Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California cover
Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California
by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Description: Golden Gulag examines the growth of prisons in California from 1980 onward, addressing issues of surplus labor, economic crisis, and resistance within the context of globalization. Ruth Wilson Gilmore analyzes how these factors shape the state's carceral system
ISBN: 0520242017
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charlescearl · 2019-09-13 · Original thread
The first public academic to my knowledge to begin crystalizing the problem of private prisons and the prison industrial complex was Angela Davis [1] -- I first remember hearing her address this in a 1998 lecture at Northwestern.

Ruth Wilson [2,3] has worked for years analyzing and working to end the expansion and privatization of California's prisons, through both academic and grass roots efforts [4]. Her "Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California" [5] book is both accessible and rigorous, I highly recommend it. I am a bit shocked that their and foundational work were not mentioned in the piece.

There's a discussion between Davis and Wilson here [6] where they surface the mass incarceration/private prison issue, and detail the pathology of California's prison system.

[1]https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1583225811/ref=dbs_a_def_r...

[2]https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition...

[3] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sTPjC-7EDkc

[4] http://criticalresistance.org/

[5] https://www.amazon.com/Golden-Gulag-Opposition-Globalizing-C...

[6] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FGPVPrJGXsY