Mobilizations from Within: Black Political Organizing in Prisons

• In Event: Making and Unmaking Carceral Power: Imagining New Modes of Justice

Abstract

This paper draws on participant observation and in-depth interviews with Black men in a large American prison to understand how social movement dynamics emerge and are replenished among those in the deep end of the American criminal legal system. Intervening on the policy feedbacks literature in particular, this paper details three much underrecognized political dynamics that unfold in mass incarcerated settings: collective identity, political education, and coalition building. It shows how young Black people endeavor to overcome the ways in which prisons are designed to create boundaries, disappear populations, and undermine collective action. Finally, new theoretical paths are forged for understanding Black political organizing among those caged in America’s most authoritarian institutions.

Author

• David Jonathan Knight, University of Chicago