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Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Nat Smith, Eric A. Stanley
tophat8855's review against another edition
4.0
Listened via hoopla. Good stuff to mull over. Good history to know. Think about your own part in dismantling the prison industrial complex.
11corvus11's review against another edition
5.0
I hesitantly gave this book 5 stars because about 2/3+ of the contributions are heavily academic and not accessible to the vast majority of people including most people in prisons. That said, if you look at it more as a book for folks who need to understand prisons and prison abolition better, it's a great book for that. There were a few more accessible essays in it from people currently or formerly in prison that most folks could get into. There are some great tidbits of queer history that folks don't generally know about. And the very academic ones offered some great elaborations to many abolitionist questions folks get regarding things like hate crimes laws, specialty prisons, and so on. Overall, recommended. But, don't feel bad if it's too academic for you.
lattelibrarian's review against another edition
5.0
If you're looking for a light beach read, this isn't it. This is filled with essays and entries on the prison industrial complex through an abolitionist and pro-trans rights lens. Some entries are by professors, others by those who remain incarcerated or who have been previously incarcerated. They detail their time there, what goes on, the statistics of such a huge system, and what we can do to both change and subvert the system.
And yet for such an wonderful, thick, and informative book, I read this surprisingly quickly. Each chapter was compelling and well sourced, and they all drove the anti-prison point home. They suggest deconstructing the notion of a good prisoner vs a bad prisoner (someone incarcerated for stealing when they were starving vs a murderer), and deconstructing the notion of a deserving prisoner.
Overall, I found this to be compelling, though I did have a few caveats. For instance, I felt as though many authors offered rehabilitation or some sort of reintroduction to society for those who committed extremely serious crimes (rape and/or murder, for example), and even for those who were incarcerated for minor crimes (drug possession, self-defense, for example). Yet for those incarcerated for minor crimes--they aren't a threat to anyone, necessarily, and many of the crimes they committed are due to the root of the problem with our society--not enough food, warmth, shelter, safety, and so on. Yet most major crimes are not to do with a root of a problem. They're due to horrific socialization and the preservation of a (generally) male-dominated, white supremacy headspace. And that's something you can't deconstruct after murder and rape. That headspace stays with you for the rest of your life, and it's been proven with a study done on the topic of incarcerated rapists being released and going through a therapy/counseling/rehabilitation program only to be accused and detained for raping once more. Also, in my not so humble opinion, rapists don't deserve to even live, so....sorry lol I'll root for prison abolition except for everybody but them because they've already proven that they're unfixable scum. WHOOPS. And, besides, most rapists don't even go to prison anyways.
Another caveat is to do with the root of the problem within prisons--overall, yes, prisons are the BIGGEST issue and should therefore be dissolved and critiqued. Yet at the moment, we do have to deal with prisons existing, and we should do what we can to both work towards prisoner rights and welfare alongside deconstructing prisons. However, most (MOST) abuse towards prisoners are done by...white men. That's not to say that hiring more women, trans, GNC, and people of color would make things better, because as far as prisons go, it won't, but the fact that so many beatings and neglect and abuse is because of white men was something that wasn't necessarily mentioned. Perhaps it's inferrable, but I would have liked it if somebody just stated it point-blank.
And now back to the positives! One of my favorite things about this book was that at the end, the editors provide resources to help support your learning about and deconstruction of the prison industrial complex as well as different ways you can help the various movements currently going on! AND, this book is published by an anarchist press that will give you a 30% discount if you purchase a book to go towards a prison. Which is amazing!
Overall, this book is truly a great resource, and I'm glad to have happened upon it when I did.
Review cross-listed here!
And yet for such an wonderful, thick, and informative book, I read this surprisingly quickly. Each chapter was compelling and well sourced, and they all drove the anti-prison point home. They suggest deconstructing the notion of a good prisoner vs a bad prisoner (someone incarcerated for stealing when they were starving vs a murderer), and deconstructing the notion of a deserving prisoner.
Overall, I found this to be compelling, though I did have a few caveats. For instance, I felt as though many authors offered rehabilitation or some sort of reintroduction to society for those who committed extremely serious crimes (rape and/or murder, for example), and even for those who were incarcerated for minor crimes (drug possession, self-defense, for example). Yet for those incarcerated for minor crimes--they aren't a threat to anyone, necessarily, and many of the crimes they committed are due to the root of the problem with our society--not enough food, warmth, shelter, safety, and so on. Yet most major crimes are not to do with a root of a problem. They're due to horrific socialization and the preservation of a (generally) male-dominated, white supremacy headspace. And that's something you can't deconstruct after murder and rape. That headspace stays with you for the rest of your life, and it's been proven with a study done on the topic of incarcerated rapists being released and going through a therapy/counseling/rehabilitation program only to be accused and detained for raping once more. Also, in my not so humble opinion, rapists don't deserve to even live, so....sorry lol I'll root for prison abolition except for everybody but them because they've already proven that they're unfixable scum. WHOOPS. And, besides, most rapists don't even go to prison anyways.
