Week 12

Golden Gulag, by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, addresses the rapid growth of the prison industrial complex in California. By addressing the “relationship between urban and rural political and economic restructuring” (17), Gilmore traces the connection between poverty, unemployment, and the unfortunate links between the urban poor and the prison system. Rather than addressing the core issues leading to incarceration, drug use, or domestic instability, the prison system takes advantage of disenfranchised populations in order to accumulate growth and wealth. In looking at the greater picture of the prison population, it is not difficult to see how it has become a clearly racialized and stigmatized group.

Despite the drastic drop in crime rates in California (among many other states), the prison building economy has continued and thrives. The appeal and draw of building prisons, seen as well in the film Prisontown USA, initially stems from a loss in an agriculture-based economy and thus a greater need for employment opportunities. Among those appeals are promises to maintain and support local business and to jumpstart the necessary economy, both of which are fleeting and unstable. In order to sustain the highly expensive perpetuation of the prison system, Gilmore emphasizes the legal means used to increase the number of prisoners, despite the lowered crime rates, such as the 1988 Step Act or the three-strike rule.

Although the prison industrial complex seems far too daunting of a task to fight against, Gilmore underscores the economic with the political, specifically with the grass-roots organization, Mothers Reclaiming Our Children (ROC). The mobilization of women, primarily poor women of color, creates a unification of a highly affected group for their own personal gain. Despite dissimilar experiences, ROC serves as integrating action, similar to the cross-racial solidarities we have already discussed at length.

Ultimately, Golden Gulag and Prisontown USA are both prime examples of what can be seen everyday, in the streets or blaringly obvious in the mainstream news media. The racialized and subjugated bodies of the prisoners, and of even the prison guards, is a testament to the economic and political bases of those populations.