MASS LIBERATION SCHOOL: WEEK 2 Carceral Culture — How the PIC Shapes Our Beliefs

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Facilitators: Chris Rodgers and Andrés Gonzalez-Bonillas, Police Free Penn

“Our ‘justice’ system actually serves interests that are often obscured from view. This includes maintaining relationships of racial subordination and white privilege that are different from the system’s stated purpose of deterring crime and punishing wrongdoers.”

-Paul Butler, Chokehold: Policing Black Men 

Last week, we learned about the Prison Industrial Complex, its history and components. This system is clearly harmful to the folks directly impacted by it: namely, incarcerated folks and their loved ones. But how does the carceral system affect those outside of its direct orbit? What do prisons do to us and our communities by their sheer existence? How is our behavior and thinking impacted by PIC? And even more importantly, how do we reproduce the justifications for the carceral state in our culture and relationships? All of this was explored this week. 

Hopefully, upon leaving this week, students will have a deeper understanding of the prison as an institution whose tentacles reach way further into public life than it first seems, how it affects our day to day life without us even realizing it, and what we can do to disrupt these patterns. 

Helpful Resources: 

Mass Liberation Task Force