Reviews tagging 'Emotional abuse'

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis

7 reviews

headachesince03's review against another edition

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challenging dark informative inspiring

4.75


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novella42's review against another edition

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challenging dark emotional informative inspiring sad slow-paced

5.0

A powerful read, and a perspective shift I had never thought to question before. I'm glad I had the author-read audiobook, spending five hours listening to the incomparable Angela Davis was well worth the time.

"What would it mean to imagine a system in which punishment is not allowed to become the source of corporate profit? How can we imagine a society in which race and class are not primary determinants of punishment? Or one in which punishment itself is no longer the central concern in the making of justice? 

"An abolitionist approach that seeks to answer questions such as these would require us to imagine a constellation of alternative strategies and institutions, with the ultimate aim of removing the prison from the social and ideological landscapes of our society."

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eve81's review against another edition

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hopeful informative inspiring reflective medium-paced

4.5


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oworthyfool's review against another edition

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challenging informative medium-paced

5.0


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thoughtsontomes's review against another edition

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dark informative medium-paced

4.0

This is a good starting point for studying the links between prisons, capitalism, and racism. It does provide some starting points for alternatives to prisons at the end, but that topic requires further reading. This is much more about the point of the title - that prisons should be obsolete and what is happening behind closed doors. 

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flamingtashhh's review

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emotional hopeful informative reflective fast-paced

5.0

I mean, it’s a classic for a reason. Often cited and never replicated, Davis’ work just had me unraveling question after question. I feel like a lot of the material that she covered is material I’m familiar with at this point, but because her work has been cited so often. 

Some things I’d like to explore more following this book:
1. The colonization of the land by prisons. What effect on the environment and our connection to it does the logic and PHYSICAL fact of prisons have? 
2. Racial capitalism and borders. How does the global migration of labor impact prisons? What similarities does this share with the Atlantic Slave Trade? 
3. Gender-making and prisons. What does the logic of prison reform do to our notions of gender? How is this related to colonial notions of gender and citizenship? 
4. Punishment and violence, specifically an expansion of the idea that domestic and sexual violence is the basis of punishment in women’s prisons. 

There’s more.

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jehansflowers's review against another edition

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challenging informative reflective medium-paced
i dont really feel comfortable giving this book a star rating, but it was absolutely brilliant. its incredibly well written and very informative. she fits a lot of information into a small book with accessible writing. she makes a shit ton of brilliant points, with heaps of research, evidence, and experience, and both puts into words concepts that i could never accurately express, and shares multifaceted and very intelligent points that i never would have thought of myself. all in all, highly recommend for people who have been involved with abolition for decades, baby leftists, or for anyone you're trying to radicalize

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