What's the time? It's time to get annotated!

Nicholas K. Bading
Professor Aaron Kerley
English Composition 102
11 August 2011

Davis, Angela Y.  Are Prisons Obsolete? New York: Seven Stories Press, 2003.

Political activist and scholar Angela Y. Davis argues that the United States has a long history of abolitionist movements (i.e. against slavery, Jim Crow, segregation) and that prison abolition is the next logical step.  Davis equates the current state of the penal system with modern slavery. She examines the racist and sexist policies at work within the American prison system and advocates alternative means of punishment such as restorative justice. 

do Valle, Alice, Huang Vanessa, and Mari Spira. "The prison industrial complex: A         deliberation." International Feminist Journal of Politics 8.1 (2006): 130-144. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Aug. 2011.

This round-table discussion takes a feminist approach to discussing the prison-industrial complex.  The authors examine sexism in the prison system and its effects on society as a whole.  They trace the origins of the prison-industrial complex and who benefits from the practice in the long-term.

Mahmood, Marcus. "Collateral Consequences of the Prison-Industrial Complex." Social     Justice 31.1/2 (2004): 31-34. Academic Search Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Aug. 2011.

Mahmood examines the collateral consequences of the prison-industrial complex.  He argues that while much research has been conducted about the history of the prison system, very little has been aimed toward evaluating the future results of the prison-industrial complex.

Mulch, Matthew. "Crime and Punishment in Private Prisons." Guild Practitioner 66.2     (2009): 70-94. Legal Collection. EBSCO. Web. 10 Aug. 2011.

Mulch’s paper examines the rising link between the prison system and private industry.  He argues that moral standing of the United States is compromised when there is not a clear divide between punishment and profit. 

Schlosser, Eric.  Reefer Madness: Sex, Drugs and Cheap Labor in the American Black     Market. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2004.

Eric Schlosser, the journalist and author responsible for Fast Food Nation, examines the American black market economy in three separate essays on marijuana, illegal immigration, and pornography.  In his essay on marijuana, he explores how drug offenders are frequently given sentences that are as long or longer than those given to violent offenders.

Smith, Earl, and Angela J. Hattery. "African American Men and the Prison Industrial     Complex." Western Journal of Black Studies 34.4 (2010): 387-398. Academic Search     Complete. EBSCO. Web. 10 Aug. 2011.

Smith and Hattery discuss the effect of the prison-industrial complex on African-American men from a societal level, rather than an individual level.  Specifically mentioned are the effects on the black community when thousands of African-American men are mass-incarcerated and when they return to their communities from prison.