Lock them up! Lock them up? A critique of the prison mosaic

Abstract

Incarceration has become the routine response to severe criminal offence and is presented as the most humane form of punishment. Yet, multiple biases combine to form a discriminatory criminal justice system targeting poor men of colour. Drawing on Michel Foucault, Loïc Wacquant, and Angela Davis the development of prisons to the hegemonic form of managing misconduct and ultimately poverty is analysed. These include analyses of the prison-industrial complex as a close connection between incarceration and industry, as well as the role of neoliberal ideology and agenda in transforming the state based on discipline and control as responses to social ills. Following Castoriadis’ “decolonisation of the imaginary”, these fundamental critiques are connected with alternatives to incarceration. Finally, exemplary alternatives to the neoliberal state complete the mosaic of social injustice and provide a broader picture on this important debate.