Question

1. In what ways does Davis believe that prison reform is problematic?
2. Why does Davis think that “reform rhetoric” is inadequate (100)?
3. What are the “continuum of alternatives” that Davis proposes (107)? Why are they necessary?
4. Why does Davis think it is important for us to reconsider our conception of “punishment” in relation to crime?
5. What is the importance of the story Davis tells at the end of the book? How does it illustrate her point?

Answer 1

Introduction- The prison abolition movement was a prominent sociological and humanistic movement supported by social activist Angela Davis. According to Davis, the prison reform is a problematic approach because it considers prisoners, the threat for the society while the prison abolition perspective shows the humanistic approach.

• According to Angela Davis, the prison reform is not helpful to modify the behavior of the prisons, the primary objective of prison should be to help people to develop a positive approach for the society rather them keep them away from the social settings. Many studies suggest that prison reforms not helping the primary objectives and prisons are becoming a safe area to develop aggressiveness and criminal activities, prisoners develop interpersonal relations inside the prisons and attempt more crimes after come out from there.
• The prison abolition movement stands against the construction of more prisons and supports humanistic perspectives to help those who were convicted as criminals by the legal procedure. Davis and her supporters are also working to end the death penalty, construction of new prisons, and solitary confinement. The main role of prison should be rehabilitated prisoners while the modern model of prisons is not helpful for the process of rehabilitation.
• Davis proposed the humanistic perspective and make the prisons a place of rehabilitation, it is necessary to reform prisons to reduce the rate to crime, we have seen that many prisoners get involved in the criminal activities after the end of prison period, they live in a prions make them socially isolated, either they commit suicide or act to go back to their place, they do not feel safe in society and shows no respect for the social norms and legal process.
• The punishment is a process to help both society and criminals to ensure security, the method of punishment developed to afraid people to not commit any kind of illegal or unlawful acts but we are seeing that the effect of punishment is not helping society to reduce crime. Davis suggests that the prison should not be the school of crime, the main objective behind prison abolition is to reduce crime and help criminals to develop respect for social norms and legal procedure.
• At the end of the book, Angela Davis suggests that the reformation of society is very essential and crime should be considered as deviated behavior rather than a personality characteristic. Crime is a spontaneous act and no person born to commit a crime, the social structure helps them to stand against the social and legal regulations, if we use the humanistic approach and support individual liberty and freedom, we could reduce the crime and abolish prisons.