Prisons of Poverty

by Loïc Wacquant

In this title, the author examines how penal policies emanating from the United States have spread thoughout the world. The author argues that the policies have their roots in a network of Reagan-era conservative think tanks, which used them as weapons in their crusade to dismantle the welfare state and, in effect, criminalise poverty.

Genres: Sociology, Nonfiction, Politics, Social Science, Academic, Race, France

232 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1999

About the author

Loïc Wacquant is a sociologist, specializing in urban sociology, urban poverty, racial inequality, the body, social theory and ethnography.

Wacquant is currently a Professor of Sociology and Research Associate at the Earl Warren Legal Institute, University of California, Berkeley, where he is also affiliated with the Program in Medical Anthropology and the Center for Urban Ethnography, and Researcher at the 'Centre de sociologie européenne' in Paris. He has been a member of the Harvard Society of Fellows, a MacArthur Prize Fellow, and has won numerous grants including the Fletcher Foundation Fellowship and the Lewis Coser Award of the American Sociological Association.

Reviews

[Mae · Rating 4 out of 5]

Globalement très bon, seulement peu convaincu par la thèse du "projet politique" de Nixon et Reagan en opposition au Prison Industrial Complex que défend Davis

[Eileen · Rating 4 out of 5]

interesting account of the rise of the U.S. penal state and its global diffusion. wacquant's thesis diverges a bit from the typical "prison-industrial complex" framework; instead of attributing mass incarceration primarily to economic motivations, he traces it back to social and political decisions. his trajectory goes something like this: breakdown of the fordist-keynesian compact / atrophy of the welfare state --> public "disorder" left by this absence --> creation of the penal state. i think i generally agree with him, but i also don't think this necessarily discounts the PIC narrative. they could very well operate simultaneously & symbiotically. global component is useful and important (although, for research purposes, i only skimmed it). most scholarship on mass incarceration tends to focus on the states – wacquant notes this curious gap and explains how the U.S.'s penal common sense has been exported to western europe.

[JP Beaty · Rating 3 out of 5]

I thought the application of neoliberalism to mass incarceration and the culture of control was conceptually interesting. I found the whole intellectual history approach to be dull and foregrounded some of the least interesting aspects of the penal turn. I think the networks of right wing think tanks and politicians exporting the intellectual background for mass incarceration was somewhat interesting idea but the analysis never really tied it to stories, data, or even popular culture. What left is a somewhat underwhelming exercise in excavating the somewhat obvious origins of our common sense around crime.

[CACC · Rating 5 out of 5]

Buenísimo libro para todos aquellos subnormales que se creen que Bukele es un Mesías de la política

[Alejandro]

Ideas principales:

- La utilidad del aparato penal en la era del empleo inseguro tiene una triple función: 1. Disciplinar a los sectores de la clase obrera reacios al nuevo trabajo asalariado precario; 2. Neutraliza y excluye a sus elementos mas disociadores o superfluos; y 3. Reafirma la autoridad del Estado.

- La politica de la tolerancia cero como herramienta policial y penal de “prevención” del delito basada basada en la persecución de actos vandálicos y el agravamiento de las sanciones penales. Metodo de gestión para acabar con la pobreza y la miseria (en su forma conductual, pero no en sus consecuencias).

- Esto se asocia a una persecución de la pobreza en épocas donde crece el ejército industrial de reserva (momentos de recesión económica: desocupación masiva y precaricación del empleo), asociado a la desinversión en políticas sociales (no intervencionismo) y al auge del Estado penal (aumento de las penas, crecimiento del parque penitenciario, hostigamiento de poblaciones abyectas, aumento de la población carcelaria y de las sociedades de control). En última instancia, lo que se pretende es el disciplinamiento del trabajo asalariado precario (que genera esa misma miseria). Es decir, obvian las causas sociales que generan comportamientos delictivos (definidos como tal desde arriba), para atajar sus consecuencias desde el castigo y el disciplinamiento. (Economia libre: mano invisible del mercado; y Estado fuerte: puño de hierro)

- La cárcel no solo busca agrupar a las poblaciones abyectas en un mismo espacio y ocultar la existencia de miseria, sino que es una institución que genera y reproduce esa miseria (aislamiento social, pérdida de vivienda, de trabajo, dificultades para la formación…).

“Lo mismo que el trabajo asalariado precario, la inflación carcelaria no es una fatalidad natural […]; depende de preferencias culturales y decisiones políticas. […] Como cualquier fenómeno social, esa inflación es obra de la voluntad colectiva”.

[Serge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Loic Wacquant offers a model of America’s transition from the social state to the penal state along five dimensions in his book Prisons of Poverty. Wacquant sees a connection between (1) the runaway rise of inmate populations at all levels of the custodial system to (2) enlarged probation, punitive parole, and the growth of electronic and genetic databases allowing for intensified surveillance at a distance to (3) the disproportionate increase of correctional budgets and personnel to (4) the resurgence and frenetic development of a private industry of imprisonment to (5) racial disparity in sentencing (Prisons of Poverty, 3) Wacquant notes that “as a result of the new synergy between the “capture” and observation” functions of the penal apparatus, there now exist some 55 million criminal files (compared to 35 million a decade ago) on approximately 30 million individuals, corresponding to almost one-third of the country’s adult male population.” (Prisoners of Poverty, 65)
As Wacquant subtly notes, criminal punishment has come to be driven by extrajudicial purposes and interests in the wake of the televised urban revolts of the 1960s. Political and mass media uses of criminality pervert our understanding of “law and order”. The coopting of this phrase as an electoral leitmotif was a euphemism according to Wacquant for the rejection of black demands for integration and the consolidation of white flight from the urban centers (and their abandonment of public institutions) (Prisons of Poverty, 153).

[Henrique Bessa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Bom diagnóstico de como o neoliberalismo e a falência do estado social contribui para ascensão do estado penal sempre apontado como solução para os menos favorecidos e como essa solução retroalimenta as desigualdades reforçando do problema da insegurança.

[Carlos Eduardo · Rating 4 out of 5]

Ótimo livro pra entender o sistema carcerário implementado nesse contexto neoliberal e reconhecer o que essas realmente as prisões são

[Rallie · Rating 5 out of 5]

As a fellow anthropologist studying prisons and the penal apparatus, I very much appreciate Wacquant's work. That said, I actually enjoyed this book more than Punishing the Poor. Although the latter is a very good book, this book manages to very succinctly demonstrate evidence for his claims. One does not need to be a scholar of anthropology or the carceral system in order to learn from, and enjoy, this book.

[Lisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Although written in the late 1990s, this book is sadly still applicable today. It traces the explosion of American prisons post 1970 and the expansion of American carceral ideas around the world.