Prisons demonstrably fail to reduce the crime rate

Evidence

Prisons do not diminish the crime rate: they can be extended, multiplied or transformed, the quantity of crime and criminals remains stable or, worse, increases: ‘In France, one calculates at about 108,000 the number of individuals who are in a state of flagrant hostility to society. The means of repression at one’s disposal are; the scaffold, the iron-collar, three convict-ships, 19 maisons centrales, 86 maisons de justice, 362 maisons d’arrêt, 2,800 cantonal prisons, 2,238 cells in police stations. Despite all these, vice goes unchecked. The number of crimes is not diminishing … the number of recidivists is increasing, rather than declining’ (La Fraternité, no. 10, February 1842). — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 402

Categorization

• SEED: An essay angle: the exact same critique of prisons as crime-producers has repeated nearly unchanged for 180 years — a genealogy of a static argument.
• XREF: connects to: Prison growth began when crime rates were already falling — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 34; Prisons proliferated while crime rates were falling due to corporate profit; The prison’s apparent failure is actually its designed success at producing delinquency — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 425 (+7 more)

Related

• Prisons function as schools of crime and organized delinquency (similarity 0.86)
• Prison growth began when crime rates were already falling (similarity 0.86)
• Harsher penal measures show no connection to actual crime rates. (similarity 0.86)
• Mass incarceration under Reagan did not reduce crime but bred ever larger prison populations. (similarity 0.82)
• Prisons function as criminal training centers and a just society would not need them (similarity 0.82)
• Prisons proliferated while crime rates were falling due to corporate profit (similarity 0.81)
• Prison expansion correlates with falling crime, exposing profit and racism as drivers (similarity 0.81)
• The prison’s apparent failure is actually its designed success at producing delinquency (similarity 0.80)
• Punishment policy cannot reduce crime independently of the social order (similarity 0.79)
• Prison reform is an integral part of the prison’s functioning, not its antidote (similarity 0.79)
• Prison persists as a detestable solution no alternative replaces (similarity 0.79)
• The prison’s failures were denounced at its very inception (similarity 0.79)
• Prison resists reform because it relays a broad network of disciplines and surveillances. (similarity 0.79)
• The prison debate wrongly focuses on correction while normalization mechanisms proliferate unchecked. (similarity 0.78)
• Schools remain the major conduits to prisons without structural change (similarity 0.78)

Broader Connections

• Mass incarceration did not lower crime but bred more prisons #corroborates (0.90)
• Prison growth began when crime rates were already falling #qualifies (0.88) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 34
• Prisons proliferated while crime rates were falling due to corporate profit #qualifies (0.80)
• The prison’s apparent failure is actually its designed success at producing delinquency #contradicts (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 425
• Prisons function as schools of crime and organized delinquency #qualifies (0.75) — Michel Foucault, Discipline & Punish- The Birth of the…, 405
• Prisons function as criminal training centers and a just society would not need them #qualifies (0.70) — Davis, Angela Y, Are Prisons Obsolete, 279