Are Prisons Obsolete review
Are Prisons Obsolete is a book that talks about a controversy that most people wouldn’t even consider a problem. The author Angela Davis a former prisoner and a current professor at University of California, Santa Cruz takes on the though task of trying to convince people that prisons need to be abolished. Though her personal experience and her great writing style she is able to write a good argument on why prisons should be abolished, she provides the reader with many examples which leaves you second guessing yourself.
In her book Davis discusses the problems with our current prison system. In her six chapters she explains five main points, which are, slavery still present, prisons do not rehabilitate people, prisons refuse to reform, prisons take advantage of the prison labor and what we can do as an alternative. Slavery is something we often think of as a horrible thing but a thing that was once acceptable and seen as necessary Davis explains how this is related to how we now see prisons. She basically says that the prisons our new form of slavery. In Davis’s third chapter she talks about how prisons have come a long way since their creation in England, and through out all its reforms it is still a horrendous messed up place. In her next chapter she explains how prisons are not actually doing what they were meant for and they refuse to change their ways. In her fifth chapter she explains the prison industrial complex, which is for most prisons the motivation to expand and also for multi-billion-dollar companies to support prisons. Finally she wraps up the book with ways of handing crime with out prisons. The books intended audience seems to be college students or someone who is interested in prisons. The reason I think the intended audience is college students is because it uses language that is a little bit above the average and the idea deals with changing your view of the world.
Davis structures her book very well for what she is trying to do since she is trying to persuade the reader to change their mind on something that they have most likely grown up viewing as necessary. Throughout her book she uses ethos, pathos and logos to get persuade. She uses a lot of statistics to support her ideas for example when talking about race in prisons she says “ Latinos, who are now in the majority, account for 35.2 percent; African-Americans 30 percent and; and white prisoners 29.2 percent”(13) this is a good example of the logos she uses throughout the book. Another example of her use of logos is when she says ” In 2000 there were twenty-six for-profit prison corporations in the United States that operated approximately 150 facilities in the twenty-eight states (97), the use of her of statistics adds to her credibility which is needed. She uses pathos in most of the book to let the reader know how prisons have caused harm an example would be when she quotes what two Black Panther Party members had told her about prison they say, “ ‘You mean they really put their hands inside you, to search you?’ ‘Uh-huh’, they answered.” (63), this makes the reader imagine what the guards can get away with and how it leaves the prisoners scarred. Her ethos comes from the experience she has with prisons, she makes some references to herself, not often though but it still provides a good sense of credibility.
I believe Davis did achieve her purpose, although I was not thoroughly convince on the abolishment of prisons it did open my eyes to the problems prisons have and how they never will really reform people. Abolish of the prison system is something I would have never considered, and I am sure a lot of people don’t think of it, because we don’t see that is unjustified. Davis argument is very much significant because it’s a problem that many people are not familiar with or just do not want to deal with. The main reason I was not fully convince that abolition would work is because of the solutions she gave, I think that, that is also why a lot of people would disagree with prison abolition. I don’t think she gave a real solution to what we would do about criminals. She provided a story in the end about a family who had there daughter killed by four men and how after serving 18 years in prison they apologized about the crime, and two of them got to be great friends of the family. This is a fine story but it left me wondering in the case the prison did reform the criminals and although the four did apologize only two became friends with the family the other too could have just lied. If she could come up with a better solution for our justice system I think she would be able to abolish not only prisons but also all our current justice system. Despite not fully convincing me I enjoyed learning about the problems that jails produce and how they don’t work.
In her book Davis discusses the problems with our current prison system. In her six chapters she explains five main points, which are, slavery still present, prisons do not rehabilitate people, prisons refuse to reform, prisons take advantage of the prison labor and what we can do as an alternative. Slavery is something we often think of as a horrible thing but a thing that was once acceptable and seen as necessary Davis explains how this is related to how we now see prisons. She basically says that the prisons our new form of slavery. In Davis’s third chapter she talks about how prisons have come a long way since their creation in England, and through out all its reforms it is still a horrendous messed up place. In her next chapter she explains how prisons are not actually doing what they were meant for and they refuse to change their ways. In her fifth chapter she explains the prison industrial complex, which is for most prisons the motivation to expand and also for multi-billion-dollar companies to support prisons. Finally she wraps up the book with ways of handing crime with out prisons. The books intended audience seems to be college students or someone who is interested in prisons. The reason I think the intended audience is college students is because it uses language that is a little bit above the average and the idea deals with changing your view of the world.
Davis structures her book very well for what she is trying to do since she is trying to persuade the reader to change their mind on something that they have most likely grown up viewing as necessary. Throughout her book she uses ethos, pathos and logos to get persuade. She uses a lot of statistics to support her ideas for example when talking about race in prisons she says “ Latinos, who are now in the majority, account for 35.2 percent; African-Americans 30 percent and; and white prisoners 29.2 percent”(13) this is a good example of the logos she uses throughout the book. Another example of her use of logos is when she says ” In 2000 there were twenty-six for-profit prison corporations in the United States that operated approximately 150 facilities in the twenty-eight states (97), the use of her of statistics adds to her credibility which is needed. She uses pathos in most of the book to let the reader know how prisons have caused harm an example would be when she quotes what two Black Panther Party members had told her about prison they say, “ ‘You mean they really put their hands inside you, to search you?’ ‘Uh-huh’, they answered.” (63), this makes the reader imagine what the guards can get away with and how it leaves the prisoners scarred. Her ethos comes from the experience she has with prisons, she makes some references to herself, not often though but it still provides a good sense of credibility.
I believe Davis did achieve her purpose, although I was not thoroughly convince on the abolishment of prisons it did open my eyes to the problems prisons have and how they never will really reform people. Abolish of the prison system is something I would have never considered, and I am sure a lot of people don’t think of it, because we don’t see that is unjustified. Davis argument is very much significant because it’s a problem that many people are not familiar with or just do not want to deal with. The main reason I was not fully convince that abolition would work is because of the solutions she gave, I think that, that is also why a lot of people would disagree with prison abolition. I don’t think she gave a real solution to what we would do about criminals. She provided a story in the end about a family who had there daughter killed by four men and how after serving 18 years in prison they apologized about the crime, and two of them got to be great friends of the family. This is a fine story but it left me wondering in the case the prison did reform the criminals and although the four did apologize only two became friends with the family the other too could have just lied. If she could come up with a better solution for our justice system I think she would be able to abolish not only prisons but also all our current justice system. Despite not fully convincing me I enjoyed learning about the problems that jails produce and how they don’t work.