Jstor does this newsletter with links to free articles and the latest had a title I had to read: The Harms of Being Subjugated and Doing the Subjugation.
While in prison I came to two conclusions about its effects: 1) it infantilized the inmates; 2) it schooled inmates and guards on the dynamics of fascism. The Jstor article makes think I was onto something.
Research shows that the criminal justice system leaves an imprint not just on the body, but on the psyche. The effects linger long beyond release for the incarcerated person or the end of a shift for those working in prisons. One of those effects that’s well-documented is learned helplessness.
If helplessness is the result of incarceration then why be concerned with recidivism? Recidivism is a feature not a bug. Just accept American prisons are designed by one part of our citizens to dehumanize another part.
As the article points out, the part dehumanized includes the guards.
It seems to me this dehumanizing is not far removed from our epidemic of mass killings. After all what is more dehumanizing than turning a living person into a corpse? Our American culture has allowed the demeaning of humanity by mass killing as it has allowed the infantilizing of those in the prison industrial complex.
sch 6/5/22
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