Why We Care
The prison system works in a manner that uses freedom as a punishment. When we think about reintegration, freedom plays a huge role in that. Once free people are taken into jail, they are stripped of all of their freedom. Then, they are returned into society, and expected to be ready to regain all freedoms with very little guidance. Our project works to bring these stories to the forefront and tries to spark change within current reintegration programs that seem to be very ineffective.
"Prison continues to reflect the closure of doors of the democracy to major sectors of the U.S. population" |
Angela Davis by Oregon State University is licensed under a CC-BY SA 2.0.
The Transatlantic View
The problem of incarceration is something that stretches well beyond the US. In this project we look to uncover prison systems that work well in comparison to the United States. We will look at statistics from the United Kingdom and how their prison system does or does not disproportionately affect their population in terms of incarceration rates and reintegration.
Freedom
Freedom can be defined in many ways. When creating an overarching definition one can say freedom is the right to do as one pleases, within the boundaries other's freedoms, and be an active part of society who is recognized as a person, human, and citizen. By looking at the work of Angela Davis, we can see the clear connections between this definition of freedom and incarcerations, or furthermore, the lack of these aspects of freedom incarcerated people experience. Through these comparisons she makes and analyzing the ideas behind her writing, we can learn many things about the lives of incarcerated people and the issues they face while serving time, and after. The quote shown above is from Angela Davis's The Meaning of Freedom: And Other Difficult Dialogues and it demonstrates a glimpse of the unfreedoms incarcerated people experience.