Ain't la Priconer, Too?

In arecent aricle, Dan Berger wrote, ‘Prison reform is now in vogue.” Its 50
‘rus. Right now, everyone, even Kim Kardashian, is proffring solutions to
the carceral quagmire weve sunken Ini. Inlenaifed pubkc scrutiny of
polising and hyperincarceration has led to an increase in the discourse
about ‘cime,’ policing, and imprisonment Many Americans agree with the
New York Times editorial that stated: “The American experiment in mass
incarceration has been moral legal, social and eccriomic disaster.” People
‘are beginning to uiderstanc that prisons and policing are repressive tools of
the state, which are crtical io the maintenance of power, Butin th’ interval
of seeming possibilty, some prisoners have good reason to feel anxious.

‘The American Prison Movement is made up of a wide range af people and
‘erganzations with diverse goals, but one consistent trait stil runs throughout
‘the entire movement: privileging the straight, abe-Ludied, cisgender male
‘ewpoint. When the experiences of prisoners are represented. they are
typicaly the experiences of cisgender men, usually Bleck or Brown, who are’
Straight, able-bodiod ‘and ncuro-typical. However there is 0 monolithic

prisoner experience. Our experiences with plicing andimprisonment are far
‘fom universal; they have alvays been inflected by race, class, cender,
sawuaity, abil, and geography. How will this one normative definition of
prisoner free us all?

‘When prisoners fosiled ass cis-tet, able-bodied men, the led experiences
of the mest vuinereble prisorers—queer, rans and disabled fok—a’e at best
‘marginalized, or atworst delegitinized and erased. We need to consider how
policing and impriconmen: affect perticular populations. Puut, Black
‘transwomen are not targeted, poiced, and locked up in the same ways that
Black/Brown cis-het_men are. "Seeking to understand the specific
‘arrangements that cause czrtain communities to face gaicular types of
violence at the hands of the police and in detention can allow us te develop
solcarity around shared and different experiexces with these forces and
build effective resistence that gets to the rools uf these problems.”
(Bassichis, Lee, end Spade. “Building an Atolilionist Trans and Queer
‘Movement wi Everything We've Got”)

 
There have been inierventions in ihe continued marginalization of the mest
wuinerable populations. Organizations like Black & Pink and the Sylvia
Rivera Law Project vigorously advocate for end amplify the vcices of
queeritrans prisoners. Texts like Eric Stanley and Nat Smith's Captive
Genders: Trars Embodiment ard the Peison Industrial Complex, Kay
Whitlock, Joey Mogul, and Andiea J. Ritchie's Queer (in}Justice: The
‘Crimnatization of LGBT Pople in the United States and Richie's invisible
‘Mo More: Police Violence Ageinst Black Women and Women of Color center
‘queeritrans lives in discourses cn policing and prisons. Bul in national
conversations abou: polising and prisons, queeritrans prisoners are largely
‘overlooked. We cortinua to liva in tha white spaces of books and arteles on
‘what to do about mass incarceration ard policing. Our views remain absent
in the debates. And what goes unheard may be of the utmost importance.

In Captive Genders, one reads: “gender. abilty and sexuality as writen ENG
through race, class an¢ nationality must figure into any and alt accounts of
incarceration, even when they seem to be nonexistent" Yet many people in
the American Prison Movement refuse to consider how te intersections of

race, class, gander, sealty and ablity sect encounters wih police and
impisonment. Queer (nse states: By binging queer expersnces to "TARE
the center, we gain a more complete understending of the vays in wnich
‘ace, national origin, class. gender, abiliy and immigration stalus drive
constructions of crime, safety and justice.” There is no way to bring
Conscious and liberatory politics 10 the work of our movement without
focusing on ail the main pillars driving the PIC. including homophobia and
transphobia. is only by centering the lives of the most vulnerable that we

can ensure that no one Is left behind. We have to start asking ourselves
serious cuestions. What becomes visible when we listen to the exteriences

of the most marginalized people behind bars? How could that listering

   

 

JO suergthen ow movement?
Lo
Ao
JAI) Meny astvss, inside and outside, ae reluctant to ask: whats gained fom
0) cmphaszing queertrans encounters wit potce and prisons? They don’
SOS quastion why queeftrans prisoners! soues tend trun pall to, Inctead of
X(\\_ntarsecting with, other prisoners’ iseues. Queeritrans pisoners feel unsure
Sy that our concerns will 2e addressed by other activists. We wonderif our pain

 

is taken seriously. And this should not be the see.
 

