From Failed Reform to the Victory of Law and Order: Jarrod Shanahan on the History of Rikers Island and Lessons for Abolition
Explicit content warning
05/25/22 • 71 min
photo: @AshAgony
How did an attempt at carceral reform lead to the creation of one of the US’s most notorious jails? In this podcast interview, we speak with author and organizer Jarrod Shanahan about his new book, Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage, and how the various forces within the facility in turn shaped New York city. We also explore how looking at the history of Rikers – and resistance to it – can inform the wider abolitionist struggle.
From rank-n-file guards, city unions, to the Black liberation movement, and neoliberal politicians, we discuss how various forces attempted to fight for their interests inside one of the largest so-called correctional institutions within the United States. As Shanahan argues, the ability of the guards and police to push for more control and impose “law and order” from below against growing resistance on the streets and in the jails, worked hand in glove with neoliberalism’s program of gutting social welfare and public sector programs and infrastructure. What was left, was a society largely held together through massive State violence, a process we continue to see play out today, especially during the pandemic.
As The Nation wrote of Captives:
In particular, Shanahan documents two opposed but mutually reinforcing traditions: the liberal reforms that he calls “penal welfarism” on the one hand, and the more straightforwardly punitive agendas that over the course of the 1960s congealed into the law-and-order coalition on the other. Although these traditions “remained two distinct visions of the postwar order,” Shanahan’s project in a sense is to demonstrate the major role of liberal reformism both in creating the Rikers Island complex, with its perpetual state of humanitarian crisis, and in advancing the law-and-order political consensus that ultimately dominated city politics for decades. In a grim, ironic reversal, penal welfarism created much of the physical and political infrastructure of the city’s carceral apparatus and also fueled the development of the coalition that would eventually reject jail reform in full.
With similar forces at play across the US today, looking at the history and resistance at Rikers gives us insight into the wider struggle for a world without prisons and police.
More Info: Jarrod Shanahan homepage, Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage
photo: @AshAgony
How did an attempt at carceral reform lead to the creation of one of the US’s most notorious jails? In this podcast interview, we speak with author and organizer Jarrod Shanahan about his new book, Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage, and how the various forces within the facility in turn shaped New York city. We also explore how looking at the history of Rikers – and resistance to it – can inform the wider abolitionist struggle.
From rank-n-file guards, city unions, to the Black liberation movement, and neoliberal politicians, we discuss how various forces attempted to fight for their interests inside one of the largest so-called correctional institutions within the United States. As Shanahan argues, the ability of the guards and police to push for more control and impose “law and order” from below against growing resistance on the streets and in the jails, worked hand in glove with neoliberalism’s program of gutting social welfare and public sector programs and infrastructure. What was left, was a society largely held together through massive State violence, a process we continue to see play out today, especially during the pandemic.
As The Nation wrote of Captives:
In particular, Shanahan documents two opposed but mutually reinforcing traditions: the liberal reforms that he calls “penal welfarism” on the one hand, and the more straightforwardly punitive agendas that over the course of the 1960s congealed into the law-and-order coalition on the other. Although these traditions “remained two distinct visions of the postwar order,” Shanahan’s project in a sense is to demonstrate the major role of liberal reformism both in creating the Rikers Island complex, with its perpetual state of humanitarian crisis, and in advancing the law-and-order political consensus that ultimately dominated city politics for decades. In a grim, ironic reversal, penal welfarism created much of the physical and political infrastructure of the city’s carceral apparatus and also fueled the development of the coalition that would eventually reject jail reform in full.
With similar forces at play across the US today, looking at the history and resistance at Rikers gives us insight into the wider struggle for a world without prisons and police.
More Info: Jarrod Shanahan homepage, Captives: How Rikers Island Took New York City Hostage
Previous Episode
This Is America #167: Kamau Franklin on the Fight to Defend the Atlanta Forest and Beyond
Welcome, to This Is America, May 21st 2022.
On this episode, we speak with Kamau Franklin of Community Movement Builders about the struggle to build self-determination and community power in Atlanta in the face of gentrification, police violence and racialized capitalism. We also discuss the growing fight to defend the Atlanta forest and react to the recent anti-Black attack in Buffalo, New York by a white supremacist.
As the police attack we continue to fight back and spread the word about their role as a militarized force in our community pic.twitter.com/PpoXZQBxn8
— Kamau Franklin (@kamaufranklin) May 18, 2022
All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news!
Living and Fighting
Solidarity with BuffaloScenes from @RBL_NYC & @United4Nyc's march to honor lives taken in Buffalo and call out Fox News' hateful disinformation. https://t.co/yWsbARTBtu
— PROTEST_NYC (@protest_nyc) May 18, 2022
Across the so-called US, people showed solidarity with the Buffalo community, holding marchers and gatherings in Oakland, California, Charlottesville, Virginia, and taking to the streets in New York. Students in Charlottesville also organized a walk-out.
