SJC Exchange Library

Originally posted by Wanda Bertram on 08/27/2024

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Hi friends,

For Labor Day, in partnership with labor studies professor Eric Seligman, the Prison Policy Initiative published a new briefing this morning breaking down how mass incarceration perpetuates and worsens economic injustice.

As you all well know, in low-income communities and even outside them, mass incarceration leaves its imprint on people struggling to make ends meet and on advocates working to secure a just economic future for all. Our briefing, 10 ways that mass incarceration is an engine of economic injustice and inequality, goes into depth about the criminal legal system's impact on a diverse range of communities and political campaigns fighting for a fairer society.

For example, we explain that mass incarceration:

• Suppresses the voting power not just of individuals with criminal convictions, but of entire low-income communities that retreat from civic engagement due to high rates of policing and punishment.

• Has promised to spur development in rural areas through prison-building, but failed to deliver good jobs and in many cases has made those communities weaker.

• Creates a class of people under "community supervision" who must maintain employment or face reincarceration - impacting entire sectors of workers trying to bargain for better wages and conditions.

This analysis will be especially useful for anyone looking to draw the connections between the interests of the "99%" and the harms of the criminal punishment system.

I hope this is useful in your work!

Take care,

Wanda Bertram

Prison Policy Initiative