Week 12: Prison

(On Ruth Wilson Gilmore's Golden Gulag Introduction and Chapters 3-5
and Film Screening: Prison Town, USA)

The documentary Prison Town really touched me in many different ways. It combined multiple stories of various groups of people, but I primarily cared about Jennifer and Lonnie's experience. When Jennifer first came on the screen was a mother who was struggling to keep her family together while her husband and her children's father was in jail, I didn't know to what extent the jail system influenced her family. The Crossroads provided food and shelter for inmates and their families who couldn't support themselves. Jennifer depended on the Crossroads while Lonnie, her husband, did his time 16 months for stealing food for his children. What I didn't know and later found out in the documentary was that both parents were imprisoned and their children were taken away by the CPS. It was extremely upsetting to say the least that they were almost forced into imprisonment. Lonnie lost his job as a professional aircraft painter due to 9/11 cutbacks so he couldn't provide for his children who were crying from hunger. Any parent would do anything to prevent their children from being distressed. Lonnie missed his younger son's first birthday and first word because he tried to feed him. Even after he finished his time and served parole under strict conditions, he had difficulty keeping his family together because the economy and society did not faciliate in any shape or form. Rather, Jennifer and Lonnie almost became homless because they weren't able to pay for their rent. Agencies and organizations like the Crossroads seem to be the only support that these people get. Coincidentally, I am working on a project for Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare on industrial prison complexes. It was shocking to find out that U.S. would give 5-12times longer jail time and the majority of inmates are imprisoned for non-criminal deeds. I am not against punishment or having those who did something wrong get what they supposedly deserve. I am more concerned with the fact that inmates have very little or no protection for their rights and privacy. Also, industrial prison complex see to perpetuate criminal activities in certain cases where gangs have control over the community within the jail system.

The Golden Gulag addresses many of my questions and concerns by explaining the situation in California by looking at almost all aspects--"economies, governments, cities, communities, and households"--to understand the growth of California's prison system (5). I especially appreciated that Gilmore had a realistic perspective by regarding "resolutions of surplus land, capital, labor, and state capacity congealed into prisons" and then even putting further effort into conceptualizing "how alternative uses of the resources of everyday life might [ideally] otherwise have been organized" (28-9). Among chapters three, four, and five, Chapter 5 caught my attentiong the most. As Gilmore hints about in the Introduction by saying that "the book begans as [...] research projects undertaken [...] on behalf of a group of mostly African American mothers" (5), the chapter was opened by a powerful quoe that I particularly liked: "Now that you have touched the women, you have struck a rock, you have dislodged a boulder, and you will be crushed," Gilmore made a powerful statement (181). The chapter identified and dealt with the difficulties of transracial unity and mobilization as it has been discussed by Hong during the week of 'Mutlracial spaces and the politics of solidarity.' This issue seems to rise often and I wonder if multiracial communities can overcome racial boundaries and unite.