Are Prisons Obsolete?

By: Angela Y. Davis

Narrated by: Angela Y. Davis

Length: 4 hrs and 56 mins

Publisher's summary

With her characteristic brilliance, grace, and radical audacity, Angela Y. Davis has put the case for the latest abolition movement in American life: the abolition of the prison. As she quite correctly notes, American life is replete with abolition movements, and when they were engaged in these struggles, their chances of success seemed almost unthinkable. For generations of Americans, the abolition of slavery was sheerest illusion. Similarly, the entrenched system of racial segregation seemed to last forever, and generations lived in the midst of the practice, with few predicting its passage from custom. The brutal, exploitative (dare one say lucrative?) convict-lease system that succeeded formal slavery reaped millions to southern jurisdictions (and untold miseries for tens of thousands of men, and women). Few predicted its passing from the American penal landscape. Davis expertly argues how social movements transformed these social, political, and cultural institutions, and made such practices untenable.

In Are Prisons Obsolete?, Professor Davis seeks to illustrate that the time for the prison is approaching an end. She argues forthrightly for "decarceration," and argues for the transformation of the society as a whole.

©2003 Angela Y. Davis (P)2022 Tantor

Deconstructing for Me

I could not recommend this more to folks who believe police are the end all.

Deeply important

And incredible and transformational way of looking at our own humanities and a call to action for all of us to get curious about the ways in which we show up for one another and the ways in which we look at justice or so we currently call it but it doesn’t seem to resemble justice at all

Buying the paperback now too

Dr Angela Y Davis’ words are powerful, pointant, and relevant to today for the work that needs to be done/reimagined within prisons, education and overall restorative justice.

Such an important read!

As a white woman, Angela’s books have helped me learn so much. This book is especially important. In order to understand the prison industrial complex, we must understand the history of incarceration, racial justice and true rehabilitation. As Angela says, prison doesn’t disappear social problems, it disappears human beings. There is a better way to look at and treat “crime”.

Excellent. What we need to move towards.

This is what we need to move towards as a society world wide. Highly recommended.

Thought Provoking

A radically thought provoking work - whether you agree or not with her conclusion, her premise and the detailed research that went into it is carefully considered and explained. I really enjoyed listening to this book!

though I originally thought her reading was a little slow, I came to appreciate her cadence, which allowed me to listen carefully and think through what she was saying.

Should be required in every American history curriculum across the globe.

Should be required American history curriculum in every place it is taught. Shocking that this history is being denied by those in power who profit from our ignorance. Bravo Angela Davis.

Choir preaching for those seeking cathartic confirmation bias

I’m disappointed. Considering the books title, I was expecting a rigorous analysis into the prison system and from that analysis, an argument that would be brought to answer the question “Are prisons obsolete?” Instead, this book gives you something else. This thing the book gives you is what so many radical and leftist literature unfortunately gives their readers: choir preaching and cathartic confirmation bias. Throughout the book, the author lists statistics and claims about policing and prison (with thin/non-existent evidence) with hardly any analysis of the statistic. It’s like the author expects the audience to gasp at the injustice and agree with the implicit claim set forth in this lonely statistic, and somehow make the incredible leap that prisons need to be abolished. An actual argument needs to be made in this book, not a casual list of perpective-heavy injustices for a select radical audience. If this book or author hopes to achieve any of the abolitionist dreams talked about, a courageous exploration into the hardest topics of the subject need to be done FOR an audience that isn’t clapping before the show starts.