Brady Heiner
- Published in print:
- 2015
- Published Online:
- September 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780823265299
- eISBN:
- 9780823266685
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Fordham University Press
- DOI:
- 10.5422/fordham/9780823265299.003.0001
- Subject:
- Philosophy, Political Philosophy
This chapter traces the desk in the author's office at California State University back to its production in California's Prison Industry Authority—a carceral manufacturing system that, at a rate of ...
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This chapter traces the desk in the author's office at California State University back to its production in California's Prison Industry Authority—a carceral manufacturing system that, at a rate of thirty to ninety-five cents per hour, employs a segment of the state's imprisoned population to provide goods and services to state agencies that the latter are legislatively mandated to purchase. It analyzes this hidden background of carceral production in terms of the prison industrial complex, the convict lease system, and other Reconstruction-era legal rituals that refashioned American prisons into receptacles that grant sanctuary to racialized forms of punishment prevalent during slavery. It advances a concept of semiotic transfer to explain how the institution of the prison became a functional substitute for the plantation, and how the discourse of “criminality” became racialized. It argues that the antebellum positionality of the “slave” and the postbellum positionality of the “criminal” came to be semiotically and associatively paired and are thus genealogically linked through postbellum legal rituals and everyday practices. The chapter concludes by outlining a two-sided account of abolition involving intertwining movements aimed at mass decarceration and socioeconomic and political reconstruction.Less
This chapter traces the desk in the author's office at California State University back to its production in California's Prison Industry Authority—a carceral manufacturing system that, at a rate of thirty to ninety-five cents per hour, employs a segment of the state's imprisoned population to provide goods and services to state agencies that the latter are legislatively mandated to purchase. It analyzes this hidden background of carceral production in terms of the prison industrial complex, the convict lease system, and other Reconstruction-era legal rituals that refashioned American prisons into receptacles that grant sanctuary to racialized forms of punishment prevalent during slavery. It advances a concept of semiotic transfer to explain how the institution of the prison became a functional substitute for the plantation, and how the discourse of “criminality” became racialized. It argues that the antebellum positionality of the “slave” and the postbellum positionality of the “criminal” came to be semiotically and associatively paired and are thus genealogically linked through postbellum legal rituals and everyday practices. The chapter concludes by outlining a two-sided account of abolition involving intertwining movements aimed at mass decarceration and socioeconomic and political reconstruction.
Ethan Blue
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814709405
- eISBN:
- 9780814723166
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814709405.003.0002
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter discusses labor in California prisons in the 1930s. California prisoners' labor was a coercive meritocracy of promotion and demotion geared toward social control, and it mimicked many of ...
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This chapter discusses labor in California prisons in the 1930s. California prisoners' labor was a coercive meritocracy of promotion and demotion geared toward social control, and it mimicked many of the class and race structures of the state's political economy. It was also wracked by corruption. Though racial hierarchies could work at cross-purposes to putatively color-blind redemptive ideologies, in practice, racial hierarchy and redemption commonly interwove. Moreover, the association between masculinities and labor created a key tension in the struggle for officials to control prisoners' labor, and for prisoners to control themselves. Notions of manhood figured centrally in officials' justification of forced labor but also in prisoners' opposition to that labor. Prisoners, too, had their own understandings of the work they did and only sometimes did they coincide with what officials intended.Less
This chapter discusses labor in California prisons in the 1930s. California prisoners' labor was a coercive meritocracy of promotion and demotion geared toward social control, and it mimicked many of the class and race structures of the state's political economy. It was also wracked by corruption. Though racial hierarchies could work at cross-purposes to putatively color-blind redemptive ideologies, in practice, racial hierarchy and redemption commonly interwove. Moreover, the association between masculinities and labor created a key tension in the struggle for officials to control prisoners' labor, and for prisoners to control themselves. Notions of manhood figured centrally in officials' justification of forced labor but also in prisoners' opposition to that labor. Prisoners, too, had their own understandings of the work they did and only sometimes did they coincide with what officials intended.
Ethan Blue
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814709405
- eISBN:
- 9780814723166
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814709405.003.0004
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter describes the braided overt and covert economies of cash, favors, contraband, sex, and sexual violence through which Texas and California institutions functioned. Select prisoners played ...
