Lisa is hosting solo today and is joined by James Kilgore, an educator, writer and activist based in Urbana, Illinois to talk about his book, Understanding E-Carceration: Electronic Monitoring, the Surveillance State, and the Future of Mass Incarceration.
James Kilgore is an educator, writer and activist based in Urbana, Illinois. He writes widely on issues of mass incarceration and the politics and history of southern Africa. He has written four novels, all of which he drafted during his six and a half years in prison.
He is also the author of a primer on the prison-industrial-complex: Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide to the Key Civil Rights Struggle of Our Time. When he is not writing, he works in his community to fight against jail building and to open door of opportunity for people with felony convictions.
Book Description:
A riveting primer on the growing trend of surveillance, monitoring, and control that is extending our prison system beyond physical walls and into a dark future—by the prize-winning author of Understanding Mass Incarceration
“James Kilgore is one of my favorite commentators regarding the phenomenon of mass incarceration and the necessity of pursuing truly transformative change.” —Michelle Alexander, author of The New Jim Crow
In the last decade, as the critique of mass incarceration has grown more powerful, many reformers have embraced changes that release people from prisons and jails. As educator, author, and activist James Kilgore brilliantly shows, these rapidly spreading reforms largely fall under the heading of “e-carceration”—a range of punitive technological interventions, from ankle monitors to facial recognition apps, that deprive people of their liberty, all in the name of ending mass incarceration.
E-carceration can block people’s access to employment, housing, healthcare, and even the chance to spend time with loved ones. Many of these technologies gather data that lands in corporate and government databases and may lead to further punishment or the marketing of their data to Big Tech.
This riveting primer on the world of techno-punishment comes from the author of award–winning Understanding Mass Incarceration. Himself a survivor of prison and e-carceration, Kilgore captures the breadth and complexity of these technologies and offers inspiring ideas on how to resist.