“The prison-industrial complex has materialized and mushroomed because we have all learned how to forget about prisons; we push them into the background even if they’re in our own neighborhoods–unless, of course, we want one because we labor under the illusion that it will solve our economic problems. We are afraid to face the realities of the of the prison industry even if we have relatives and friends in prison. In communities of color almost everybody knows someone who has been or still is in prison. But we have not learned how to talk about the centrality of prison in our lives. We do not integrate discussions about this institution into our daily conversations.”
–Angela Davis, “The Prison Industrial Complex” speech at Colorado College, May 1997
