American Prisons

SpearIt

Description

This book is a critical exploration of prisons in contemporary America. Paying special attention to race and Islam, the work draws on a range of data and sources, including interviews and written correspondence with current and ex-prisoners, documentary research, and congressional hearings on topics that include criminal justice and religion, culture, conversion, radicalization, and reform.

Informations

• Publié par: First Edition Design Publishing
• Date de parution: 15 octobre 2017
• Nombre de lectures: 0
• EAN13: 9781506904887
• Langue: English

Extrait

American Prisons
A Critical Primer onCulture and Conversion to Islam

By
SpearIt
American Prisons, A Critical Primer on Culture and Conversion toIslam
Copyright ©2017 SpearIt

ISBN 978-1506-904-87-0 PRINT
ISBN 978-1506-904-88-7 EBOOK

LCCN 2017951100

August 2017

Published and Distributed by
First Edition Design Publishing, Inc.
P.O. Box 20217, Sarasota, FL 34276-3217
www.firsteditiondesignpublishing.com



ALL R I G H T S R E S E R V E D. No p a r t o f t h i s b oo k pub li ca t i o n m a y b e r e p r o du ce d, s t o r e d i n a r e t r i e v a l s y s t e m , o r t r a n s mit t e d i n a ny f o r m o r by a ny m e a ns ─ e l e c t r o n i c , m e c h a n i c a l , p h o t o - c o p y , r ec o r d i n g, or a ny o t h e r ─ e x ce pt b r i e f qu ot a t i o n i n r e v i e w s , w i t h o ut t h e p r i o r p e r mi ss i on o f t h e a u t h o r orpublisher .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
SpearIt
American Prisons, A Critical Primer on Culture and Conversion toIslam
/ written by SpearIt.
p. cm.
ISBN 978-1506-904-87-0 pbk,978-1506-904-88-7 digital

1. SOCIAL SCIENCE / Islamic Studies. 2. / Criminology. 3. /PrisonCulture. 4./Sociology.

A51213

DOI 10.21899/978-1506904870
Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Part I
The Origins ofCriminal Justice and Religion in Prison .. 2
Chapter 1
CriminalJustice & Religion .. 3
Chapter 2
Religion inPrisons . 6
Chapter 3
LegalPunishment as Civil Ritual: MakingCultural Sense of Harsh Punishment 11

Part II
Prison Culture& Consequences for Society .. 23
Chapter 4
20 Years afterthe Education Apocalypse: TheOngoing Fall Out from the 1994 Omnibus Crime Bill 24
Chapter 5
Mental Illnessin Prison: Inmate Rehabilitation & Correctional Officers in Crisis . 27
Chapter 6
ManufacturingSocial Violence: The Prison Paradox . 32
Chapter 7
GenderViolence in Prison & Hyper-masculinitiesin the ’Hood .. 42

Part III
Islam and U.S.Prisons . 55
Chapter 8
God BehindBars: Race, Religion & Revenge . 56
Chapter 9
Raza Islamica:Prisons, Hip Hop & Converting Converts . 58
Chapter 10
MuslimRadicalization in Prison: Responding with Sound Penal Policy or the Sound ofAlarm? 62
Chapter 11
Religion asRehabilitation? Reflections on Islamin the Correctional Setting . 70
Chapter 12
Sonic Jihad: Muslim Hip Hop in the Age of MassIncarceration .. 75

Part IV
Advancing Law,Policy, and Scholarship .. 82
Chapter 13
EvolvingStandards of Domination: A Casefor Killing Doctrine and Reinterpreting “Cruel and Unusual” . 83
Chapter 14
How MassIncarceration Underdevelops LatinoCommunities . 86
Chapter 15
Facts andFictions about Islam in Prison: AssessingPrisoner Radicalization in Post-9/11 America 91
Chapter 16
Spectacular orSpecious? A Critical Review of TheSpectacular Few: Prisoner Radicalization and the Evolving Terrorist Threat . 97

