American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Ageof Mass Imprisonment
by Sasha Abramsky
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Book Summary Information
Author: Sasha AbramskyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 2008-05-15
ISBN: 0807042234
Number of pages: 240
Publisher: Beacon Press
Book Reviews of American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Ageof Mass Imprisonment
Book Review: If this is the best of all possible worlds what can the rest be like?
Summary: 5 Stars
Introduction: Waking up the Furies
In ancient Greek mythology, the Furies, awakened from time to time out of the dark demi-monde of Tartarus to take revenge for the worlds ills and make life a living hell for wrongdoers who went unpunished (Abramsky xvi). The formula was vindictive - one of vengeance and punishment. Fear was the mode de emploi to punish - discipline really - to keep people in check. Folks knew what was in store for them if they decided to "go there." So powerful and effective were these goddesses that these Furies celebrated humanity's basic need for revenge, that those targeted by the Furies were generally driven out of their minds. Abramsky frames and starts American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Age of Mass Imprisonment with the Furies as well as the Abu Ghraib scandal that one would think we are going to see a repeat of Damiens in Michel Foucault's Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison (Foucault, Discipline and Punish 3-31). Truth be told, the real horror uncovered or revealed to us in American Furies is the cold institutional quality or the "banality of evil" (Abramsky 34). Abramsky explores banality -almost apologetically - but nonetheless real. It is in this banality that the true terror of this hegemony of retribution is based. The Furies are alive and well - but this time there is no spectacle.
Banality of Evil
Abramsky writes, "Violence, it seems, is nascent within most human beings. Put all except the most resolutely pacifist individuals into conditions in which they have absolute control over others they believe to be "bad" or criminally minded, and chances are the confrontations will escalate into violence; that cruel impulses normally hidden deep below the surface will bubble up and find an outlet; that the infliction of pain, and the giving of orders for others to inflict pain, will become commonplace" (Abramsky 34). Abramsky conjures up the spirit of Hannah Arendt and speaks of the 1961 trial in Jerusalem of Nazi Adolf Eichmann. Indeed, the irony of Eichmann was not that he was spectacular. On the contrary, it was Eichmann's "ordinariness" (Abramsky 34) that makes him and as a result this book so compelling.
Institutionalism
What is really going on? Who and for what are people being incarcerated? What happens to prisoners once they are in there? Inquiries such as these are vital as America develops its version of a "gulag archipelago." From perusing the pages of American Furies, we are introduced - as this is not "spectacle" - to the development of an enormous complex system of jails - regular prisons and supermax prisons (Abramsky 129, 135-138). Consistent with my thesis, this network developed without the general population - save a few such as Abramsky - giving noticing. Truth be told, the United States has developed the most extensive detention system in the world (Abramsky 43-58).
The Inventory of Bodies
In the meticulous inventory, Abramsky outlines that in proportion to the general population a glaring 737 per 100,000, the highest rate on the planet are incarcerated. With 5% of our population behind bars, the United States, Abramsky posits has nearly a forth of the world's interned. With 2.2 million people behind bars and another 5 million on probation or on parole, the United States has a significant 3.2 % of our adult population is under some form of criminal-justice supervision (Abramsky xiv, xviii, 49, 54, 62).
Spending "Time" for non violent crime
In fact, surprisingly few guests of the American gulag have been sent away for violent crimes. In 2002 just 19% of the felony sentences at the state level were for violent offenses and of those only about 5% were for murder (Abramsky 176-178). Nonviolent drug offenses involving trafficking or possession accounted for 31%, while crimes such as burglary and fraud made up an additional 32%.
Do some Criminals "really" need to be put behind bars?
After all, if violence is under control, isn't it time to come up with a more humane way of dealing with a dwindling number of miscreants? But America is not a "normal" country and only grows more vindictive. In the end, one gets the sense that despite the commercial angle, we have justified and invented the need to punish.
Punish
Just like the rest of the "fringe" beings - prisoners - convicts, more specifically are the "Other." Excuse me? Who is really concerned about the welfare of rapists, killers, thieves, and/or terrorists? If the confinement rate continues to increase but violent crime continues to decline, chances are pretty good one could safely assume that the same will happen for the non-violent sector as well. One would think also that a "well adjusted" society would, under these circumstances think less of punishment but be more interested in rehabilitation and/or prevention. In the end, it is really starting to cost us more than we can afford. Similar to the development of the "military industrial complex," prisons are an industry.
