Pillar 1
Mass incarceration and carceral punishment are forms of violence, often referred to as state violence
Why
Mass incarceration and carceral punishment are not only state-permitted, they are state run forms of violence intentionally designed to inflict physical and psychological suffering
The prison industrial complex has created a whole industry that profits from the violence enacted upon criminalized and incarcerated people and communities
Mass incarceration and carceral punishment are a continuation of colonization, chattel slavery, and white supremacy intended to subjugate specific groups of people, in particular Black and Indigenous people, poor people, and queer and trans people. They were created to destroy and criminalize spiritual, cultural and healing practices of Black and Indigenous communities, to exert control over these populations, and continue to do so today
Mass incarceration and carceral punishment have been central to criminalizing and punishing social movements, for Black liberation in particular, and resistance to state violence (from Black Panthers to Cop City)
Carceral punishment is designed to punish and strip people of their dignity and autonomy from arrest to reentry