BREAKING: Hundreds of students walk out following the racially-motivated shooting in Buffalo, N.Y. Student are chanting Black Lives Matter as they walk towards Tonsler Park. pic.twitter.com/wZujgShacf
— Tamica Jean-Charles (@thisistamica) May 20, 2022
Mutual aid groups have also been working around the clock to help feed people in the wake of the horrific white supremacist attack at a neighborhood grocery store. If you want to support mutual aid programs on the ground, head to Buffalo Community Fridge to support.
Mutual aid programs are working round the clock in #Buffalo to help feed people and mobilize in the wake of last weekend's tragedy. Plug in and donate: https://t.co/9qE0kPyfoX https://t.co/OsYHAfKnoG
— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) May 20, 2022
Action News
Last weekend community members in Southern California mobilized to defend public space where neo-Nazis had gathered in the past to promote the genocidal "Great Replacement" conspiracy theory. https://t.co/Gcn1ycZR2e
— It's Going Down (@IGD_News) May 20, 2022
Holding banners reading, “Always Punch Nazis,” and “One Love,” in Southern California, people again rallied and held space at an overpass where neo-Nazis had previously held banners promoting the genocidal “Great Replacement” theory.
Two dozen community members marched on the Boulder County Sheriff's Office to let them know that their push for a law to criminalize sheltering from the elements on (stolen) County land won't be met without a fight!
This law will increase homelessness and target BIPOC. pic.twitter.com/cQNEmQPYvs
— S🏠FE: Safe Access for Everyone A ☭ (@safeboulder) May 16, 2022
In Boulder, Colorado, people marched against attempts by the local police and politicians to criminalize people sleeping in their cars.
this is beautiful right now #CopsOffCampus at UCD pic.twitter.com/xdDOv0PI6t
— LaCrise (@lacrise_ucd)
Next Episode
This Is America #168: Fight to Save People’s Park in Berkeley, Oakland School Occupied, Hunger Strikes at ICE Prison in Tacoma
Welcome, to This Is America, June 2nd, 2022.
In this episode, we speak with two folks involved in ongoing resistance to development by the University of California at People’s Park in so-called Berkeley.
PLEASE SHARE / BOOST ⚠️
We think they’re going to start arrests by June 6th.
Police were on loud speakers waking up residents saying the park is closing.
UC employees began slashing people’s tents & throwing away their belongings if they leave their tents during the day pic.twitter.com/RtqwY42Tq9
— Defend People's Park (@defendppark) June 3, 2022
We then switch to our discussion, where we tackle the culture of mass shootings and growing tensions within the Republican party and the rise “Dark MAGA.”
All this and more, but first, let’s get to the news.
Living and Fighting
Hunger Strikes in Tacoma, Washington Win Concessions at Detention FacilityA hunger strike that began in mid-May at the Northwest detention center in Tacoma, Washington ended after a week with concessions being made. According to The Seattle Times:
According to the group La Resistencia, detainees were provided clean clothes — but only in the unit where the strike began — and improved food portions. The group said more Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents were sent to the detention center to handle cases, which was one of the protesters’ demands.
The strikers also asked for better cleaning of the facility and units, more nutritious food, better access to medical services and jobs that pay a minimum wage. Nine people took part in the hunger strike at the fenced facility, which is among the largest immigration detention centers in the U.S., and where people are held as they go through immigration-status proceedings.
#hungerstrike ends at #nwdc ... for now. No releases, no reviews on cases. @icegov continues denying individual cases review. @GEOGroup continues profiting from people detained #freethemall #shutdownNWDC #abolishice @POTUS @SecMayorkas @PattyMurray @SenatorCantwell pic.twitter.com/HGtcC3w2AZ
— LaResistencia_NW (@ResistenciaNW) May 26, 2022
Soon after, another hunger strike began. As one local report wrote:
It’s the second hunger strike in as many weeks at the facility, both over concerns over a recent rise in Covid cases there. Detainees also complain that the food is often cold and the commissary is expensive.
La Resistencia alleges that those in quarantine are in conditions similar to solitary confinement, and that the solitary unit at NWIPC (called unit H) is currently full.
[On May 26th]...detainees in unit F4 have ended their hunger strike, according to advocacy group La Resistencia. Maru Villalpando says that Jack Lippard, ICE Assistant Officer in Charge, met with the hunger strikers Wednesday. She says Lippard told them that after reviewing their cases ICE did not think they could be released. Instead, Villalpando says, “he told them to request bond at their next court hearing. Despite the setback, the hunger strikers are not backing down; they have expressed their willingness to organize another hunger strike soon.”
School Occupation Launched in East OaklandYesterday, Parker Elementary parents, staff and community began staging an occupation and repurposing of the OUSD campus in re...
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