Locked Up But Not Locked Out: Activism in United States Prisons

• In Event: Black Lives, Black Deaths, and Black Protest: Political Scientists Respond (Anew) to a Persistent Challenge: Young Adults Respond: Prison, Policing, and Political Activism

Abstract

In June 2020, a group of people detained in an Immigration Enforcement Customs detention center in Bakersfield, CA, released a video expressing solidarity with the Movement for Black Lives, and against a system that kills, incarcerates, and detains Black lives. The video was filmed while the incarcerated men went on a hunger strike for four days as a form of protest. In April 2020, men in the Cook County jail painted signs on a window calling for help during a COVID-19 outbreak inside the jail. These incidents are not isolated. Uprisings, hunger strikes, and communication with the non-incarcerated population have commonly been used as tools to express outrage at the system and to push for change. Indeed, the prison has been a central focus for many Black activists and wider movements (Berger 2014). While political scientists have spent much of their time looking at the ways incarceration affects political mobilization and feelings of citizenship (White 2019, Lerman and Weaver 2014), few have looked at the way incarcerated people engage in politics while inside. This project looks to show how the incarcerated population, with a focus on young adults, engage in protest and social movements from inside prisons. I will be using examples from social media as well as materials shared from inside prisons to show that those who are incarcerated are deeply invested in and actively working alongside the national Movement for Black Lives.

Author

• Kaneesha Johnson, Harvard University