Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis Summary

Are Prisons Obsolete is a 2003 book advocating for the complete abolition of the prison system. Angela Y. Davis examines how prisons fail to reform those they imprison and instead systematically profit from exploitation while perpetuating racism and sexism. The book traces the evolution of incarceration from early carceral systems to the modern prison industrial complex, arguing that mass imprisonment is unnecessary, ineffective, and inhuman.

Are Prisons Obsolete is essential reading for criminal justice reformers, social justice advocates, students of sociology and political science, and anyone questioning the American justice system. The book is praised as "wonderfully digestible, and therefore accessible," making complex abolitionist theory understandable for general readers. It's particularly valuable for those interested in understanding the intersections of racism, capitalism, and mass incarceration in contemporary society.

Are Prisons Obsolete is worth reading because it challenges fundamental assumptions about punishment and justice in American society. Civil rights activist Colin Kaepernick praised it for "effectively analyzing the purpose of prisons." The book provides a well-researched framework for understanding prison abolitionist thought and has become a core text in the prison abolition movement. Its insights remain highly relevant, with U.S. prisons still holding 22% of the world's incarcerated population.

Angela Y. Davis is a professor, activist, and outspoken advocate for Black liberation and prison abolition who has written extensively on the intersections of race, gender, and the justice system. Davis wrote Are Prisons Obsolete to challenge readers to see prisons as they view the death penalty—as an unnecessary feature of society. Her goal was not to provide definitive answers but to create questions that remove readers from the mindset of retribution and expose the ulterior motives of the justice system.

In Are Prisons Obsolete, Angela Y. Davis defines the prison industrial complex as the network of economic and political interests invested in crime and punishment for profit rather than public safety. This system involves corporations benefiting from prison labor and services, government relationships perpetuating prison expansion, and privatization patterns similar to those transforming healthcare and education. Davis connects it to the military industrial complex, showing how distant entities profit from ever-increasing incarceration rates.

Are Prisons Obsolete argues that prisons inherited and perpetuated the racial injustices of slavery by legally restricting the freedoms of formerly enslaved people after emancipation. Angela Y. Davis explains how white Southerners pushed for criminal justice reforms that coded crimes like vagrancy as Black, sending prisoners to forced labor at former slave plantations where the same vicious corporal punishments were used. This historical continuity reveals prisons as tools for economic exploitation and racialized punishment.

Are Prisons Obsolete reveals that women's prisons are "violently sexualized" environments where sexual abuse is an abiding though unacknowledged form of punishment. Angela Y. Davis documents how imprisoned women face near certainty of sexual assault through strip searches, internal cavity searches, or outright violence by guards, with women of color experiencing intersections of both race and gender in their punishments. Davis calls this "state-sanctioned sexual assault" and emphasizes that the combination of racism and misogyny retains devastating consequences in women's prisons.

Are Prisons Obsolete proposes decriminalization programs to reduce prison populations, expanded social welfare infrastructure to prevent survival crimes, and community-based recreation and living wage programs. Angela Y. Davis advocates for restorative justice approaches that focus on reparation rather than retribution, radically addressing "racism, male dominance, homophobia, class bias, and other structures of domination". She shares the story of Amy Biehl and the reconciliation between her parents and her killers as a model for successful alternatives to punitive justice.

Are Prisons Obsolete reveals that between 1960 and 2003, the U.S. prison population exploded from 200,000 to over 2 million, making America home to 20% of the world's incarcerated people despite representing less than 5% of the global population. Angela Y. Davis uses California as a case study, noting that nine prisons were built between 1984 and 1989—matching what took over a hundred years previously. The racial composition shows Latinos at 35.2%, African Americans at 30%, and white prisoners at 29.2%.

The main argument of Are Prisons Obsolete is that prisons are unnecessary, ineffective institutions that should be completely abolished rather than reformed. Angela Y. Davis contends that incarceration fails to deter or solve crime but instead perpetuates racist, sexist, and capitalist structures of oppression. She argues prisons serve as tools for social control and economic exploitation of marginalized populations, systematically profiting from prisoners rather than transforming lives. The book calls for creating an equal society that doesn't use punishment as its first and only form of justice.

Are Prisons Obsolete remains relevant in 2025 because mass incarceration continues as the most thoroughly implemented yet least questioned government social program in U.S. history. The fundamental issues Angela Y. Davis identified—racial disparities, sexual violence in prisons, and the prison industrial complex's profit motives—persist unchanged. With America still holding 22% of the world's prison population, the book's call to question the "naturalness" of prisons and imagine abolitionist alternatives continues to challenge readers to rethink justice.

• "The prison is considered so 'natural' that it is extremely hard to imagine life without it" challenges readers to recognize how prisons have been normalized in society without critical examination.
• "The prison has become a black hole into which the detritus of contemporary capitalism is deposited" means prisons serve as dumping grounds for society's most vulnerable, discarding people capitalism has failed.
• "Abolitionist alternatives involve both transformation of the techniques for addressing 'crime' and of the social and economic conditions" emphasizes that prison abolition requires systemic change beyond just reforming criminal justice.