Beeson SNOT

 

‘At every stage and moment of the American Prison Movement, quseritians.
folk have been presert and involved, We have struggled and suffered
alongside, and often because of, straicht, able-bodied, cisgender males. Our
issues remain unheard. We have not beer silent; we haven't been listened
to, Fven during the most reboltinus years, prisoner upssings linked their
Coristions with critiques of American capitlism, racism and imperilism, but
Rot homophotia or sexism. We have ro seat alte table, And ust as former
US Congressman Bamay Franks sald: “If you're not at the table, you're on
the menu”

Its ime for other prisoners to know that “All of ue lve in @ cutture thet is
‘attempting to limit the rarge of our humanity, and so we're all in his liberaton
struggle” (Rebecca Solrit). The laced.up minds of some activists prevent
them from understanding thet “constructive eritkism and self-riticsm aro
extremely important for eny revolutionary organization Without them. people:
{end io arown in their mistakes, and not learn from them" (Assata Shakur),
‘The need far self-crticisr and the role we may be playing in opprassing and
silencing others cannot be overstated. “The true focus of revolutionary
‘change is not merely the oppressive situations which we seek to escape, but
‘hal fiece of the oppressor which is plented deep within each of us" (Auéro
Lorde), We are against all the systems of oppression that rrop up the prison
Industrial somplex, but are we working to uproot the oppressor in our
hearts—white supremacy, homophobia, transphatia, sexism, ebleism,
xenophobia? Are we atle to acknowledge differences without devaluing
them? Mowwover, can we recognize drferences among prisoners and use
these differences to expand our visions of justice, freedom, safety, and
‘community? This isthe challenge.

  

 

 

 

  

 
 
 
 
 
 
  
  
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
  

   

The reason queertrans prisoners haven seat! the ableis because many i
activists, especially incarcerated ones, don'tconsider us part of the struggle,
tho movement. Those who do rarly got boyond porfomnatve cota
ftatenens of support and concem. They won struggle slongside us. Our
tradition of anti-police/confinement woxk is often ignored. The antagonism
between quoertrare {0K and the eate predate the cumontineareraton
boom. "Because prisons, police, immigration officials, and psychiatric
institutions have long punished people for transgressing sexual and gender
sovme, queer and trans people have a tong tradtion of resistance to
inetiuion of punis ment (S, Lambie in Capive Genders), Mah here be
something to learn ‘rom this tradition? The self-oriented only perspective of
‘hany activist pachdestham from sacing tha vale n queetranstadions
of resistance and the importance, rather the necessly, of stugging
alongside us fcr suravaland eration. makes me wonder now they daine
communi”?

 

 

 

 
‘There are unspoken closures of communily tel many need t9 refect upon,

‘Who is included in our defintior of community? Who is excluded by intent or
‘omission? Queerfrans prisoners are not struggling in the prison movement
simply to add a different viewpoint. We are challenging the fundamental
deffitions of freedom, safely, justice, and community. Moreover, we are
challenging the very definition of prisoner and calling for the recognition of
all prisoner exporiences in thic moment of possbilty. We say loud and dear:

‘You will not live upon our runs.

the multifaceted ways the PID affects us al, we are able to
create a wider base of suppert. But we are stymied in our efferts because
‘cur definition of friconer continues to exclude the most vulnerable
incarcerated fok.

27"

Peoota are becomina more aware othe rece and clase infectod aspects cf
pedicing and incarceration. We have to do mere tc educate them about the

gender und sexuality inflected aspects. And ws need to do it as a movement,
‘As everyone offers their solution to mass incarceration and police vio'ence,
letus remember that falling to recognize and affirm the intersecticns of race,
‘lass, gender, and sexualty erases the lives expsriences of many people
behind the walls. Let us remember that “referm without a vision of
fundarrental change, without a poliiss that aims toleave no one behind, can
give way to new forms of captivity and containmert by the state" [The Long
Term, see introduction}.

STEPHEN WILSON -
St. Petersburg, FL 33733

PO 535048