Progressive Punishment: Job Loss, Jail Growth, and the Neoliberal Logic of Carceral Expansion

320 Pages·2015·2.448 MB·English

by  Judah Schept

Progressive Punishment
Alternative Criminology Series
General Editor: Jeff Ferrell
Pissing on Demand: Workplace Drug Test- 5 Grams: Crack Cocaine, Rap Music, and
ing and the Rise of the Detox Industry the War on Drugs
Ken Tunnell Dimitri A. Bogazianos
Empire of Scrounge: Inside the Urban Judging Addicts: Drug Courts and Coercion
Underground of Dumpster Diving, Trash in the Justice System
Picking, and Street Scavenging Rebecca Tiger
Jeff Ferrell
Courting Kids: Inside an Experimental
Prison, Inc.: A Convict Exposes Life inside Youth Court
a Private Prison Carla J. Barrett
by K.C. Carceral, edited by Thomas J.
The Spectacular Few: Prisoner Radicaliza-
Bernard
tion and the Evolving Terrorist Threat
The Terrorist Identity: Explaining the Ter- Mark S. Hamm
rorist Threat
Comic Book Crime: Truth, Justice, and the
Michael P. Arena and Bruce A. Arrigo
American Way
Terrorism as Crime: From Oklahoma City Nickie D. Phillips and Staci Strobl
to Al- Qaeda and Beyond
The Securitization of Society: Crime, Risk,
Mark S. Hamm
and Social Order
Our Bodies, Our Crimes: The Policing of Marc Schuilenburg
Women’s Reproduction in America
Covered in Ink: Tattoos, Women, and the
Jeanne Flavin
Politics of the Body
Graffiti Lives: Beyond the Tag in New York’s Beverly Yuen Thompson
Urban Underground
Narrative Criminology: Understanding
Gregory J. Snyder
Stories of Crime
Crimes of Dissent: Civil Disobedience, Edited by Lois Presser and Sveinung
Criminal Justice, and the Politics of Sandberg
Conscience
Progressive Punishment: Job Loss, Jail
Jarret S. Lovell
Growth, and the Neoliberal Logic of
The Culture of Punishment: Prison, Society, Carceral Expansion
and Spectacle Judah Schept
Michelle Brown
Who You Claim: Performing Gang Identity
in School and on the Streets
Robert Garot
Progressive Punishment
Job Loss, Jail Growth, and the Neoliberal Logic
of Carceral Expansion
Judah Schept
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
NEW YORK UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and London
www.nyupress.org
© 2015 by New York University
All rights reserved
References to Internet websites (URLs) were accurate at the time of writing. Neither the
author nor New York University Press is responsible for URLs that may have expired or
changed since the manuscript was prepared.
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Schept, Judah Nathan.
Progressive punishment : job loss, jail growth, and the neoliberal logic
of carceral expansion / Judah Schept.
pages cm. — (Alternative criminology series)
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-4798-1071-0 (cl : alk. paper) — ISBN 978-1-4798-0877-9 (pb : alk. paper)
1. Punishment—United States. 2. Corrections—United States. 3. Imprisonment—United
States. 4. Criminal justice, Administration of—United States. I. Title.
HV9471.S356 2016
365’.973—dc23 2015021429
New York University Press books are printed on acid- free paper, and their binding materials
are chosen for strength and durability. We strive to use environmentally responsible suppli-
ers and materials to the greatest extent possible in publishing our books.
Manufactured in the United States of America
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Also available as an ebook
Contents
Acknowledgments vii
Introduction 1
Part 1. Neoliberal Geographies of Progressive
Punishment 31
1. Capital Departures and the Arrival of Punishment 37
2. Consolidations and Expansions: Welfare and the
“Alternatives” Archipelago 49
Part 2. “Poor Conduct” and the Carceral Cure 67
3. “Red Neck” and “Unsocialized,” with “Subcultural Norms and
Values”: Constructing Cultural Poverty and Caring Cages 71
4. “A Lockdown Facility . . . with the Feel of a Small,
Private College” 96
Part 3. Carceral Epistemology: Knowing the
Jail and Governing the Town 119
5. Seeing like a Jail, 1: Evidence and Expertise 125
6. Seeing like a Jail, 2: Corrections Consulting 140
7. Governing through Expansion 162
Part 4. Contesting the Carceral 193
8. Organizing against Expansion 195
Conclusion: Nonreformist Reforms and Abolitionist
Alternatives 235
Epilogue 253
Notes 257
Selected Bibliography 279
Index 301
About the Author 309
v
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Acknowledgments
This book was written with the support of many people over many
years. In my attempt to organize my experience of writing it and to
acknowledge the iterations of support I have received, I consider the
process in two broad stages, corresponding to its development first
as my dissertation research and second as the book you now have in
front of you.
In the first stage, I owe a great deal to several groups of people. I
worked with a remarkable group of scholars at Indiana University, in-
cluding Stephanie Kane, Khalil Gibran Muhammad, Phil Parnell, Hal
Pepinsky, and Kip Schlegel, all of who provided rich insights, intellectual
challenges, and important support. I drew inspiration from Stephanie
Kane’s writing and adventurous spirit for field research; her edits of-
fered a fantastic point of departure for the reconceptualization of this
project as a book. Hal Pepinsky has been a model of scholar-a ctivism
related to the specific issues that this book examines. His analyses of
power and violence and his work on abolition have been influential to
my development and certainly influence these pages. Khalil Muham-
mad pushed me to consider how the discourses of liberal carceral ex-
pansion continued the racial project of mass incarceration and helped
in the development of my reflexive lens, particularly in examining how
my positionality shaped my understanding of the data. Kip Schlegel has