Conclusion .. 103
Introduction



This book is forreaders who seek to gain a critical understanding of prisons in contemporaryAmerica, especially those interested in the intersection of race and Islam. Thework consists of published research and writings, articles, book chapters, andother scholarly works, which span over a decade of investigation. Compiled intoan easy to read format, this book is organized along four major themes, each ofwhich has several dedicated chapters. The works have been edited from theoriginal for content and flow, and all citations have been removed for brevity’ssake. For readers desiring access to citations in their entirety, the Appendix haslinks to the original works that contain all citations.
This catalogue ofwritings will be of great resource for many. At its baseline, the work will bea must-have for students of prison, religion, law, anthropology, sociology, andcriminal justice among other fields of study. This book, however, will be ofinterest far beyond academic circles, and should reach the masses, as well as politicaland institutional decision makers. As Michelle Alexander’s The New Jim Crow haspopularized the plight of prisoners and sparked the country’s interest in theracial injustices that surround systems of mass incarceration, this book takesreaders inside the walls to examine the most salient problems behind bars.
Prison culture andlife behind bars capture the American imagination, perhaps like no other subject.From documentaries, TV series, films, video games, and cartoons to rap songs, eventhe newest Minions movie, Americans remain fascinated with the problems andconsequences of imprisoning other humans. This book offers a voyeuristic windowinto this “other” world to consider the forces that shape life behind bars. Morespecifically, the story of the black prisoner turned Muslim in prison is a largepart of the script as Black Americana, and it occupies a large part of thisimagination.
This book, to besure, is also intended for those interested in ways to change the status quo. Notonly is it a road map of some of the most pressing problems in law and society,but also prescriptions for reducing pain and suffering behind bars and beyond. Hencethe book should also be of value for lawyers, activists, policymakers, andinstitutional actors interested in social justice and criminal justice reform.
The chapters thatfollow draw on a range of data. Sources include interviews and writtencorrespondence with current and ex-prisoners, documentary research, congressionalhearings, and I draw on my own personal and practical experiences. I havetaught for the Prison University Project at California’s death-row facility,San Quentin State Prison, as well as taught Corrections Law in law school, inaddition to serving on the Advisory Board of the Prison Program at Saint LouisUniversity—a unique program that offers courses to both inmates and staff. Ihave also been active in the American Bar Association’s Corrections Committeeand its work to restore Pell Grant Funding for prisoners. Collectively, these sourcesand experiences make this book an authoritative and critical statement on thestate of punishment in America.
Part I

TheOrigins of Criminal Justice and Religion in Prison



There is a longand notable history between prisons and religion. Gods have been born and diedas prisoners; holy families have been imprisoned; Abrahamic traditions havefounded prisons, which in turn, have served as spaces for prisoners to “find”God. The very notion of bondage underlies practically all theological and evennon-theological traditions that stress “liberation,” “freedom,” and “salvation”as core tenets.
The followingchapters offer a theoretical map for considering the complexities of modernimprisonment and religion. The first begins by presenting a historical framefor understanding criminal justice systems as a historical foil for cosmic strugglesbetween the forces of good and evil. The next chapter narrows the focus to therole of religion in the modern American prison context, paying close attentionto the role of Islam for African-American inmates. The final chapter in thiscluster employs ritual theory to fathom why there are so many ethnic minoritiesin prison. It theorizes the turn to mass incarceration as a type of civilsacrifice that makes Black and Brown bodies the scapegoats of a great civilritual. Together, these chapters illustrate the complex, multi-layered natureof prisons and religion, and they provide a backdrop for considering prisonculture for the rest of this book.
Chapter 1

CriminalJustice & Religion



T h e w o r l d ’ s g r e a t r e li g i o u s t r a d itio n s h a v e hel d i n c o mmo n t h e nee d t o dea l w i t h what we today call “crime” or “criminals.” As history has shown, when an individ ual strays from the community norm, religion typically offers punishment as remedy for the problem. From the Laws of Manu in orthodox Hinduism, whichoutlines the proper punishment to be meted out to the different classes of crim inals, to the Hebrew Bible’s “spare the rod, spoil the child” statements, religious communities often engage with the problem of deviancy and, more specifically, h o w t o puni s h it . I n t o d a y ’ s e r a o f se c u l a r n a tion-st a t es , t h e st a t e i s n o w large l y responsible for the task of punishing offenders of the law—even though the state law, in some cases, might be an extension of religious law.
In the United States, one can see an infusion of religious ideas in the punishments of the state. And although the notion of “separation of church and state” is held in high esteem, in practice, history shows that Christian ideals can be linked to the entire U.S. legal system. The criminal justice system is no exception, and the impact of religion is apparent from the very beginning of its development. In turn, the criminal justice system has played an influential role in the history and day-to-day realities of religious practitioners and their com-munities. As home to the largest prison population in the world, well over two million and counting, the U.S. criminal justice system is a key factor in the religious practice of many.

CRIMINALS AND ALTARS

For eighteenth- and nineteenth-century Christian society the prisoner was thescapegoat. To pay for their sins prisonersneeded to be expelled, transported,locked out of sight behind walls, prevented from human contact, hanged.
—Timothy Gorringefrom
God’s JustVengeance

From the Hindu god Krishna, who was born in prison, to Jesus of Nazareth, who was incarcerated and executed by Roman officials, the connectionsbetween criminality and religiosity are profound. In many ancient societies, religion and law were synonymous. Religion was the guidance that told people how to act properly and how to punish one who strays. In a climatewhere monotheism, polytheism, and paganism competed, breaking the law was, in essence, sinning against God or the divinity of the gods. Throughout hist