3 Quotes by Adrienne Roberts

Securing the institutional foundations for capitalist markets, it turns out, is not something that can be done purely through trade and financial agreements but relies upon the coercive arm of the state, which takes the form of wars, land grabs and other neo-colonial ventures, the militarization of borders, the criminalization of protest and dissent, and the policing and punishment of domestic populations, among others.

... the Poor Laws institutionalized a distinction between the ‘impotent poor’, the ‘able-bodied poor’ and the ‘idle poor’. While the ‘impotent’ and ‘able-bodied poor’ were offered some means of either indoor or outdoor relief, the feared ‘idle poor’ were disciplined through a combination of physical punishment, incarceration in Houses of Correction or prisons, conscription into the military or navy, transportation to a penal colony, and/or other means.

While incarceration has always had a class-based and racial dimension, during the neoliberal era, class and racial inequalities in prison admission have increased considerably.