The United States of Incarceration

When police agencies began grabbing more power in the 1960s, it began a vicious cycle of relying on imprisonment to solve socio-political, financial, and mental health problems. The reality is that this approach hasn?t worked, and it?s actually diminished our quality of freedom. Meanwhile, police officers have begun to look at citizens not as people to serve and protect but as enemies. Tim Anderson takes an in-depth look into how the misguided prison-industrial complex unfairly targets minorities, the mentally ill, and the poor. It supports the argument made by Angela Davis, who said, ?Prisons give the appearance of performing a magic trick. However, prisons don?t make problems disappear?they make people disappear.? Neoliberals continue to try to convince the public that we need to equip our police officers with weapons that make them seem more like military ground troops. But if we continue down this course, we?ll all just be one more target to be eliminated in The United States of Incarceration.