Carceral state
Carceral state describes "institutions, structures, ideologies, and practices that engage in punitive “solutions”, especially as a means of responding to crime, poverty, migration, and those living with health issues and addiction; a complex web of social institutions that includes the prison industrial complex, medical industrial complex, surveillance culture, and border patrol — all of which perpetuate harm through criminalization and institutionalization." - Ruby Tapia, adapted by Michelle Xie [1]
By definition, carcerality extends beyond the formal incarceration itself (prisons, detention centers, and carceral programs of probation and parole). Carcerality includes the ways we shape and organize society and culture through policies and logic of control, surveillance and criminalization. The carceral state has both produced and reinforced massive inequalities along lines of race, class, gender, sexuality, and other identity categories. [2]
The carceral state includes all aspects of life in which people are subject to surveillance and the threat of punitive policies under the premise of safety.
Examples of the Carceral State
Where police are deployed |
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Surveillance of immigrants |
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We're conditioned to call the police |
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