Angela Davis condemns the prison industrial complex in campus talk

Civil and women’s rights activist Angela Davis spoke about the prison industrial complex in the Fine Arts Center Monday night at the University of Massachusetts. Davis called for a thorough re-evaluation of many elements of the American prison system and examined the relationship of the PIC to prominent political issues in other nations.

“Prison abolitionists not only want to end mass incarceration – we have to end incarceration,” Davis said. “Imprisonment only produces the problem it is designed to solve.”

* Much of Davis’ talk focused on the PIC as it relates to foreign countries like Israel, which Davis claimed were responsible for training American police. Davis also mentioned the introduction of weaponry developed for use in the war on terror to local and college police departments."

*Davis was also critical of the way the media treated recent American protest demonstrations, which emerged in response to events such as the death of Michael Brown, claiming that the lack of a central male leader in the movements caused them to be taken less seriously.

“Sustained Ferguson demonstrations happened largely because of black women,” Davis said.

Davis also discussed problems with the way the American police system handles trans women and the mentally disabled. She stated that the division of American prisons into merely male and female institutions and the concentration of mentally ill inmates in county jails aggravates these conditions.

In an event bookmarked by standing ovations from the sold out Fine Arts Center crowd, Davis was greeted with tremendous applause when she demanded an end to modern police systems."

http://dailycollegian.com/2015/03/31/angela-davis-condemns-the-prison-industrial-complex-in-campus-talk/