Medium Post #10

Before I engaged in this week’s course material, I had a pretty solid amount of knowledge on the given topics. As a class, we have discussed prison reform and mass incarceration in great depth (I have also talked about it at length in my Challenges of Modernity class). I found The Intercepted podcast especially interesting: especially the description of prison’s normalization in America. Prison’s prevalence in media and culture has instilled the idea of prison in the heads of so many Americans. So much so, that we have forgotten its true origins: it was first created to control runaway slaves! Now, however, it has become a permanent institution of America — something that is no longer being questioned — something that is accepted as a given of American society. According to the podcast, prison reform is not the solution. Reforming the current system, she argues, is simply changing an already corrupt and oppressive society. Consequently, the most effective course of action would be to create an entirely new system — one which justice isn’t served through institutionalization. As I described in class, I partially agree with this view. The system in place right now is pretty evidently ineffective — and there is no question there has to be changes implemented somehow. However, relying on citizens to account for justice is a stretch. When I try to think about a new and improved society and jailing system, one in which institutionalization isn’t justice — it is hard to do so because we are all so used to correlating justice and jail. To create an entirely new medium of justice, one that most likely would be very easy to avoid, seems unrealistic. I don’t have all the answers, nor do I know what the prison system will look like in the future or what the most effective course of action would be. I do know, however, that it needs to be changed or replaced as soon as possible. We need to redefine justice as a whole and make a collective decision on how to assign punishment and hold accountability. It is evident our current system does none of the above. I do think a completely trust-based justice system would not work well, though I do think it would be an improvement over our current system. We need to find the balance between this overly restrictive and marginalizing system now and the utter freedom on the opposite side of the scale.