[AicapAifap] Prison Nation

Sat Mar 3 12:28:54 PST 2018

Prison Nation: Portraits from a mass incarceration crisis 
Updated 28th February 2018 
Credit: Courtesy the artist andGallery Kayafas, Boston 
Prison Nation: Portraits from a mass incarceration crisis 
Written by Jacopo Prisco, CNN 
With more than 2 million people behind bars, the US has more prisoners
than any other nation. Although 4.4% of the world's population lives
in the US, nearly a quarter
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/blog/2015/07/15/president-obama-our-criminal-justice-system-isnt-smart-it-should-be
of the world's inmates are in its prisons. According to the World
Prison Brief, the proportion of prisoners to the general population is
the second highest
http://www.prisonstudies.org/highest-to-lowest/prison_population_rate?field_region_taxonomy_tid=Allin
the world at 666 per 100,000 inhabitants, beaten only by the tiny
island nation of Seychelles. 1/12 – Lucas Foglia - "Vanessa and
Lauren watering" (2014) The US has 4.4 percent of the world's
population but nearly 25 percent of he world's prisoners. This photo
was shot at the Rikers Island jail complex in New York. Credit: Lucas
Foglia and courtesy Fredericks & Freiser Gallery Per a 2017 report
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ppus15.pdf from the US Department
of Justice, a further 3.8 million people were on probation
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ppus15.pdf, and 870,500 former
prisoners were on parole
https://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/ppus15.pdf as of 2015. People of
color are disproportionately affected. A 2016 study
https://www.sentencingproject.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/01/Reducing-Racial-Disparity-in-the-Criminal-Justice-System-A-Manual-for-Practitioners-and-Policymakers.pdf
by nonprofit advocacy group The Sentencing Project found that African
Americans and Latinos are incarcerated in state prisons at 5.1 and 1.4
times the rate of white people respectively and that, in 11 states, at
least one in 20 adult black men are in prison. Although African
Americans and Hispanics together make up approximately 32% of the US
population, they comprised 56% of all incarcerated people in 2015,
according to the National Association for the Advancement of Colored
People http://www.naacp.org/criminal-justice-fact-sheet/. This crisis
is the subject of "Prison Nation
https://aperture.org/exhibition/prison-nation-2018/," an exhibition at
New York's Aperture Foundation and an accompanying edition of Aperture
magazine, both looking at photography's role in creating a visual
record of this reality. "Levelle 'Black' Tolliver (Judas)" from the
series Passion Play (2012--13) by Deborah Luster Credit: Courtesy
Deborah Luster and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York "One of the main
reasons for this is the goal of mass incarceration, which is
confinement and the inability of incarcerated people to document and
record the actual conditions of prisons," contributing editor Nicole
R. Fleetwood, an associate professor of American studies at Rutgers
University, said in a phone interview. "Even for non-incarcerated
photographers who go into prisons to take photos, access really
depends on race and gender, with white men having it much easier than
women or people of color, so without a doubt what you see is the power
of the camera," said Fleetwood, whose research has looked at the
relationship between art and incarceration. Rosa Parks' Detroit home
rebuilt in Berlin
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/saving-rosa-parks-home-ryan-mendoza/index.html
The special issue of Aperture features the work of a dozen
photographers and writers. The title "Prison Nation" is not just a
reference to the scale of the problem, but also to the fact that mass
incarceration has created a network of public agencies and private
companies that profit from the system. Some of the most poignant shots
come from Deborah Luster, who photographed inmates from a theater
group in the largest maximum security prison in the world, the
Louisiana State Penitentiary. The detention center is also known by
the name of the plantation that previously occupied its grounds,
"Angola," after the home country of many of its enslaved African
workers. Deborah Luster, Mary Bell (Anna), from the series Passion
Play, 2012--13. Credit: Courtesy Deborah Luster and Jack Shainman
Gallery, New York "These are portraits at the highest level of
portrait making," Michael Famighetti, editor of Aperture magazine,
said in a phone interview. "I think they're incredibly powerful and
really highlight the individuality of the subjects in a strong way.
Most of these individuals are sentenced to life in prison and will die
at Angola." Africa's 'first design museum' stirs continent's creative
pulse
https://www.cnn.com/2013/11/14/world/africa/africa-first-design-museum-creative/index.html
Among the most peculiar works are Jesse Krimes' hand-printed transfers
on prison soap bars. "Krimes was incarcerated for drug crimes," said
Fleetwood. "And he did a whole series on prison soap bars where he
transferred mugshot and images that he could gather from magazines and
other available sources. He's not actually making photographs but he's
using photographic imagery to comment on criminalization." Jesse
Krimes, Purgatory (detail), 2009. Credit: Jesse Krimes The magazine
and the exhibition, which features six public programs with a dozen
speakers, are meant to act as a springboard for a conversation on the
subject. David Adjaye honored as new African American museum opens in
Washington
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/national-museum-of-african-american-history-and-culture-david-adjaye/index.html
"Even if you don't have any experience of incarceration yourself or
you don't have a relative who has been incarcerated, all Americans are
ultimately taxpayers implicated in this and photography is an
incredibly powerful medium for visualizing this system," said
Famighetti. "We just take it for granted that this is the way we deal
with issues of crime and punishment and we really have to think
critically and creatively around the system because the scale of it
alone is out of proportion," said Fleetwood. "Prison Nation
https://aperture.org/exhibition/prison-nation-2018/" is on at New
York's Aperture Foundation until Mar. 7, 2018. Aperture magazine's
spring issue is out Mar. 6, 2018. 
https://www.cnn.com/style/article/prison-nation-aperture-magazine/index.html

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