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Summary - Abby talks about prison and how we view prison. It is often thought that prisons are just and that people that go to prison always deserve what they get. Abby connects a poem to the recent class readings. This poem portrays the idea that some people never get the appropriate opportunities to have a decent shot at life. This leads to things like theft out of necessity and other crime which obviously leads to people getting locked in prison. Additionally, low-income neighborhoods are often over policed which results in more people getting arrested. She brings up the point that many people in society do not know anyone that has had to go to prison. This makes us think that prison is not a big deal and allows us to forget about prison. These people that get locked up are sent to prison where they are set up with a form of slave labor. Inmates are paid extremely little for the work that they do even if it is quality work.

Summary - This art that I have chosen shows a person, likely a woman with a bun, standing in their cell and looking outside. There is light outside the cell that likely symbolizes the better life that awaits the inmate. A closer look shows that the woman is clenching her fists. This tells the viewer that she is likely upset with her current position. Her face is blocked off by the shadows of the cell. Prisoners often feel a loss of sense of self when incarcerated for long periods of time. These people will forget who they were before prison and just adapt to their current life behind bars. The life shown in this picture is depressing. The individual does not have many belongings, no roommate, and a very flat bed. This is no place to lock people up.

Analysis - These two pieces strengthen each other's message. The prison system is set up in a way that keeps people incarcerated for longer and creates more prisoners. This should not be the goal of prisons. Instead, the main purpose should be to aid the offenders to get these people to not offend in the future. I have said this in my discussion posts throughout the semester, prisons are hurting society and serve no good purpose. The owners just want to profit off of the inmates as much as possible and the inmates' mental health worsens due to the environment they are trapped in. By improving mental health through therapy, providing equal opportunities in life, and not locking people in cages we can lower the amount of crime in America and abolish prisons.

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Text #5 Angela Davis's "Women, Race, and Class"

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Text #5 Angela Davis's "Women, Race, and Class"

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Summary - The philosopher, Angela Davis, grew up in Alabama and witnessed severe inequality in America. This book was published in 1981, but many of the points still hold up today. This book is meant to track the feminist efforts for suffrage. At the time, this was mainly led by middle-class white women. She claims that topics of gender, race, and class combine together to create inequalities. She claims that racism has interfered with the efforts of women to achieve the ability to vote. At the time, prisoners have to work in environments somewhat similar to slavery. This was happening in the mid-20th century and was almost never in the news or anything like that.

Summary - The artwork that I chose shows women walking around in the outdoor part of a prison. They seem to be walking in a line and not talking to each other. Even though these women are together in prison, this shows that they still feel isolated and sad. Most of the women are hunched over, completing a walk that they have probably done hundreds of times. There is a figure in the back that looks like a sun, possibly symbolizing freedom beyond the prison gates. Around the prison, the colors get darker showing that this is not a good place to be. Overall, this art shows a depressing, repetitive way of life that is not beneficial to anyone.

Analysis - I chose these two to compare to each other because they both deal with similar topics. Angela Davis uses race, class and gender to describe why these are not separate factors and instead are interwoven. I believe that all of these things come together in prison. There have been reports of guards sexually assaulting women and committing other terrible crimes because they know that these people in prison, especially women, do not have a voice to the public. Some of the prison guards feel invincible around these inmates knowing that there is no real chance for consequences. Inmates in prison are sometimes treated as less than people. It does not make sense to treat someone differently just because they have made mistakes in their lives. Treating average people this poorly is what results in more crime. People that were unlikely to re-offend become criminals through years of being mistreated and tormented. Instead, a therapeutic setting may provide real benefits and prevent people from committing crimes in the future.

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Text #4 Angela Davis's "The Meaning of Freedom"

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Text #4 Angela Davis's "The Meaning of Freedom"

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Summary - As I have said before, Angela Davis has been my favorite author to read in this class. In this text, Davis deals with the definition and meaning of freedom. She brings up examples of institutional injustice to deepen the thought of this subject. This book lays out a proactive vision of society that Davis claims we need to start building a path towards. The New York Times describes Davis' work as "formidable,"  paying respect to the thought that she has put in on this topic. She talks about the interconnected problems of gender, race, class, prison, and being conservative. In this, Davis points out many problems with our current way of life and provides feedback on how certain issues can be addressed moving forward.

Summary - I chose this artwork because I feel like it portrays someone searching then finding freedom. There is a person shown leaping to the left side of the artwork. It seems as he/she is breaking through some rocks (or difficulties) in order to achieve this freedom. Traveling to the left of the image, it shows brighter colors that represent this freedom the person is heading towards. I feel like the colors all work together very well to form a pleasing piece to look at. Even though there is a dramatic event going on in the piece, the colors find a way to tone the image down.