Another caveat is to do with the root of the problem within prisons--overall, yes, prisons are the BIGGEST issue and should therefore be dissolved and critiqued. Yet at the moment, we do have to deal with prisons existing, and we should do what we can to both work towards prisoner rights and welfare alongside deconstructing prisons. However, most (MOST) abuse towards prisoners are done by...white men. That's not to say that hiring more women, trans, GNC, and people of color would make things better, because as far as prisons go, it won't, but the fact that so many beatings and neglect and abuse is because of white men was something that wasn't necessarily mentioned. Perhaps it's inferrable, but I would have liked it if somebody just stated it point-blank.
And now back to the positives! One of my favorite things about this book was that at the end, the editors provide resources to help support your learning about and deconstruction of the prison industrial complex as well as different ways you can help the various movements currently going on! AND, this book is published by an anarchist press that will give you a 30% discount if you purchase a book to go towards a prison. Which is amazing!
Overall, this book is truly a great resource, and I'm glad to have happened upon it when I did.
Review cross-listed here!
ahanyok's review against another edition
5.0
Required reading for queer & trans activists and prison abolitionists.
pink_distro's review against another edition
5.0
really amazing collection. i cant even think of how i would pull out highlights because of the breadth and depth of the many different writings.
there are histories here, mini-memoirs, theoretical writings, sociological (kinda?) studies, a few more artistic explorative writings, interviews, and more. all of them deal with transness, queerness, and the prison-industrial-complex, each in all of their expansiveness. there are tales of individual experiences and collective organizing, and there is all together a sharp analysis of how gender, policing, imprisonment, sexuality, race, power, class, and more operate. and that analysis rises from careful examination of and often self-reflection on the realities trans/queer/gender-non-conforming people in prison, in housing projects, in outside anti-prison organizations, in street economies, in riots, in border crossings, in bathhouses, in pen-pal relationships, and indeed in conservative 'lgbt rights' lobbying groups that are on the other side of the P-I-C.
im grateful for all that's been brought together in this book and what it gives abolitionists, trans people, and their comrades. now i just am hoping i revisit the entries in here as much as they deserve !!
there are histories here, mini-memoirs, theoretical writings, sociological (kinda?) studies, a few more artistic explorative writings, interviews, and more. all of them deal with transness, queerness, and the prison-industrial-complex, each in all of their expansiveness. there are tales of individual experiences and collective organizing, and there is all together a sharp analysis of how gender, policing, imprisonment, sexuality, race, power, class, and more operate. and that analysis rises from careful examination of and often self-reflection on the realities trans/queer/gender-non-conforming people in prison, in housing projects, in outside anti-prison organizations, in street economies, in riots, in border crossings, in bathhouses, in pen-pal relationships, and indeed in conservative 'lgbt rights' lobbying groups that are on the other side of the P-I-C.
im grateful for all that's been brought together in this book and what it gives abolitionists, trans people, and their comrades. now i just am hoping i revisit the entries in here as much as they deserve !!
katiehicks's review against another edition
4.5
An amazing and thought-provoking introduction to the theories which make up the prison abolition movement. The centering of formerly incarcerated folks, especially queer ones, and the inclusion of first hand accounts of the violence of the carceral state was extremely powerful.
That being said, I would have liked some sort of afterward by the editors to contextualize everything we just read. With so many different contributing authors (which, IMO was the appeal of this book), it would have been nice to have some sort of consistent through-line, especially since the grouping of the essays was sometimes very loose.
Some of my favorite quotes (from the first half, by the second half I was highlighting basically everything):
“When we recognize crime as symptomatic of broader social injustices rather than individual bad choices, we are better able to devise strategies that address root causes and actually reduce harm and violence.”
“Some argue that the answer to this problem is to encourage people to report violence to police and to advocate for criminal punishment against those who commit such acts of violence. But the introduction of hate crimes laws has not reduced violence against queer, trans, and gender non-conforming people. In fact, when we examine the overall impact of the criminal system, imprisonment has never worked effectively to protect communities from harm.”
“Addressing violence within and against our communities is a far too serious, urgent, and widespread an issue to be left to a system that has proven to be an utter failure when it comes to community safety.”
“The existing criminal justice model poses two main questions in the face of social harm: who did it? How can we punish them? (And increasingly, how can we make money from it?) Creating safe and healthy communities requires a different set of questions: who was harmed? How can we facilitate healing? How can we prevent such harm in the future?”
bookburningsheep's review against another edition
challenging
dark
informative
reflective
medium-paced
4.75