In Are Prison's Obsolete? Angela Y. Davis questions the effectiveness and morality of our prison system and argues for its abolition. Throughout the book, she highlights the history and relationship between our prison system, slavery, and global capitalism. Black Codes which replaced Slave Codes were enacted after the Civil War to keep former slaves in bondage. The Black Codes combined with the 13th Amendment allowed for the criminalization of color. Being Black was a crime and it could be argued that it still is to this day. I personally find it disheartening that the same Amendment that gave Black people their freedom is also what helped to place them back in a new form of slavery in which they were no longer a commodity.
Davis also discusses
