By Dalia Fuleihan
In the United States the specter of mass incarceration and police violence looms large over our daily lives. It seems that almost every week we are privy to news stories about the death of unarmed civilians at the hands of the police, and abuses within the prison system. As systematic abuses continue unabated, the problem of racial injustice and criminalization of Black, brown, and other marginalized bodies remains one of society’s most urgent crises.
In this criminal justice themed issue of the National Lawyers Guild Review, we have gathered together a collection of written work that tackles the behemoth of the American criminal justice system from a multitude of perspectives. The topic of criminal justice covers a broad array of subjects included violent and discriminatory policing, mass incarceration, and the prison-industrial complex. Our contributors in this issue further expand upon these topics to demonstrate the complexities of how policing, mass incarceration, and the prison industrial complex are interwoven into all aspects of society including healthcare and education.
In this issue, I am pleased to present the work of four contributors who examine various aspects of the criminal justice system. Our first article, Incentivizing Violence: How the Financial Incentives in Policing Maintain Racism, Classism, and Mass Incarceration, Patrick Hogan conducts an overview of local government policies that contribute to the over-policing of marginalized communities and makes the case for changing incentives as a step towards changing racist and predatory police practices. Hogan explains how time and time again local police departments have been found to use policing to balance their budgets and financially supplement their programs. As Hogan describes policies that require a minimum number of arrests and create financial incentives to arrests and citations encourage police departments to target low-income communities, and communities and simultaneously contribute the maintaining the systemic oppression of these groups.
In Involuntary Civil Commitment as Mass Incarceration, Tristan Campbell advocates for abolition of involuntary civil commitment, which is used as a branch of the larger carceral state. Campbell’s article highlights the intersection of the prison-industrial complex with the healthcare system in the United States. As he explains, involuntary civil commitment mirrors criminal incarceration in the way that it is disproportionately used against people of color and other marginalized folks. Campbell’s article deftly describes the process of civil commitment including devastating due process deprivations and highlights the similarities between civil commitment and criminal incarceration.
We are also thrilled to present our first poem in this issue. We been knew the cops by Sabine “Free” Pierre comments on the school to prison pipeline through their depiction of the emotional and psychological impact of policing in schools. We been knew the cops is a poignant snapshot of what it must be like for millions of children who face police every day in their schools.
We close this issue with an article written by Kinetic Justice, a jailhouse lawyer and organizer who has been serving a life sentence—about half of which has been spent in segregation—since he was about twenty years old. Kinetic Justice participated and organized numerous work stoppages over the years. In his article, The Evolution of a Solution, Kinetic Justice’s provides an often-overlooked view into the lives of those living within the prison-industrial complex. Kinetic Justice describes his experience organizing work including both accomplishments and the ever-increasing challenges that he faces.
The work of our four contributors examines the American criminal justice system from multiple perspectives. Together they highlight both the common themes of racism, white supremacy, and classism that form the basis of the American legal system, but also highlight the ways in which the criminal justice system and the prison industrial complex have become integrated into all aspects of our society. Taken together the works in this issue present a system of law enforcement and incarceration that resembles a hydra, and challenges us to see the whole creature rather than a single head in isolation.