been a constant support over many years. The rigor with which Kip ap-
proaches social theory has made me a better scholar. Finally, my deepest
gratitude and heartfelt appreciation goes to Phil Parnell. Reading drafts
of every chapter and providing meticulous line editing, engaging me in
discussions about hegemony and resistance that challenged my analysis
and introduced me to important literature, and providing much- needed
humor, Phil was more crucial to the success of this project than anyone
else. He continues to be the epitome of a mentor, confidant, and friend,
and I am profoundly grateful for it all.
vii
viii | Acknowledgments
While crafting the initial draft of what would later become this book,
I benefited greatly from an experience helping Khalil Muhammad,
Micol Seigel, and Michelle Brown organize a workshop at Indiana Uni-
versity examining the carceral state and the conditions of its existence.
This book’s insistence on the interdisciplinary study of carceral expan-
sion owes a great deal to participants in “Carceral Studies across the
Disciplines: Scholarship at the Nexus of Art and Activism,” including
Khalil, Michelle, and Micol as well as Lessie Jo Frazier, Sarah Haley, Ash-
ley Hunt, Jenna Loyd, Dylan Rodriguez, and Rashad Shabazz.
The members of Decarcerate Monroe County (DMC) constitute a
third group of people whose influence greatly shaped the analysis found
in this book. Their names appear in these pages as pseudonyms and
thus they don’t receive the acknowledgement they deserve, but DMC
kept me intellectually stimulated and politically inspired. Many of its
members’ insights enliven and enrich these pages as some of the most
incisive analyses this book has to offer. DMC members were energetic
and thoughtful and welcomed my dual role as both activist and scholar.
This first stage of the project occurred during a particularly emo-
tional year for me: the loss of five loved ones over the course of fourteen
months and, right in the middle of it, the birth of my first child, Talula. I
needed some help managing the grief and the joy and lack of sleep. Con-
versations with Mattie White provided necessary relief. I did some of my
hardest and most rewarding work with Mattie, and her encouragement
of this research and her belief in me were crucial to my confidence and
mental health.
I began to consider the project for a book almost as soon as I arrived
at Eastern Kentucky University (EKU) as a new assistant professor. As it
began to take shape in this second stage of the project’s life, other people
provided a variety of support. I am fortunate to work in an environment
saturated with critical and thoughtful faculty members engaged in im-
portant scholarship. Avi Brisman, Victoria Collins, Kishonna Gray, Tra-
vis Linnemann, Gary Potter, Ken Tunnell, and Tyler Wall are amazing
colleagues, and my work is better because of their influence. Conversa-
tions with Tyler in particular have forced me to think more fully— both
historically and theoretically—a bout the political economy of carceral
expansion. I am also lucky to work under the leadership of people like
Preston Elrod, Victor Kappeler, and Peter Kraska, whose friendship and
Acknowledgments | ix
mentorship I greatly appreciate. In addition, I am thankful to the nu-
merous graduate students who contributed assistance to and commen-
tary on this project at various times, including Maria Bordt, Ryan Carr,
Conrad Lanham, Jordan Mazurek, Bill McClanahan, and Melissa Pujol.
In the last several years, I have benefited greatly from friendships
with colleagues across time, space, and discipline. Conversations with
these scholars and activists in various contexts—o n conference panels,
through e- mail or the phone, during morning coffee breaks or over eve-
ning drinks, and in some cases on playgrounds with our children— have
been productive, challenging, and affirming for me. In these ways, I am
indebted to Lindsey Campbell Badger, Carla Barrett, Anne Bonds, Mi-
chelle Brown, Eamonn Carrabine, Alex Chambers, Alexandra Cox, Mi-
chael Coyle, Alessandro De Giorgi, Stefania De Petris, Danielle Dirks,
Bronwyn Dobchuk-L and, Rachel Dotson, Jeff Ferrell, Jill Frank, Tim
Goddard, Lisa Guenther, Kate Henne, Michael Hoerger, Grace Audrey
Hunt, Jenna Loyd, Chris Magno, Erin Marshall, Bryce Martin, Jennifer
Musto, Randy Myers, Justin Piché, Judy Rohrer, Sylvia Ryerson, Viviane
Saleh- Hanna, Micol Seigel, Rashad Shabazz, David Stein, Brett Story,
Lauren Taylor, Emily Troshynski, and Rob Werth.
Several people who contributed in important ways to this book
passed away during its completion. Warren Henegar and Sophia Travis
kindly spent time with me, offering honest appraisals of what they en-
visioned for the community and providing important local history. Hal
Taylor and Mike Andrews modeled selfless and dedicated community
activism. All four worked hard to create a more socially just community,
and I am thankful to have had the opportunity to engage with them.
I owe a lot of thanks to New York University Press, in particular Jeff
Ferrell, editor of the Alternative Criminology Series; Ilene Kalish, the
press’s executive editor; and Caelyn Cobb, assistant editor. My experi-
ence with them from start to finish has been rewarding. They deserve a
lot of credit for carving out a hospitable, encouraging, and productive
home for critical work. I am thankful for my experience with all three
and wish to thank Ilene in particular for all of her support.
There are also individuals whose early influence in my young adult
life deserves acknowledgment. I continue to find inspiration in the
words, stories, insights, and analysis that Eddie C. and the other men
from the Green Haven prerelease center in 1999–2 001 shared with me.