Male prisons functioning as the punishment norm drives women’s conditions toward greater repression.

Evidence

Paradoxically, demands for parity with men’s prisons, instead of creating greater educational, vocational, and health opportunities for women prisoners, often have led to more repressive conditions for women. This is not only a consequence of deploying liberal—that is, formalistic— notions of equality, but of, more dangerous, allowing male prisons to function as the punishment norm. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 204

Categorization

• XREF: This anticipates the book’s central abolitionist move: questioning the institution as a whole rather than making it ‘fair’ within its own terms. — connects to: Men’s prisons are gendered institutions, not the norm against which women’s prisons are judged — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 158; Ignoring women prisoners makes the operation of state punishment partly illegible — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 170; Formalistic equality with male prisons makes women’s prisons more repressive, not less. — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 197 (+5 more)

Broader Connections

• Formal equality fails because male prisons define the punishment norm #corroborates (0.85)
• Feminist parity demands have ironically produced more repressive women’s prisons #expands (0.70)
• Women face unacknowledged state punishment outside formal prison #expands (0.55)