Felicific Calculus, Human Rights, Social Progress, and the Meaning of Prisons Research and Scholarship in the Trump Era

• In Event: My Hole Life: Living and Working in Solitary Confinement In the Mass Incarceration Era

Abstract

Despite the ongoing damages of what has come to be known as mass incarceration, prison scholars and others had become optimistic about the potential for alternatives to incarceration, prisoner reentry and education, programs, as well as crime and delinquency / stay in school programs to alleviate not only the difficulties faced by those who are incarcerated, but to minimize the chances of people being sent to prison altogether. However, a sharp turn toward law and order, including a reification and recommitment to the War on Drugs and its' reliance upon prisons as punishment has left some prisons researchers / scholars questioning the value and utility of our work. This questioning is all the more pronounced due to the shared opinion across the political spectrum that mass incarceration must end if we truly endorse racial and social justice. Thus, how do we motivate our work during dark times like these? Drawing on the harm reduction literature, Kantian philosophical imperatives, as well as the importance of witnessing - validating lived-experiences of those without power, this presentation discusses why the work of prisons scholars is more important than ever as it can literally save lives by reducing the harms inherent in revanchist penal change.

Author

• Jay Borchert, John Jay College of Criminal Justice