Dimitra Batchvarov
Over the past year, I researched the interpretations of the Constitution, understandings of race, and how they have evolved and shaped the prison industrial complex; I also researched the prison experience, abolition and reform, and the future of the U.S carceral system. My research led me to discover the use of the prison industrial complex as a vessel to maintain the deeply rooted racism still heavily prevalent in our society. The exception clause in the Thirteenth Amendment introduced the prison system as a form of control over Black Americans, and its grasp on their lives continues to this day disadvantaging those convicted of crimes in nearly every aspect of their lives. The prison system’s roots in slavery and clear bias towards Black Americans makes it a system that cannot be “fixed” or re-built, it needs to be abolished. To understand the prison system on a personal level and grasp on to a little bit of hope for the future, I conducted 6 interviews, with professionals working within the prison system and formerly incarcerated people, on their own unique experiences with the prison system and their re-imagination of our punishment system.
