Are Prisons Obsolete?

Davis explains that this chapter’s title isn’t ‘Women and the Prison System’ because society’s gender structures impact both men and women behind bars. She begins by discussing Assata Shakur’s incarceration, which Davis declares exemplifies the racist and misogynistic punishments that Black women experience. Shakur’s memoir exposes how she was subjected to “unusually cruel treatment” (62) and focuses on unethical procedures like the strip search and internal cavity search. Davis herself experienced this invasive search while incarcerated. She lists several other women whose literature effectively describes life in prison. Despite the vast amount of literature, Davis notes that prison activists often dismiss women’s issues because women make up only a small percentage of the total prison population. Davis considers an understanding of women’s experiences crucial to the abolitionist agenda.

The author then traces historical understandings of criminality that viewed female lawbreakers as “essentially different” (65) from their male counterparts. She notes that women were more likely to be imprisoned in psychiatric hospitals and are still more likely to be prescribed psychiatric drugs by prison administrators. In addition, women’s mental health conditions and criminality are linked to hypersexuality—even when guards are the perpetrators of sexual attacks. She argues that Black women are doubly victimized for their gender and race, dating back to punishments that slave owners uniquely inflicted on enslaved Black women.