Recently, Chicago-based educator and writer Erica Meiners explained for Truthout readers why justifying new prisons as “humane” ignores the reality that prisons are inherently inhumane places.
As 20th century prisons begin to decay, we are seeing proposals for new prisons pop up across the country. This includes Illinois, where a $1.1B prison building project is under active consideration. As Meiners notes, politicians and prison profiteers often cloak these projects in progressive terminology, describing new prisons as “trauma-informed” or “models” for rehabilitation.
Through a historical analysis, Meiners looks at prisons past that were similarly described as progressive, and how those claims repeatedly fell short and even ran counter to the architecture and operation of those prisons, in which surveillance, poor conditions, and violence were common.
As part of the piece, Meiners references Illinois’s New New Prisons campaign, of which IEMI is a coalition member under our Carceral Infrastructure Project. The campaign is working to resist the new proposed prison in the state.