GRIID Class on the Prison Industrial Complex in Kent County – Week #5

For week #5 in our collective investigation into the Prison Industrial Complex in Kent County, we continued our reading/discussion of the book, Beyond Courts. However, before that I shared two sets of links.

The first set of links here are about the so-called criminal justice reform movement, where the likes of the Koch brothers and the DeVos family have leveraged their economic resources to push for certain reforms that are motivated on accessing labor. 

https://griid.org/2018/03/14/does-doug-devos-and-the-west-michigan-policy-forum-really-want-to-change-the-prison-system-in-michigan/ 

https://griid.org/2019/10/13/opening-up-a-whole-new-pool-of-potential-employees-criminal-justice-reform-and-the-west-michigan-policy-forum/ 

https://griid.org/2021/04/13/west-michigan-policy-forum-hosted-event-on-criminal-justice-reform-is-code-for-protecting-white-supremacy-the-prison-industrial-complex-and-business-as-usual/

A second set of links came from our week #4 discussion around ways to dismantled the PIC, examples from various anti-state carceral movements around the country.

https://www.seattlesolidaritybudget.com/

https://www.detentionwatchnetwork.org/sites/default/files/reports/Communities%20Not%20Cages-A%20Just%20Transition%20from%20Immigration%20Detention%20Economies_DWN%202021.pdf 

https://griid.org/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/movement-for-black-lives-defund-police-toolkit.pdf 

Chapter 6 focused on the theme that there are no such thing as progressive prosecutors. Here is an excerpt from chapter 6: 

“Diversion programs and other reforms—whether reducing racial disparities in prosecutions, or diversifying staff of the prosecuting office, or increasing investigations of police officers in individual, sensationalized cases—all contribute to the legitimacy of the prosecuting office. They are public relations strategies aimed at softening the prosecuting office’s image, while continuing the machinery of criminal punishment under both new and old structures.”

Chapter 7 focused on abolitionist principles & campaign strategies for prosecutor organizing. This chapter provided excellent framing around how to think about the abolition of the prison industrial complex, with clear principles, tactics and strategies that have been utilized by other abolitionists, as is illustrated in the graphic above. 

During the discussion on Chapter 7, there were interesting observations made, particularly around the issue of how the non-profit industrial complex makes it difficult to engage in abolitionist work. Not only did this theme filled the rest of the discussion, it influenced what I sent the group to read for week #6.