Review Of Angela Davis's Critique Of The Modern Prison System

While analyzing the modern prison system it is unintelligent to ignore the economic factors behind it. Activist and author Angela Davis claims that capitalism is both a tool and a driving force of oppression and that the modern prison system is a product of it (Davis 42). Unfortunately, Davis’ claims are problematic while inspecting private prison systems in the United States and her critique of capitalism. To better understand the problem with Davis’ claim it is necessary to; define and contrast the differences between mercantilism and free-market capitalism, and how private prisons are products of both cronyism and corporatism; to understand how government grants a monopoly on prisons, while creating and pushing for their artificial demand; and how private prisons are not products of capitalism but of the preindustrial concept of mercantilism.

Up until Adam Smith’s Wealth of Nations, this was the dominant economic belief. Smith’s work would challenge the dominant theory of the time and push towards a free market approach with its premise reliant on individual rights and laissez faire economics. The push and belief in free-markets was innovative due to its belief that all parties benefit from a voluntary exchange, much different than the mercantilist view that only one party is beneficiary of trade (Rothbard 1). A simplified example of this is that of buying a painting from a painter; the buyer benefits from the gratification of looking at the painting, while the painter is benefitted