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A different kind of cage: When prison reforms expand imprisonment.

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Just because something might be slightly better than the institution called prison - that doesn't mean it's good. It's still oppressive, it's still a form of a cage. The penalty for violating electronic monitoring is often re-incarceration, so it actually becomes a driver of incarceration in many cases, because it's so easy to violate the terms. Plus, this is still a form of confinement built on a foundation on White supremacy. It hasn't challenged any of the roots of the system of incarceration.

Journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law explain how the prison industrial complex adapts to popular calls for reform by expanding surveillance and carceral mechanisms across society - for social control, corporate profit, and the survival of punishment at the heart of capitalist society.

Maya and Victoria are authors of Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms from The New Press.

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Maya Schenwar

Maya Schenwar is the editor-in-chief of Truthout.

 

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Victoria Law

Victoria Law is a freelance writer and editor.

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