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Against Punishment: Centering Work, Wages, and Uneven Development in Mapping the Carceral State

In eastern Kentucky, prisons (like coal) serve as responses to the cycles and problems of capitalism, including deindustrialization, structural joblessness and low wages. These authors argue that incarceration is not so much driven by affective commitments to punishment, fears of crime, or racial animus, but rather, through the diverse logics arising out of the relationships of racial capitalism and related concerns about work and wages. Abolishing the carceral state will therefore require more than scaling back punishment and 'tough-on-crime' policies. It must also include alternative responses to poverty.


Story, B., & Schept, J. (2018). Against Punishment: Centering Work, Wages, and Uneven Development in Mapping the Carceral State. Social Justice, 45–4(4), 7–34. http://search.proquest.com/docview/2328350536/abstract/372D9DF67BB54FBBPQ/1

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