to those physically inside a jail or prison; custodial care is a much broader category
In 1972, Nixon declared the "war on drugs"
This led to a drastic rise in the US prisoner population
The expansion was not limited to jail sentences; it also drove growth in probation, foster care, and other custodial systems
This policy decision is widely regarded as a foundational cause of modern mass incarceration
Prison abolition is not simply about closing prisons; it includes rethinking how we teach about justice and how we act on those ideas
The framework asks: what would safety look like without cages?
Linked to community engaged scholarship, which depends on learning with and from communities rather than studying them from a distance
The PIC frames incarceration as a web of interests, not a single institution
Prisons serve political functions (social control), social functions (managing marginalised populations), cultural functions (normalising punishment), historical functions (continuity with slavery and colonialism), and economic functions (profit, labour extraction)
Critical Resistance, as an organisation, works to make these connections visible and to dismantle the PIC
TWLF (Third World Liberation Front) and volunteerism are connected threads in community-based resistance to the PIC
The effects of incarceration extend far beyond the cell
Loss of voting rights
Exclusion from benefits and social services
Disruption of family bonds and the capacity for love and connection
Stigma and social exclusion after release
Understanding carcerality means understanding that the "cage" is only the most visible part of a much larger system
Racial violence is not limited to individual acts; it is embedded in institutions
The course frames students as knowledge workers and public intellectuals whose role is to unearth and make visible the structures of racial violence
Paul Rucker, an artist, created a map of prisons built in the US as a visual representation of the scale of carceral infrastructure
The Wikipedia Foundation is a course partner
Students contribute to public knowledge by creating or expanding Wikipedia pages (e.g. the Wiki page on the Prison Industrial Complex)
This is part of the community engaged scholarship model: learning by contributing to shared public resources
Paul Rucker's map of prisons built in the US (visual reference, available via linked YouTube video in lecture materials)
Film: Precious Knowledge – documents the criminalisation of Ethnic Studies in Arizona, relevant to understanding how the PIC intersects with education
⚠️ Know the distinction between people "behind bars" (2.3 million) and people "under custodial care" (5.1 million). The broader figure includes parole, probation, and foster care, and is the more telling statistic.
⚠️ Carcerality is not just about prison. Be prepared to explain how incarceration reaches into voting, benefits, family, and social participation.
⚠️ The Prison Industrial Complex is not a conspiracy theory; it is a structural analysis. Be able to name the political, social, cultural, historical, and economic dimensions.
⚠️ Nixon's 1972 war on drugs is a key date for the rise of mass incarceration. Don't conflate it with later "tough on crime" policies; it is the origin point.
⚠️ Mixed status is a concept that bridges immigration and carcerality. Understand how these overlap in lived experience.
Q: What is the difference between the number of people "behind bars" and those "under custodial care" in the US, and why does the distinction matter?
A: 2.3 million people are behind bars, while 5.1 million are under custodial care (including parole, probation, and foster care). The distinction matters because the carceral system's reach is far broader than physical imprisonment, affecting millions more through surveillance and control outside prison walls.
Q: Define carcerality and give at least three examples of how it operates beyond the prison.
A: Carcerality refers to the reach of the carceral state beyond physical incarceration. Examples include loss of voting rights, exclusion from social benefits, disruption of family relationships and the capacity for love, and ongoing social stigma after release.
Q: What are the multiple dimensions of the Prison Industrial Complex as described by Critical Resistance?
A: The PIC operates across political dimensions (social control), social dimensions (managing marginalised groups), cultural dimensions (normalising punishment), historical dimensions (continuity with slavery and colonialism), and economic dimensions (profit and labour extraction from incarcerated people).
Q: How did Nixon's 1972 declaration of the "war on drugs" contribute to mass incarceration?
A: Nixon's war on drugs led to a drastic rise in the prisoner population, expanding not only jail and prison sentences but also probation, foster care, and other custodial systems. It is widely regarded as the foundational policy behind modern mass incarceration in the US.
Q: What is "mixed status" and why is it relevant to a course on incarceration and racial violence?
A: Mixed status describes households where members hold different immigration or citizenship statuses. It is relevant because immigration enforcement and the carceral system overlap significantly, and many students' lived experiences involve navigating both systems simultaneously.
prison abolition, prison industrial complex, PIC, carcerality, mass incarceration, war on drugs, Nixon 1972, racial violence, mixed status, Critical Resistance, Prison Nation, community engaged scholarship, TWLF, Third World Liberation Front, custodial care, parole, probation, Paul Rucker, Precious Knowledge, Wikipedia Foundation, knowledge worker, public intellectual, East Oakland Boxing Association, EOBA, East Bay Sanctuary Covenant, EBSC