The Importance Of Prisons In The United States

The United States of America has been using the imagination of its people for a decent amount of time to prevent breaking the law and to present prison in a terrorizing way. Before prisons, there was public punishment in which the person who broke the law would be punished in the public's eye. Although, around 1778 Benjamin Rush spoke out on public punishment and stated that he did not believe it was effective in preventing crime. Instead, the citizens were delighted by it and treated public punishments more like a family event than being afraid of it. He feared that people would become less sympathetic and would view violence as good when the goal was to teach everyone not to break the law. Rush proposed his idea about a house of corrections …show more content…
Prisons were publicized by media, novels, and the gothic or radical architecture. The United States have been using prisons as a technique to install fear since the late 1700s, and now it has been taken-for-granted well ignoring the negative outcome. Various people around the United States view prison as terrifying and is a place they would not want to affiliate themselves with. Although prisons are also seen as a place of punishment from someone that has broken the law and is very much needed to keep crime rates low. Even though locking away the “bad people” does not fix the problem nor does it always scare the “bad people ”and the citizens of the United States are well aware of it. Davis states (2011), “This is the ideological work that the prison performs—it relieves us of the responsibility of seriously engaging with the problems of our society, especially those produced by racism and, increasingly, global capitalism”(Kindle Location. 136-137). Davis is explaining that the people of the Unite States rather ignore the actual cry for help and instead of finding an impactful alternative societies problem continue to stack up against people of color, and capitalism. Conviction of people of color is fueled by social issues that still exist such as racism. Capitalism plays a part since …show more content…
Around the world, there are a various amount of prisons that became museums, and they get a lot of attention from tourist. According to Welch “In the realm of punishment, dark tourism has been examined from the standpoint of penal spectatorship involving bystanders who gaze at the spectacle of pain and suffering ”(Kindle Location. 150). The prison that became museums are ones that were closed for torturing inmates or closed because the prison was deemed cruel and unusual punishment and people are interested in it. Now prison is not allowed to perform torture on their inmate, and it is supposed to be able to meet their basic needs thus making sure it is not considered cruel and usual punishment. Although people still have a hold on it on it and will pay to get a peak of what happened inside of it. Meaning prisons do not just get money for being open, but they also get money for being closed that adds more money to an already multi-billion company and remains popular in the eyes of people. Another reason I believe it is powerful is that of what Davis touched base on, and that was that we do not want to solve the actual problem that can range from racism to capitalism. Other than finding an alternative it is easier to look away and build more

Show More

The Importance Of Prisons In The United States