stormlightreader 's review for:

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis

3.5

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This book is written by an anti-prison activist and this is disclosed at the start of the book, which I appreciated. So, my expectations were appropriately set. 

The book does raise some good questions...:

• Why are we so comfortable with prisons?
• What good are prisoners to society if they remain illiterate?

...and has some very thought-provoking quotes:

"The prison is considered so "natural" that it is extremely hard to imagine life without it"

 "It is virtually impossible to avoid consuming images of prison"

 
The suggested alternatives (listed below) are understandable but I find it hard to believe that they are likely to ever happen. This book approaches a very nuanced topic that would not have one single solution. However, as someone from the opposite viewpoint of the author, I feel that this book generalises a little too much

(likening prisons to, or being worse than, slavery and implying that prisoners have become modern-day slaves)

and it tars a lot of people with the same brush

(implying that all people think prisoners are people of colour)

. I would be keen to read a book on this topic from a balanced viewpoint.

Suggested alternatives: 

• no single replacement - agreed
• no prison-like alternatives like house arrest
• decarceration - demilitarisation of schools (what?), revitalisation of education at all levels (agreed, but at what cost to teachers?), a health care system that provides free physical and mental health care (exists in the UK at the cost of the taxpayer, so not unrealistic) and a justice system that focuses on reparation and reconciliation (vague).