Analysis - I feel as though these two support each other very well. Angela Davis deals with the complex idea of what the meaning of freedom is in today's world. This difficult idea can be summed up briefly by this piece of artwork. The art shows someone that can live freely as they please. To me, this art shows a world without prisons where people are more understanding. Instead of prisons, I think we should drastically increase the number of mental health facilities in America. These facilities can provide therapy for convicted criminals and prepare them to live a life without crime. This restructuring of the incarceration system should lower crime rates and lead to a safer future. Also, this would get rid of for-profit prisons that are entirely unethical. Making money off of someone being trapped in a cage? It is shocking to realize that this is still happening in 2022.

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Summary – For my fifth pairing, I’m going to be using my personal submission for PHiRT week 7 and pairing it with this art I found on Instagram. I talked about a certain example where a man and a woman worked together to commit a crime. They both got caught, sent to prison, and shared their stories. The woman was treated far worse than the man in prison, but both had bad experiences.

Summary - This art shows the outline of a person with a prison cell in their mind. I chose this because it portrays how prisons affect people’s minds. Prison does not just imprison your physical body, but it has been said to also imprison your mind. Those in prison feel stuck in a small world, because they are, and it becomes increasingly difficult to think beyond the walls of the prison. Instead of rehabilitating the mind to prevent future offenses, prisons make people feel isolated and stuck which worsens their outlook on life. This is another aspect of prison that shows to be ineffective and immoral.

Analysis – It does not make sense for two people to go to prison, for the same crime, and those two people get treated differently while serving time. This shows another aspect of prison that is structurally and immorally wrong. Gender should not play a part in determining punishment. Prison is more than a physical place. It takes over people’s minds and shrinks their worlds. This art I found strengthens and supports these claims. Inmates feel trapped while in prison and if they’re lucky enough to get out, they still often feel the lasting effects of prison. Going to prison should be a time of reflection and restoration to prepare for the future. Instead, prisons have hostile environments that change average people into dangerous people. By putting less people in prisons, specialists can focus their efforts on helping the dangerous people who need immediate help.

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Summary – In Will Cook’s week 5 philosophy in real time, he uses an episode from Adam Ruins Everything and compares it to Angela Davis’ “Are prisons Obsolete?” Adam shows the audience the problems with prisons, especially privately owned prisons. For example, in prisons designed for profit, there are much more infractions handed out to inmates. These infractions lead to longer sentences and more profit for the owners. Will also deals with the debate of whether prisons are effective or not at preventing crime. The number of people incarcerated has gone up significantly over the past few decades. This leads some to theorize that the immorality that inmates face in prisons causes there to be more criminals in the long run.

Summary - This artwork that I found portrays someone in prison that is being taken advantage of for money. Their life is wasting away while someone else is profiting off of them. This is often the case for those incarcerated. The owners of for-profit prisons want to keep the people incarcerated there as long as possible so that they can continue collecting cash from them. While this is going on, the art portrays the individual as sad and slowly disintegrating. This could be to represent the person's fleeting hope and compassion for life because of their situation. Additionally, it is a white/bright hand reaching into the dark room. This shows the separation between both the inmate and the prison owners.

Analysis – This was one of the best PHiRTs that I watched all semester. Will goes into multiple ideas about prisons, ethics, and money. The artwork that I chose to pair with this PHiRT supports the ideas that Will is talking about. The person shown in the art is wasting away while a hand reaches out to take money from them. This is essentially how modern prisons are set up. The owners of these prisons want as many inmates as possible with the longest sentences possible. This structure has no regard for human life and does not care about improving the inmates. Instead, inmates' lives are often underfunded and these people sometimes lack some of the basic necessities of life. The focus of prisons should not be on money or power, instead, it should be focused on improving the lives of the inmates.

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Summary – Angela Davis’ “Are prisons obsolete?” was my favorite reading of the semester. This is partially because it really got me thinking and partially because of how well-written it is. She deals with the idea that prisons serve no purpose to society, even damaging society in the long run. This makes sense because prison has been shown to cause a cycle in society. People are locked in jail for non-violent crimes and then the toxic environment turns average people into dangerous people. And once these people get out, they can sometimes be more likely to re-offend than they were before their prison experience.