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This chapter describes the braided overt and covert economies of cash, favors, contraband, sex, and sexual violence through which Texas and California institutions functioned. Select prisoners played lynchpin roles in each state. In Texas, building tenders (prisoners appointed by guards to keep order in the dormitories where inmates slept) were the key figures, but in California, prisoners called “con bosses” were the most important. As the heads of prison departments and managers of productive processes, con bosses cultivated political and economic relationships to their personal advantage, often to the detriment of other prisoners. Building tenders and con bosses linked the official productive forces of the prisons to their informal economies, where markets of economic, sexual, violent, symbolic, and bureaucratic capital combined in dense networks of authority. Each of these systems undermined the possibilities of inmate solidarity, as prisoners frequently found themselves pitted against one another, rather than against the keepers of their institutions. To this end, the building tender and con boss systems undermined the “con ethic” that midcentury sociologists identified and romanticized, which suggested that prisoners supported each other against their keepers.Less
This chapter describes the braided overt and covert economies of cash, favors, contraband, sex, and sexual violence through which Texas and California institutions functioned. Select prisoners played lynchpin roles in each state. In Texas, building tenders (prisoners appointed by guards to keep order in the dormitories where inmates slept) were the key figures, but in California, prisoners called “con bosses” were the most important. As the heads of prison departments and managers of productive processes, con bosses cultivated political and economic relationships to their personal advantage, often to the detriment of other prisoners. Building tenders and con bosses linked the official productive forces of the prisons to their informal economies, where markets of economic, sexual, violent, symbolic, and bureaucratic capital combined in dense networks of authority. Each of these systems undermined the possibilities of inmate solidarity, as prisoners frequently found themselves pitted against one another, rather than against the keepers of their institutions. To this end, the building tender and con boss systems undermined the “con ethic” that midcentury sociologists identified and romanticized, which suggested that prisoners supported each other against their keepers.
E.Zimring Franklin, Gordon Hawkins, and Sam Kamin
- Published in print:
- 2003
- Published Online:
- March 2012
- ISBN:
- 9780195171174
- eISBN:
- 9780199849765
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195171174.003.0008
- Subject:
- Law, Criminal Law and Criminology
This chapter examines the impact of five years of operation of Three Strikes on the criminal and appellate courts, on the prison population, and on the politics of criminal justice reform. It briefly ...
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This chapter examines the impact of five years of operation of Three Strikes on the criminal and appellate courts, on the prison population, and on the politics of criminal justice reform. It briefly outlines some major developments in the first half-decade after the new law took effect. The major headings in this analysis are the courts, the state correctional system, and the politics of criminal justice. The short-term impact of the Three Strikes era on California prisons was not substantial. However, the passage of Three Strikes has energized a single-issue politics that has destabilized the legal principles and operating practices of the criminal justice system.Less
This chapter examines the impact of five years of operation of Three Strikes on the criminal and appellate courts, on the prison population, and on the politics of criminal justice reform. It briefly outlines some major developments in the first half-decade after the new law took effect. The major headings in this analysis are the courts, the state correctional system, and the politics of criminal justice. The short-term impact of the Three Strikes era on California prisons was not substantial. However, the passage of Three Strikes has energized a single-issue politics that has destabilized the legal principles and operating practices of the criminal justice system.
Ethan Blue
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814709405
- eISBN:
- 9780814723166
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814709405.003.0010
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book tells the story of the Great Depression from the state prisons of Texas and California, where the misery of the ...
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This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book tells the story of the Great Depression from the state prisons of Texas and California, where the misery of the crisis was indeed multiplied. Texas and California were states on the border of the nation, which saw dynamic population growth in short periods of time. They were also states where people who traveled diverse paths met, lived, loved, and fought. The argument in the subsequent chapters operates at two levels. The first level posits that criminal justice functioned to control large numbers of multiracial working classes in Texas and California, and predominantly working-class men, in a period of widespread economic crisis. The second level of analysis argues that state punishment sustained a racially divided, masculinist, working-class population, and that the social forces prisons generated undermined the promise of radical working-class movements.Less
This introductory chapter provides an overview of the book's main themes. This book tells the story of the Great Depression from the state prisons of Texas and California, where the misery of the crisis was indeed multiplied. Texas and California were states on the border of the nation, which saw dynamic population growth in short periods of time. They were also states where people who traveled diverse paths met, lived, loved, and fought. The argument in the subsequent chapters operates at two levels. The first level posits that criminal justice functioned to control large numbers of multiracial working classes in Texas and California, and predominantly working-class men, in a period of widespread economic crisis. The second level of analysis argues that state punishment sustained a racially divided, masculinist, working-class population, and that the social forces prisons generated undermined the promise of radical working-class movements.
