Corrections

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1. An American prisoner class exists that does not have the same rights, opportunities, or citizenship enjoyed by the rest of society.

2. All media regarding this prisoner class is negative and exists to further the marginalization of this growing group of Americans.

3. Institutional mechanisms exist to further isolate and marginalize this prisoner class. The most recognizable of these mechanisms is the second application (2ap), the question found everywhere—Have you ever been convicted of a crime?

4. The 2ap creates a line in society that can be answered yes, or no. Those who answer the 2ap yes are forced by application to accept second-class citizenship in the form of substandard housing, employment, and education.

5. As the prisoner class grows every day, an inevitable disruption of American society will occur.

The prisoner class in America lives as slaves. This statement is not based on the constitutionally grounded slavery experienced by those currently in prison. The 13th Amendment clearly allows slavery to exist within the prisoner-industrial-complex. However, the firmly established concept of recidivism that leads to further incarceration creates a system in which humans are held in perpetual bondage. The criminal justice system in the United States decapitalizes human beings and makes them slaves. And because the system never recapitalizes those made less than human, the problem that arises is simple—once a slave always a slave.

Today, the prisoner class in America is made up of those who are now out of prison and those who have pled guilty to a lesser crime in order to stay out of prison. In an interview on Frontline, Judge Michael McSpadden answered the following question:

FRONTLINE: So fundamentally, the system is the plea bargain?

McSPADDEN: The system right now is plea bargain, with a few cases being tried. Those few cases being tried set the standard for everybody in determining what to do with the 95 percent, 96 percent of the plea bargain cases. That’s exactly right. I wish it were just the opposite, but it will never be.

Both groups (those on parole/probation and those who have pled into the prisoner class) are statistically assured that a majority will be incarcerated sometime in the future.

According to the National Institute of Justice (NIJ):

“Recidivism is one of the most fundamental concepts in criminal justice. It refers to a person’s relapse into criminal behavior, often after the person receives sanctions or undergoes intervention for a previous crime. Recidivism is measured by criminal acts that resulted in rearrest, re-conviction or return to prison with or without a new sentence during a three-year period following the prisoner’s release.” 

The prisoner-industrial complex in the United States operates a perpetual machine of recidivism in which once caught in the gears the prisoner is never free again, caught forever in the Machine of Recidivism.

According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the prisoner is “A person who…is confined to a place or position.” The place, the prisoner-industrial-complex itself (the prison) is a set location in which slave labor is concentrated. The position in the broader society is the prisoner class in the United States. A group of over 100 million [a]mericans now share the lowest common denominator in society. This position in the social stratification of the United States could be referred to as the bottom rung, except the ladder analogy of American culture implies the ability to climb the rungs, which is no longer possible for the prisoner class.

The position of the prisoner class in America is constantly being reinforced by use of the 2ap. Prisoner theory states:

BELIEF 3. INSTITUTIONAL MECHANISMS EXIST TO FURTHER ISOLATE AND MARGINALIZE THIS PRISONER CLASS. THE MOST RECOGNIZABLE OF THESE MECHANISMS IS THE SECOND APPLICATION (2AP), THE QUESTION FOUND EVERYWHERE—HAVE YOU EVER BEEN CONVICTED OF A CRIME?

A yes or a no box follows the 2ap for the applicant to select. If the applicant chooses yes a space is provided for the obligatory comment/explanation. A pair of lines often follows this for the yes applicant to fill in the blank. It is a difficult task, one that cannot be avoided because in this technology and information driven environment no one can escape the background check. So the yes/prisoner must self-sacrifice on every application—the prisoner ever attempting to pull together some strong phrases that portray just the right amount of self-effacement. These few lines are the 2ap, an almost daily question that will follow the prisoner for the rest of life.

By answering yes on the 2ap the prisoner has admitted to being a criminal and a member of the prisoner class. Essentially telling the reader of the application, “yes, I have made really bad decisions and as such have been punished by the law of society.” In no way can the yes be thought of as advantageous to the application reader. Thus the 2ap works as a tool of negation, making the prisoner essentially self-excluded from the application process.

You fished in to this joint

 all by yourself. 

There are no friends here.

 It is cold on the concrete, 

here without a blanket. Alone 

in the endless dark 

of the blinking lights above.

Figure 1.2: Felony Disenfranchisement Laws by State

Figure 1.2 — Ten states impose permanent disenfranchisement on some people with felony convictions absent an act of government restoration. Fourteen more withhold the vote through the full sentence, including parole and probation, before restoring it. Louisiana ties restoration to five years without incarceration. Only Maine, Vermont, and the District of Columbia impose no disenfranchisement at all, allowing incarcerated people to vote from prison.