The Moral Hazard of Mass Imprisonment 10/01/2011
 Gordon Gekko the sleazy anti-hero in Oliver Stone's "Wall Street" returns in the sequel "Money Never Sleeps" to lecture about the "moral hazard" of a financial system largely dominated by investment bankers playing with other people's money, and who are ultimately protected from the risks of collapse by a government that considers them "too big to fail". In very simple terms, Stone asks his audience to consider why Wall Street sleaze like Gekko wouldn't risk it all, when there is really nothing at risk? This seems to me a powerful metaphor for the state of American punishment and criminal justice. Though the heart-wrenching spectacle of capital punishment seems to have shed a critical light on some of the workings of our legal system recently, the American carceral project as a whole receives little attention, outside a select group of academics and activists. Here is the point. The brutal spectacle of mass imprisonment, characterized by "super max" prisons isolating some for years on end, life without parole for youth convicted of murder, three strikes penalties and life sentences for petty crimes, and a monolith of prisoners topping well over 2 million more racialized than South African apartheid and more vast than the Soviet gulags—enters the consciousness of a select few. While I am delighted at the growing anger and dissent aimed toward the Gekkos of the world— as evidenced by the occupation of Wall Street. Perhaps it is time to more fully question the implications for a society intent to govern through crime, at home and abroad. Why care for suffering of prisoners, or the families left behind when the balance of us have nothing to risk? After all they’re just criminals, or the unfortunate family of criminals. If this is the case, perhaps its time to recognize that we are much more like Gordon Gekko than we care to admit. More importantly, for those of us beyond the reach of criminal justice, as Jeff Ferrell recently urged, it is time to ask what it is about our lives that allows us to go years without being harassed by police, stopped for driving in the wrong neighborhood, or have family in prison-to enjoy the moral hazard. Maybe then, we can more fully contemplate the rise of mass imprisonment and plan for its demise. Add Comment The Twittering of Late Modernity. 11/24/2009
 Fighting crime one tweet at a time! The CBS news brings us the story of a new, or perhaps not so new development in the late modern obsession with crime. "Block Watchers" in Columbus Ohio, "Use Twitter to Keep Neighbors Alerted, Criminals at Bay". A group of residents in the upscale neighborhood now utilize the "best" of social networking to "tweet" out messages to one another about potential threats in their neighborhood. Offering an explanation for the rise in this tactic the author writes: "While some groups form after break-ins or muggings, there are signs of increased interest as law enforcement agencies are strained by layoffs and furloughs amid ballooning budget deficits." While "break ins" and "lay offs" might be this writer's explanation for the emergence of this strain of cyber-aided paranoia, I believe folks like Zygmunt Bauman, Jock Young and John Simon might be able to offer more compelling explanations. Vonnegut had a little to say about wars fought from a place of knee jerk visceral fear- "And even if the wars didn't keep coming like glaciers, there would still be plain old death."-Po-TWEET indeed. I GOT VIOLENCE 10/27/2009
 The Political & The Punitive 07/10/2009
 The Rapid City Journal reports that a South Dakota judge has allegedly ordered a medical marijuana advocate to cease all efforts toward marijuana law reform as a condition of his probation (for possession of marijuana). The Judge's stated rationale in attempting to silence this activist is that most of "his truancy cases are using pot" suggesting a causal relationship between drug use and delinquency. Regardless, I question the appropriateness of ordering a probationer to cease legal, community activism as a condition of probation. This case appears to be a clear example of the punishment aparatus being used to articulate political power, and silence dissent. PER DIEM 05/19/2009
 Open up another case file, she says This one’s yours Somewhere along the line I decided to help What did this little asshole do? Sort of joking Mostly not Weed? Damn The worst to supervise So easy to catch Fuck it, we got a new grant Detention days for probation violations 23 hours in, 1 out Just like a Super Max At $152.50 per day Nickels and time Kids and dollars A “promising approach” is what I’m told Helping I tell people And myself Never catching on I’ve been tryin’ to fix a pocket watch With a sledge hammer I’m a fool with blunt tools Beating the delicate into submission Pissing away time At $152.50 a day None the wiser Back on the tally for the next government dole Why so many blacks in detention? She asks Knowing the answer $152.50, $152.50, $152.50, $152.50 The days don’t end Top of the world ma’ Guess that approach wasn’t so promising That’s a lot of days And ball games And family time And good stuff That’s a lot of mothers And courtroom breakdowns As I marched off their kids For a day Maybe more And I sold all of those days On the cheap For Gestapo wages and a goosestep badge That’s a lot to take in When you’re trying to help Penal Spectatorship & The Slammer 05/13/2009