Ethan Blue
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814709405
- eISBN:
- 9780814723166
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814709405.003.0007
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter focuses on death and dying in Texas and California prisons in the 1930s. Mortality rates in Texas generally declined during the period, even as the prison population grew in total ...
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This chapter focuses on death and dying in Texas and California prisons in the 1930s. Mortality rates in Texas generally declined during the period, even as the prison population grew in total numbers. This probably reflected the centralization of the medical system at Texas prisons. In the same years California's mortality rate was broadly stable, and generally lower than Texas'. Nonetheless, mortality rates in California and Texas penitentiaries were significantly higher than rates for the general populations of their respective states and of the nation overall. This was true despite the fact that the prisons consisted overwhelmingly of young men, who, given their youth, would presumably not die in large numbers. Racism differentiated and allocated life chances. Data is unavailable from California, but evidence from Texas confirms that black prisoners died at higher rates than Mexican or white prisoners.Less
This chapter focuses on death and dying in Texas and California prisons in the 1930s. Mortality rates in Texas generally declined during the period, even as the prison population grew in total numbers. This probably reflected the centralization of the medical system at Texas prisons. In the same years California's mortality rate was broadly stable, and generally lower than Texas'. Nonetheless, mortality rates in California and Texas penitentiaries were significantly higher than rates for the general populations of their respective states and of the nation overall. This was true despite the fact that the prisons consisted overwhelmingly of young men, who, given their youth, would presumably not die in large numbers. Racism differentiated and allocated life chances. Data is unavailable from California, but evidence from Texas confirms that black prisoners died at higher rates than Mexican or white prisoners.
Ethan Blue
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814709405
- eISBN:
- 9780814723166
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814709405.003.0009
- Subject:
- History, Social History
This chapter discusses the impact of World War II on Texas and California prisons. In California, its massively overcrowded institutions grew quieter as prisoners ensnared by the Depression were ...
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This chapter discusses the impact of World War II on Texas and California prisons. In California, its massively overcrowded institutions grew quieter as prisoners ensnared by the Depression were paroled or finished their sentences, and as numbers of new inmates decreased. Good jobs in war industries and the demand for soldiers across the armed forces drained the pool of potential inmates. Not only were there fewer state prisoners during World War II, but labor assignments diversified. Work proved to be a key source of prisoners' identification as patriotic Americans. In Texas, wartime prison populations fell as they did in California. But by every account, conditions in Texas prisons changed for the worse. Perhaps this occurred because the prison's agricultural production had expanded so greatly during the Depression that the prison system itself, like the economy of the previous decade, had reached a crisis of overproduction. There were too few inmates to make the farms run, too few inmates to be contained efficiently, too few laborers for the prison to operate as smoothly as it once had. The remainder of the chapter covers the postwar Texas and California prison systems.Less
This chapter discusses the impact of World War II on Texas and California prisons. In California, its massively overcrowded institutions grew quieter as prisoners ensnared by the Depression were paroled or finished their sentences, and as numbers of new inmates decreased. Good jobs in war industries and the demand for soldiers across the armed forces drained the pool of potential inmates. Not only were there fewer state prisoners during World War II, but labor assignments diversified. Work proved to be a key source of prisoners' identification as patriotic Americans. In Texas, wartime prison populations fell as they did in California. But by every account, conditions in Texas prisons changed for the worse. Perhaps this occurred because the prison's agricultural production had expanded so greatly during the Depression that the prison system itself, like the economy of the previous decade, had reached a crisis of overproduction. There were too few inmates to make the farms run, too few inmates to be contained efficiently, too few laborers for the prison to operate as smoothly as it once had. The remainder of the chapter covers the postwar Texas and California prison systems.
Ethan Blue
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- March 2016
- ISBN:
- 9780814709405
- eISBN:
- 9780814723166
- Item type:
- book
- Publisher:
- NYU Press
- DOI:
- 10.18574/nyu/9780814709405.001.0001
- Subject:
- History, Social History
As banks crashed, belts tightened, and cupboards emptied across the country, American prisons grew fat. This book tells the story of the 1930s as seen from the cell blocks and cotton fields of Texas ...