Summary - I found this artwork to pair with it. It shows a group of men in prison slowly walking in a circle. To me, this shows an endless loop of wasted time, money, and effort. The colors of the piece add a lot of emotion to the art. The colors mainly consist of dark blue, gray, and tan. This portrays a sad and gloomy feel that really backs up the central message of the piece. These people shown in the art appear unhappy and tired. This does not look like a place of restoration and reflection. It's upsetting to think that some of the only times people in jail get outside can look like this. I couldn't imagine being stuck in a place like that.

Analysis – Artwork really brings the text to life and provides a visual to the text. While searching online for some art to compare to Davis’ work, I found many interesting pieces of art that show how awful prison truly can be. I chose this one because it defends Davis’ claims. Prison is not helping anyone. It can take an average person that has made a mistake in their life and turns them or into a monster. Instead, prisons should be solely for dangerous criminals that are an immediate threat to society. Additionally, prisons should focus on being restorative to possibly give these criminals another chance at life. The art shows a group of men being forced to walk in a circle with no real purpose. Practices like this take the life out of people and can make them worse human beings.

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Text #1 Davis' "Freedom is a constant struggle"

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Text #1 Davis' "Freedom is a constant struggle"

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Summary – In Angela Davis’ “Freedom is a constant struggle” she discusses the idea that we cannot have peace without conflict. I remember when I first heard this in class and, initially, it made no sense to me. But I realized that this is the only realistic way to have peace. People must be challenging each other’s ideas in order to maintain and improve the current way of life. Without this struggle, things are much more likely to stay the same. The effort is what brings awareness to a problem that needs to be addressed!

Summary - I found this art that shows someone breaking out of chains through struggling. There is also a crack going down the background of the art which may symbolize a new beginning. The crack in the art is the brightest part of the piece. This shows good things to come out of this struggle. Additionally, the individual in the artwork looks to be African-American. The author may have done this on purpose to emphasize the fact that there's an unusually high amount of black people in jail.

Analysis – This artwork supports Angela Davis’ ideas and provides a great visual. Currently today, many people are locked up in prison. If we peacefully wait for them to be released, nothing is ever going to improve or change. Instead, there must be some sort of struggle against the people in charge. Only then will people realize that things are wrong and should be adjusted. I think that Angela Davis would really like this piece of artwork that I found. It shows someone struggling to break free and succeeding to do so. Prisons are currently a fundamental part of society. Everyone knows that if you do something bad, chances are that you may end up going to prison. Through struggle and protest, the people can make it heard that prison is not necessary. Then, hopefully, the government will reevaluate the prison system.

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Text #2 Marx's "Economic Philosophic & Manuscripts of 1844" Paired with this visual art.

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Text #2 Marx's "Economic Philosophic & Manuscripts of 1844" Paired with this visual art.

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Summary - For my first pairing, I chose some of Marx’s work to be paired with this artwork. In Karl Marx’s manuscript, he takes a deep dive into capitalism and the problems that come with it. Marx does not talk about prisons in this but he brings up problems that I can use. For example, he discusses “estranged labor” which causes people to become disconnected from their work life.  This happens when people are assigned to create one part of an object rather than the entire thing. This is done to make the overall production in the company more efficient, however, workers lose passion for what they are working on. This is because they sometimes never even get to see the final product, this leads to a disconnect.

Summary - The artwork portrays most Americans. These are working-class people that get taken advantage of by the top 1%. The art is done in bold red and yellow which seems to be on purpose. The people marching are doing so to make a statement. They want to show those in power that the majority of people in the country are being treated much worse than the top 1%. Additionally, the art shows all types of people, both men, and women. It's hard to tell if the art also tries to portray races, I don't think so. Lastly, the expressions on their faces show disapproval and maybe even anger.

Analysis – These two pieces of work fit very well together and strengthen each other. Karl Marx points out the problems with capitalism and how it can only truly benefit a few people. The artwork then puts that into perspective because it shows the majority that is not benefited. The art shows people walking together with unhappy expressions on their faces. This is because of the lives that they live due to the poor conditions capitalism creates. If capitalism was structured fairer there would be less crime leading to less people in prison. Economic inequality directly leads to an increased crime rate which benefits the owners of prisons. We must find a way to work together to lower the power of billionaires/millionaires so that the 99% can live a fairer life.

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I plan to write about the glaring problems concerning prisons. In this, I claim that prisons are immoral and ineffective, especially for nonviolent offenders. I will use my eight resource pairings to explain why I think prisons should be reduced significantly and why we should only imprison dangerous people. Additionally, I will propose an alternative to prisons and explain the reasons why I think it would work in today's society.