By Design, Not by Flaw

Ok.

Let’s stipulate some stuff right from jump.

Here is what we know, which studies have shown and which cannot be disputed: visits from loved ones to the incarcerated make for better outcomes while in custody, and contribute to lower recidivism once back outside.

Let’s also stipulate that most loved ones of the incarcerated are poor or otherwise economically vulnerable. Prisons are usually in remote outposts, away from loved ones, which takes gas or bus fare; time off from work (and many jobs don’t have PTO or vacay days that mitigate the impact from losing hours), one will probably need to buy at least two meals during the journey, and may even have to rent a motel room. This is real money, y’all.

These rules are meant to break the loved ones down; to break the bond with the prisoner, to discourage the very connections we know are beneficial.

Crazy thought–the state needs angry, reoffending, noncompliant stock to keep what are now often for profit prisons filled. This flies in the face that the law enforcement wants to bring crime down; wants to lower the number imprisoned. The state needs disconnected, isolated people whose ability to positively interact with their family and their friends have systematically been stripped away. The man in this story would have thought that his loved one did not care about him; would never have known how hard she tried. In psychology’s attachment theory, that is what is called an ‘attachment’ fissure, made worse by the artificial and punitive and dehumanizing environment he was already in.

This shit is by design.

*Original repost source is embedded with images of the Twitter feed added for ease of reading

Lace on Race Admin Staff

November 24, 2019

8 responses to “By Design, Not by Flaw”

Laura Berwick

December 3, 2019

This is why I flare up when someone asks what more “those people” want, now that they have “equal rights”.

Like, no, most systems of our law are still implemented specifically to disempower black people under a veneer of “equality”. We need more than just a theoretical “fairness” that camouflages a huge back door to oppression. We need as many years of specifically, by design, anti racist legislation at all levels as we had specifically racist legislation. That might be a start. Maybe.
Zoe Brookes

December 1, 2019

Chillingly specific story. And it has been very easy to get white people to look away from what is happening.
Danielle Joy Holcombe

November 27, 2019

Absolutely! That pipeline is for real and prison and law enforcement were only ever created to continue slavery while “adjusting” to new laws. The fact that every other system (schooling, etc.) caters to and supports that system makes complete sense.
Marlise

November 25, 2019

Consider how schooling for black and brown children operates. Essentially an extension of and direction to the prison system. “Angry, reoffending, non-compliant” starts being used as a label on school children. It operates as a narrative of proof that “those people are just like that” and hides under the glow of white schooling to build that narrative.
Varda L

November 25, 2019

Whether or not the prisons are “for profit” the entire prison system is designed to make money and keep people scared. If they are docile and pay the next arbitrary fine, or jump through the next hoop, then they might not lose everything again.
Deb Chymiak-Isanhart

November 25, 2019

Yes, by design. Feels similar to the way slave owners broke slave families apart for profit and because they recognized strong familial ties made the individual slave mentally stronger.

The system needs recidivism. That is why it works like this. That is why the parole system isn’t set up to insure the formerly incarcerated succeed.

And wht ppl have bought the lie that mass incarceration is the only way to ensure law and order. There is soooo much wrong with the system — and it is all by design.
Kathy Kratchmer

November 25, 2019

Makes me angry and ill. So much of how a visit goes depends on the CO’s staffing the desk—some are just power-tripping and arbitrary. And every racist reality outside the walls is exponentially worse inside because the guards have largely unchecked power and inmates have no leverage whatsoever.

Arrests were incentivized through the ‘war on drugs’ policies and concurrent militarization of local police forces, rewarding them with money and other resources for meeting quotas. Ain’t about justice but about $$$$.

Of course they over-police Black communities rather than white ones where power holders live and work.

It is infuriating.

Providing rides, gas and/or cash to make visits possible is one thing I do, but even that doesn’t guarantee a visit will happen. Heartbreaking. Infuriating. Violent. Cruel and yes, intentional and deliberately so….there is no end to it. 💔😓
Danielle Joy Holcombe

November 24, 2019

“Crazy thought–the state needs angry, reoffending, noncompliant stock to keep what are now often for profit prisons filled.” I knew the many ways the prison system continues to punish both the imprisoned person and their loved ones but I somehow never came full circle to this. That it was intentional not only to inflict additional misery but that it was intentional in fact to stand in the way of any ‘reform.’

8 responses to “By Design, Not by Flaw”

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