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As banks crashed, belts tightened, and cupboards emptied across the country, American prisons grew fat. This book tells the story of the 1930s as seen from the cell blocks and cotton fields of Texas and California prisons, state institutions that held growing numbers of working people from around the country and the world—overwhelmingly poor, disproportionately non-white, and displaced by economic crisis. The book paints a vivid portrait of everyday life inside Texas and California's penal systems. Each element of prison life—from numbing boredom to hard labor, from meager pleasure in popular culture to crushing pain from illness or violence—demonstrated a contest between keepers and the kept. From the moment they arrived to the day they would leave, inmates struggled over the meanings of race and manhood, power and poverty, and of the state itself. This book argues that punishment in California and Texas played a critical role in producing a distinctive set of class, race, and gender identities in the 1930s, some of which reinforced the social hierarchies and ideologies of New Deal America, and others of which undercut and troubled the established social order. It reveals the underside of the modern state in two very different prison systems, and the making of grim institutions whose power would only grow across the century.Less
As banks crashed, belts tightened, and cupboards emptied across the country, American prisons grew fat. This book tells the story of the 1930s as seen from the cell blocks and cotton fields of Texas and California prisons, state institutions that held growing numbers of working people from around the country and the world—overwhelmingly poor, disproportionately non-white, and displaced by economic crisis. The book paints a vivid portrait of everyday life inside Texas and California's penal systems. Each element of prison life—from numbing boredom to hard labor, from meager pleasure in popular culture to crushing pain from illness or violence—demonstrated a contest between keepers and the kept. From the moment they arrived to the day they would leave, inmates struggled over the meanings of race and manhood, power and poverty, and of the state itself. This book argues that punishment in California and Texas played a critical role in producing a distinctive set of class, race, and gender identities in the 1930s, some of which reinforced the social hierarchies and ideologies of New Deal America, and others of which undercut and troubled the established social order. It reveals the underside of the modern state in two very different prison systems, and the making of grim institutions whose power would only grow across the century.
Joel Sachs
- Published in print:
- 2012
- Published Online:
- May 2015
- ISBN:
- 9780195108958
- eISBN:
- 9780190268015
- Item type:
- chapter
- Publisher:
- Oxford University Press
- DOI:
- 10.1093/acprof:osobl/9780195108958.003.0034
- Subject:
- Music, History, American
This chapter focuses on Henry Cowell's imprisonment in California's San Quentin Prison in 1936 due to a morals charge involving a young man. As the spring of 1937 turned to summer, the California ...
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This chapter focuses on Henry Cowell's imprisonment in California's San Quentin Prison in 1936 due to a morals charge involving a young man. As the spring of 1937 turned to summer, the California Board of Prison Terms and Paroles had to determine Henry's sentence. Unfortunately for him, the system had major flaws. Indeterminate sentencing was conceived as an inducement to good behavior and endorsed by prison authorities as a tool for controlling inmates. Paradoxically, parole, the prospect of which was also intended to induce good behavior, could lead to a prisoner's serving the maximum term because parole is effectively imprisonment outside the walls. Henry was warned that a minimum prison term was very unlikely. He hired (John) Douglas Short as his new lawyer, who felt that a letter-writing campaign emphasizing Henry's good qualities was appropriate. In the end, the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles set a sentence of fifteen years, with no parole consideration until half the sentence was served. If Henry got full credit for “good time”—something which was never guaranteed—half-time would be four years and eight months.Less
This chapter focuses on Henry Cowell's imprisonment in California's San Quentin Prison in 1936 due to a morals charge involving a young man. As the spring of 1937 turned to summer, the California Board of Prison Terms and Paroles had to determine Henry's sentence. Unfortunately for him, the system had major flaws. Indeterminate sentencing was conceived as an inducement to good behavior and endorsed by prison authorities as a tool for controlling inmates. Paradoxically, parole, the prospect of which was also intended to induce good behavior, could lead to a prisoner's serving the maximum term because parole is effectively imprisonment outside the walls. Henry was warned that a minimum prison term was very unlikely. He hired (John) Douglas Short as his new lawyer, who felt that a letter-writing campaign emphasizing Henry's good qualities was appropriate. In the end, the Board of Prison Terms and Paroles set a sentence of fifteen years, with no parole consideration until half the sentence was served. If Henry got full credit for “good time”—something which was never guaranteed—half-time would be four years and eight months.