California’s prison boom absorbed surpluses of capital, land, and labor

Evidence

In the post-Civil War era, emancipated black men and women comprised an enormous reservoir of labor at a time when planters—and industrialists—could no longer rely on slavery, as they had done in the past. This labor became increasingly available for use by private agents precisely through the convict lease system, discussed earlier, and related systems such as debt peonage. Recall that in the aftermath of slavery, the penal population drastically shifted, so that in the South it rapidly became disproportionately black. This transition set the historical stage for the easy acceptance of disproportionately black prison populations today. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 253 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Mass incarceration did not lower crime but bred more prisons; The prison boom was a way to concentrate and manage a capitalist human surplus; California prison expansion responded to surpluses of capital, land, labor, and state capacity — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 25 (+3 more)

Related

• The prison boom was a way to concentrate and manage a capitalist human surplus (similarity 0.95)
• The prison disciplined convicts into an industrial labor force (similarity 0.88)
• California prison expansion responded to surpluses of capital, land, labor, and state capacity (similarity 0.87)
• Mass incarceration functions as a management system for surplus labor. (similarity 0.86)
• Post-slavery prisons reabsorbed emancipated black labor through the convict lease system (similarity 0.86)
• Alabama’s prison population flipped from ninety-nine percent white to majority black after emancipation (similarity 0.85)
• Prison is an ordinary life dimension in poor communities of color (similarity 0.83)
• Post-emancipation labor systems trapped former slaves by law and poverty. (similarity 0.81)
• Private prisons require a steady supply of prisoners as raw material. (similarity 0.81)
• Nearly one in three young black men were under correctional supervision by 1995 (similarity 0.80)
• Prison expansion correlates with falling crime, exposing profit and racism as drivers (similarity 0.79)
• Prison abolition has a long history but remains culturally unthinkable (similarity 0.79)
• Black convicts could be exploited because they were still perceived as slaves. (similarity 0.79)
• Black labor exploitation persisted in new forms beyond slavery’s legal end. (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Post-slavery prisons reabsorbed emancipated black labor through the convict lease system #exemplifies (0.60) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 253