Discipline
Harkening back to the more philosophical, it is all about the body as the final frontier. You control the body you control everything. Abramsky's American Furies is a confluence of citations from Plato, de Tocqueville, and Foucault reflecting on the individual and societal effects of the denial of liberty and freedom. The public is getting tired of a lack of a justification behind the "war on drugs" that is causing the escalation in the prison population. Why do we need to "use a sledgehammer to kill a gnat" with these supermax complexes. One gets the sense that all this justification and smoke-in-mirrors is less about discipline and punish but more about "prison industrial complex." Who "really" needs the supermaxes? How much is enough? Are we not "inventing" criminals in order to lock them up?
Excesses in the System
It would be difficult to ignore or disagree with Abramsky that the excesses of the system have always been the mode de emploi of our penitentiary system. As mentioned above, the "Other" is subaltern and we rarely hear the incarcerated speak. How do we ever find out about the excesses? Abramsky posits that forgiveness has not been our way - consider what we have done to the mentally ill, the sick, the aged, and the addicts.
Alternatives
De-criminalize: The "Neo-Prohibition"
Should we consider de-criminalizing certain non-violent crimes such as marijuana use (Abramsky 118-125)? Taken in perspective, we should not rush head on to disentangle everything that has been tried up to now but at the very least we need to take the time to really look at what we deem "criminal." A good argument could be made that we need to re-examine the three-strike law. Looking at it from a different perspective, perhaps we should spend our energies shrinking the bloated system as well as preventing incarceration. But if we don't see it and it becomes banal, almost matter of fact, then how can we consider it a problem? Is education the way out?
Education
With less dollars spent then, on the system, and more money re-routed to education, then won't we be producing more "productive" members of society - to cope and thrive in the system? Is that the fundamental underlying problem? Is this not the desired end? Disciplined bodies productive and contributing? Short of advocating the reconsideration of our entire epistemic grid, the answers may be more quotidian. If the statistics are true, and the system does not so totally restrict convicts from having productive lives post incarceration, education may be the best prevention alternative we have. Arguably, we need to spend less time in the prisons and more on development. Besides we have the carceral community to deal with. Where to from here?
Back to "Correction"
Despite the extensive story of the damage done by and done to Robert Martinson for his "nothing works" movement (Abramsky 43-48, 52), I get the sense that Abramsky is less than positive in his outlook. Moreover, Abramsky also points out that despite the truly rehabilitation-oriented workers the prognosis system wide is bleak and the best and the brightest just give up or are pushed out.
Conclusion: Stop poking the Furies
Perhaps we need to start by ceasing to invoke the Furies and let level heads prevail. From a careful read of Abramsky what we have been doing to date has not really worked. We build prisons and invent, reify, as well as incarcerate our fellow man within the framework of an industrial complex that is less interested in setting people free but more interested in keeping them in confinement. The Furies have had their day. To quote Voltaire, "If this is the best of all possible worlds," he said to himself, "what can the rest be like?"
Miguel Llora
Summary of American Furies: Crime, Punishment, and Vengeance in the Ageof Mass Imprisonment
In this disturbing yet elegant expos? of U.S. penitentiaries and their surrounding communities, Sasha Abramsky shows how American prisons have abandoned their long-held ideal of rehabilitation, often for political reasons. After surveying our current state of affairs-life sentences for nonviolent crimes, appalling conditions for inmates, the growth of private prisons, the treatment of juveniles-Abramsky argues that our punitive policies are not only inhuman but deeply counterproductive. Brilliantly researched and compellingly told, American Furies reveals the devastating consequences of a society that believes in "lock 'em up and throw away the key.""This is by far the most intelligent and haunting indictment of the American prison system that I have ever read. Sasha Abramsky has shone an incandescent lamp on a shadowy underground universe that holds and in all too many cases brutalizes the lives of more than two million Americans. He should be commended for doing so, and his book made required reading for every legislator in the land, bar none."
-Simon Winchester, author of A Crack in the Edge of the World
"The most urgent book of the season. Sasha Abramsky provides us with an invaluable, if harrowing, audit of the cataclysmic damage inflicted upon American values by American prisons. The lack of compassion in our national life and the gangrened hearts of our politicians pose greater threats to our childrens' futures than any overseas terrorist conspiracy."
-Mike Davis, professor of history at University of California, Irvine and author of seven books, including Planet of Slums and The Monster at Our Door
"A smart, compassionate and tough-minded look at the rise and impact of the tough-on-crime culture that has made America the world's foremost jailer. By showing us how we got into this mess, this revelatory book also holds out hope that we might find our way out."
-Nell Bernstein, author of All Alone in the World: Children of the Incarcerated
"Sobering . . . Abramsky uses painstaking research, anecdotal evidence from inmates and tours of penal hellholes across the land to lock in American Furies."
-Sacramento News and Review
"In the difficult realm of prison reporting, Abramsky is unquestionably among the best and brightest, and American Furies is clear evidence of such."
-The American Prospect
"American Furies provides us with a vivid account."
-The Nation
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