http://www.slammernews.com/ In a time when traditional print journalism is gasping for air, entrepreneurs in North Carolina bring us The Slammer. The Slammer is a weekly tabloid style periodical that provides "crime stories", and a variety "best of" mug shots, while also highlighting a heroic public servant. The emergence of The Slammer is more evidence of the American consumer's fascination with crime and criminals. Readers can keep tabs of local arrests, and entertaining categories of "best hair mug shot" to mundane "DWI"" and drug arrests. More interestingly, The Slammer features "Mature Menaces" reporting the arrests of older folks, for menacing acts such as a "simple worthless check" or "failure to appear". Almost certainly, the publication is produced in concert with local authorities, with a portion of the $1 per issue price going to public coffers. I cannot think of another instance recently where the pain of others, both victims & offenders (yes offenders) is more blatantly commodified. Like myriad TV crime shows that multiply seemingly overnight, and even the old school police blotter, The Slammer allows us, the consumer, to view the spectacle of crime and punishment from afar, without involvement in the messy business of real lives or the wreckage left behind. Michelle Brown and others describe this apathetic gaze as "penal spectatorship" or a situation where a group of privileged citizens can consume crime and punishment affecting real lives from afar. Is it really that hard then to understand the scale of mass incarceration with a population so disconnected from the reality of crime and punishment, and so in love with romantic and entertaining "crime products" produced and consumed at every turn? For most of us, the answer is no. More importantly, with publishers of The Slammer promising to expand to Columbus soon, it does not appear that the public is ready to cast its gaze elsewhere or pitch in on work with a little more humane and socially constructive tenor. The end of the semester takes its toll on students and faculty. I have to say I was pleasantly surprised by the final projects turned in by my Sociology of the Criminal Justice System students. This video by Sabrina Williams is an excellent example of student work that can make teaching a little more worthwhile during the drain of the semester's last leg.  John Simon's (2007) recent work Governing Through Crime: How the War on Crime Transformed American Democracy and Created a Culture of Fear illustrates convincingly how tough on crime rhetoric, transformed into political capital now pervades not only the legal domain, but all corners of the social as well. Here, crime is now a fundamental organizing principle of everyday life, and reified in various institutions (social services, education, etc). As Simon argues, governing through crime extends “forms of knowledge historically associated with crime-the criminal law, popular crime narrative, and criminology-available outside their limited original subject domains as powerful tools with which to interpret and frame all forms of social action as a problem for governance.” (Simon, 2007: 17) This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar.  National news outlets are enamored with the strange story of an Ohio man that was cited for DUI after calling paramedics for care following an accident on a motorized bar stool. Albeit we can come up with a variety of plausible contingencies that could have caused this man or another citizen considerable trouble, fact is, that didn’t happen. I am left to wonder how prosecution of this man, who reportedly wrecked the barstool on his own property furthers the interest of community safety or justice. Instead I argue that this is another example of the mindless processing machine that is criminal justice. Increasingly it seems those we trust to administer criminal prosecution and punishment live by the mantra…if it may have been a crime, prosecute. In the end perhaps the best option would be to leave the man to his own devices, cheap beer, small engine ingenuity, and a large lump on his head. Natural (Light) Consequences. This is your new blog post. Click here and start typing, or drag in elements from the top bar. Orwell, Bentham, Facebook me. 03/02/2009
The Seattle Parenting Examiner reports on a recent case of late modern surveillance. It appears that a young lady named Kim Swan was fired from her job recently after a coworker spotted her facebook post describing her first day on the job as "boring". The manager not wanting the organization to "end up in the news" fired her quite promptly. This sort of happening is/was quite inevitable, however one has to wonder, just where the panoptic reach of cyber stalking, or in this case cyber tattling ends. Certainly we should all be cautioned that everything we post on the internet is fair game (insert irony here). However, the manager's heavy handed "INGSOC" maneuver must remind us all that we are under the anonymous gaze of any "authority" with a facebook account. From the article: | ArchivesOctober 2011 Loading... ArchivesOctober 2011 CategoriesAll |
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