Better cages are still cages

More evidence and thinking today about our society’s need to move past not just mass incarceration, but our overall “carceral framework.” As the movement to Close Rosie’s (The Rose M. Singer Center jail on Rikers Island) has been gaining momentum, a group of advocates, led by Michelle Feldman, of the #BEYONDrosies campaign, two lawyers from the University of Texas’ Prison and Jail Innovation Lab, three scholars from the Justice Lab at Columbia University, and a slew of advisors from across the criminal justice/prison reform world proposed something called The Women’s Center for Justice. Designed to incarcerate women in a “safer and more humane” way, it does suggest an improvement on the current conditions, and on even the current city plans for rehousing women and gender-non-binary people currently incarcerated in utterly inhumane conditions on Rikers Island. Gloria Steinem hailed it and encouraged the mayor and governor to act on the plan.

But really, is this the best we can do? In my view, this proposal is nothing more than what James Kilgore wrote about in Counterpunch in 2014, using the term “carceral humanism.” Better cages are better… but they’re still cages, still an indication that we are not willing to think more creatively about human needs, care, community and connection to justice-involved people. I am horrified, but certainly not surprised, to learn that progressive reformers of the early 20th century were advocates for a previous “revolution” in incarceration, creating “safer jails” for women, including the Jefferson Market women’s prison, notorious for brutality in its time, which housed Angela Davis in the 1960s (For more on this history: this piece in Truthout as well as Jarrod Shanahan’s Captives, next on my list of must-reads). When do we start truly questioning why we use incarceration for people who are imprisoned for no other real reason than being poor, without homes, or suffering from drug dependency or mental illness? A report by The New York City Comptroller documented in December 2021 that it cost $1,525 PER DAY (yes, that’s more than $550,000 per year) to house one inmate on Riker’s Island. We have gone mad. Imagine the potential if this money were budgeted for humane affordable housing and mental health services.

What can we do to shift this narrative, and shift our society? Where do we start?

Abolitionist activist Mon Moha is quoted extensively in this strong piece by Tamar Sarai from Prism Reports, pointing the way. In addition to urging us toward the provision of social services that are “delinked from the carceral system,” this article also puts a spotlight on programs run by otherwise understood as “progressive” organizations—like, I am disappointed to see, the Vera Institute for Justice, which helped to create Women Overcoming Recidivism Through Hard Work (WORTH), a program within Connecticut’s York Correctional Facility launched in 2018. This and other programs for incarcerated people that essentially suggest a “self-help” approach—giving incarcerated women mentors in the carceral system, providing more recreational facilities and classes that offer “self-improvement,”—keep us from asking the central question, formulated this way by Moha: “why does someone need to be incarcerated in order to receive that kind of care…and services?”

I hope we can think bigger. I am reading a lot on this topic these days and recommend a few sources for inspiration. Inquest, a project of The Institute to End Mass Incarceration, is a font of new and emerging ideas. Transform Harm, which describes itself as “a resource hub for information—NOT an organization”—created by Mariame Kaba, a foremost voice in abolitionist thinking, is a great place for learning and ideating. Additionally, Transform Harm has published a syllabus for “Abolition 101” that I recommend to begin learning our history on these issues. I am working to develop a list of organizations and campaigns to recommend for investment, and would welcome hearing from you if you are interested in going deeper into this topic.