Published on 09/06/22
The recent confluence of academics and activists at a conference focusing on the movement against mass incarceration, reflected a glaring omission – the discourse surrounding prison abolition was conspicuously absent. Oscar Soto, one of the commentators at the conference, noted a shift from radical critique to a more reformative narrative. This shift seems to be encapsulated by the passage of the First Step Act, a prison reform bill that garnered bipartisan support, alongside endorsements from conservative factions and federal prison guards' unions. This bill seeks to enhance rehabilitation efforts within prisons, spotlighting education and training programs.
The endorsement of prison reform by dominant groups, corporate elites, and their political and police allies, however, is a narrative that warrants scrutiny. Historically, the radical critique of mass incarceration and the prison abolition movement have been intertwined with a critique of global capitalism and its resultant surplus humanity. The irony is palpable; organizations and political entities that once championed capitalist globalization, and by extension mass incarceration, are now the torchbearers of prison reform. This newfound stance is shared by a plethora of liberal and conservative corporate-funded think tanks and foundations, who have collectively injected a substantial financial impetus into criminal justice reform endeavors.
The narrative over the past four decades was starkly different. The neoliberal agenda, propagated by these think tanks and foundations, spearheaded capitalist restructuring and class warfare. This scenario precipitated an exponential surge in surplus humanity, majorly from racially oppressed communities, thereby fueling the machinery of mass incarceration.
The transformation in the discourse from radical critique to reform seems to be embodied by what can be termed as a redemption script. This script seeks to rehabilitate those incarcerated and released, integrating them into the capitalist labor market as compliant workers and social entrepreneurs. This narrative is far removed from the initial radical critique which sought to dissect the nexus between global capitalism, mass incarceration, and oppression of marginalized communities.
Antonio Gramsci, the Italian communist, coined the term passive revolution to elucidate such scenarios where dominant groups instigate mild reform from above, absorbing leaders of the subordinate majority, thereby undercutting radical movements from below. This is done to reestablish the hegemony of the ruling class. In essence, the state, through such passive revolution, not only exercises coercive domination but also seeks consensual domination by co-opting intellectuals and activists through politically and corporately organized platforms.
Drawing from William I. Robinson’s exploration of global capitalism, the current passive revolution can be seen as a response to the global challenges faced by capitalism, especially the burgeoning critique against the prison-industrial complex and calls for abolition. The First Step Act, in this light, emerges as a legal reform aimed at diffusing a redemption script to replace the radical critique with a new hegemonic narrative.
The synergy between corporate funders, institutions, and the state in this newfound reformative narrative is evident. The infusion of funds into prison education and programs for the formerly incarcerated, although beneficial on the surface, serves a larger agenda of ensuring the dominance of the redemption script. Absent a radical critique of capitalism and its prison-industrial complex, the movement against mass incarceration risks being subsumed before it morphs into a revolutionary movement for abolition, thereby failing to address the core issues of global capitalism that fuel mass incarceration in the first place.
The passive revolution mirrored in the shift towards prison reform threatens to overshadow the radical essence of the movement against mass incarceration. The veil of reform, represented by the redemption script, appears to be a strategic maneuver to maintain the hegemony of the ruling class, diluting the revolutionary potential of the movement. It is imperative to dissect and challenge this passive revolution to rekindle the radical critique that links mass incarceration to the larger machinations of global capitalism.
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