Current calls for prison abolition have been met with major public resistance.
It is time for movements for prison abolition to engage with these questions: How
have contemporary people of the United States come to accept mass incarceration and
the prison industrial complex, and, what is the impact? Using an ethical framework
informed by Martin Buber's I-It and I-Thou and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.'s ethical
demands for integration, this thesis shows that the prison industrial complex is
harmful to members of the free public by preventing our ability to recognize the full
humanity of those sent behind bars, and therefore ourselves. Our system of mass
incarceration relies upon the willingness of the society to first objectify criminals in
order to rationalize their dehumanization through incarceration. By internalizing the
practice of dehumanizing others, our humanity is objectified and our best moral self is
compromised to ensure the prison industrial complex continues. The abolitionist
movement must gain this insight in order to effectively address the fundamental
ethical issue of prisons and also to connect the free victims to a dominating system of
dehumanization, the prison industrial complex. / Graduation date: 2012
| Identifer | oai:union.ndltd.org:ORGSU/oai:ir.library.oregonstate.edu:1957/29222 |
| Date | 04 May 2012 |
| Creators | Lenn, Christopher |
| Contributors | Orosco, Joseph A. |
| Source Sets | Oregon State University |
| Language | en_US |
| Detected Language | English |
| Type | Thesis/Dissertation |
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