The Prison of Democracy - by Sara M Benson (Paperback)
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<p/><br></br><p><b> About the Book </b></p></br></br>"The Prison of Democracy uses a prison designed as a replica of the US capitol building as a prism for understanding the relationship between prisons and democracy. As an historical and archival study of the federal prison system, this book examines the history of the racial carceral state and suggests that mass incarceration is more than a moment in time--it is a theory of the state that assigns civil death to the body. In a state that has always been carceral, the logic of mass incarceration has emerged over time as part of the foundation of "democratic" governance. Because of the idea that the carceral state was weak in the years before the development of the Bureau of Prisons in 1929, this book examines the early history of the federal prison system. It begins in the gothic institutions of the states, where federal prisoners were housed for nearly a century and where civil death was signified in the text of the building. It also locates the idea of Leavenworth at the intersections of Indian Territory and Bleeding Kansas, two regional formations rooted in settler colonialism and slavery that were part of the federal carceral apparatus that preceded Leavenworth. The book also finds the idea of Leavenworth in the racialization of the penitentiary in the border states, and in the mass incarceration of political prisoners in the twentieth century. The book explores Leavenworth's institutional life in order to imagine new terrains of justice in the prison's afterlife"--Provided by publisher.<p/><br></br><p><b> Book Synopsis </b></p></br></br>At publication date, a free ebook version of this title will be available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visit www.luminosoa.org to learn more.<br /><br /> Built in the 1890s at the center of the nation, Leavenworth Federal Penitentiary was designed specifically to be a replica of the US Capitol Building. But why? <i>The Prison of Democracy</i> explains the political significance of a prison built to mimic one of America's monuments to democracy. Locating Leavenworth in memory, history, and law, the prison geographically sits at the borders of Indian Territory (1825-1854) and Bleeding Kansas (1854-1864), both sites of contestation over slavery and freedom. Author Sara M. Benson argues that Leavenworth reshaped the design of punishment in America by gradually normalizing state-inflicted violence against citizens. Leavenworth's peculiar architecture illustrates the real roots of mass incarceration--as an explicitly race- and nation-building system that has been ingrained in the very fabric of US history rather than as part of a recent post-war racial history. The book sheds light on the truth of the painful relationship between the carceral state and democracy in the US--a relationship that thrives to this day.<p/><br></br><p><b> From the Back Cover </b></p></br></br>"Sara Benson's brilliant study of Leavenworth Penitentiary persuasively argues that what is represented as a contemporary project of mass incarceration has very deep historical roots, that the prison has always been the unacknowledged center of U.S. political history. Most importantly, Benson's work challenges political scientists and activist intellectuals alike to generate new conceptions of democracy unfettered from the anchoring idea of the prison."--Angela Y. Davis, Distinguished Professor Emerita, University of California, Santa Cruz <p/> "The imaginative rereading, through primary sources, of Fort Leavenworth and a host of other subjects including abolitionism, border prisons, North-South relations, and the campaign against Native Americans adds up to an original and exceptionally significant piece of research and scholarship. I enthusiastically recommend <i>Prison of Democracy</i> to scholars and students of US history, political science, and sociology."--Desmond King, author of <i>Separate and Unequal: African Americans and the US Federal Government</i> <p/> "A significant contribution to the literature regarding race, crime, and punishment. The analytical insight that the author provides through a rereading and recentering of Leavenworth is both a contribution to and an immanent critique of racialized notions of mass incarceration."--Daniel Kato, author of <i>Liberalizing Lynching: Building a New Racialized State</i><p/><br></br><p><b> Review Quotes </b></p></br></br><br>"This is a significant contribution to the literature on the federal prison system, and of particular import to any historian, sociologist, political scientist, or activist concerned with unravelling the intertwined histories of race, state-building, and punishment in the United States."-- "Punishment & Society"<br><p/><br></br><p><b> About the Author </b></p></br></br><b>Sara M. Benson</b> is a Lecturer in the Department of Political Science at San Jose State University and teaches at Oakes College at the University of California, Santa Cruz.
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