PRESS-NEWS.org - Press Release Distribution
PRESS RELEASES DISTRIBUTION

The problem with prison abolition? Misunderstanding it

2024-06-06
(Press-News.org) “Approximately one in seventy working people in the United States are employed by either the police or departments of corrections.” In recent years, and in particular, in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020, activists have focused renewed attention on the role of prisons in the United States. Thinkers like Angela Davis have articulated the ways in which the prison-industrial complex serves the interest of an oppressive state by reinforcing race and class hierarchies and extracting value from its incarcerated population. But despite this surge of interest in its dissolution, the problems created by the prison system have not been resolved in any meaningful way. A new paper in Ethics, reviewing the 2022 book The Idea of Prison Abolition by Tommie Shelby, identifies some generative criticisms Shelby makes of the work of Angela Davis and other prison abolitionists. Ultimately, however, “The Problem with Prisons” by Erin I. Kelly argues that Shelby misreads the intentions of the abolition movement, and that while the penal system still so widely permeates American society, causing real harm, quibbles with the efforts to overturn it are perhaps unproductive.

One of the more significant disagreements between Shelby and Davis, Kelly writes, is where they position the prison within a broader network of inequality. Where Shelby posits, according to Kelly, that the “injustice prisons represent largely occurs downstream, so to speak, from a wider set of social and political injustices,” Davis and other abolition advocates argue that the penal system itself enacts and reproduces these injustices. Shelby, furthermore, represents the abolitionist position as one that would not support incarceration under any circumstances. On the contrary, Kelly writes: abolitionists understand that “some criminal law enforcement is necessary and that incarceration may be warranted in serious cases,” but believe that this abstraction is marginal to the actual abuse being perpetrated by the prison system.

Kelly goes on to outline these actual abuses. The article examines the ways in which mass incarceration structures U.S. society through an exacerbated fear of crime, the vilification of an underclass composed predominantly of Black, poor men, the ironclad defense of the police force and criminal prosecutors against accountability for their transgressions, and the hypocrisy of an overly harsh, disenfranchising penal system in a nation founded on the “aspiration to democracy.” Through these strategies, Kelly writes, “the punishment system entrenches and reproduces white supremacy in the United States.”

Shelby’s book attempts to salvage incarceration as a tool of harm reduction and law enforcement, particularly when it may benefit poor urban neighborhoods affected by violent crime. Kelly understands this framing, but argues that the prison performs oppressive functions excessive of its protective role. In conclusion, Kelly suggests that prison reform, as opposed to abolition, is not enough to liberate society from punition. “Abolitionists,” Kelly writes, “target the contribution the punishment system makes to the American racial caste system in order to force a deeper reckoning with entrenched socioeconomic inequality--” and “nothing short of the power of collective outrage has a chance of unsettling the alliance of interests behind carceral business as usual.”

END


ELSE PRESS RELEASES FROM THIS DATE:

The Lancet Psychiatry: One in six people who stop antidepressants will experience discontinuation symptoms as a direct result, finds most comprehensive study to date

2024-06-06
Peer-reviewed / Systematic review & meta-analysis / People   Embargoed access to the paper and linked comment and contact details for authors are available in Notes to Editors at the end of the release.     The first meta-analysis on the incidence of antidepressant discontinuation symptoms includes data from over 20,000 patients gathered from 79 randomised controlled trials and observational studies.  Overall, approximately one in three patients reported a discontinuation ...

Antidepressants: new data on prevalence of discontinuation symptoms

Antidepressants: new data on prevalence of discontinuation symptoms
2024-06-06
Joint press release from Charité & University Hospital Cologne How hard is it to stop taking antidepressants? If countless Internet posts and a number of scientific studies are to be believed, discontinuing these medications is highly problematic, and doctors often underestimate the difficulties involved. But it is unclear how common discontinuation symptoms actually are. Researchers from Charité – Universitätsmedizin Berlin and University Hospital Cologne have now conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis. In their article in The Lancet ...

Scientists question effectiveness of nature-based CO2 removal using the ocean

2024-06-06
Limited understanding of basic ocean processes is hindering progress in marine carbon dioxide removal, with the on-going commercialisation of some approaches “premature and misguided”. In a new paper, scientists from the University of East Anglia (UEA), the University of Tasmania’s Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies, Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, and the Institute for Sustainable Development and International Relations, review the climatic effectiveness of four 'nature-based' techniques using marine biological processes. These involve shellfish cultivation, seaweed ...

Minimum pricing for alcohol helped curb demand during COVID lockdown

2024-06-06
Minimum pricing can be very effective in reducing demand for cheap high-strength alcohol amid concerns about affordability fuelling problematic drinking - according to a study on the impact of the measure during the COVID lockdown. The research, led by the University of East Anglia (UEA), examined the efficacy of minimum unit pricing (MUP) to help curb excessive consumption following the outbreak of the pandemic in 2020. As a flat-rate form of minimum prices applying to all alcohol products based on their ...

New home-administered treatment for binge eating disorder shows promising results

2024-06-06
Researchers from the Institute of Psychiatry, Psychology & Neuroscience (IoPPN) at King’s College London have investigated the feasibility of a new home-administered treatment for binge eating disorder. The new treatment combines a gentle brain stimulation technique called transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) with a training programme that targets unhelpful patterns of attention around food. The findings, published in BJPsychOpen, indicate that this might be a welcome new avenue for treatment. Binge eating disorder (BED) is a serious mental illness that can affect anyone of any age, gender, ethnicity or background. People ...

Nuclear medicine highlighted in documentary series

2024-06-06
Reston, VA—The field of nuclear medicine is in the spotlight this season on the TV documentary Jobs of Tomorrow. The series, hosted by Kristin Marand, explores how technology and innovation drive the changing job market and impact the workforce. Six episodes of this season of Jobs of Tomorrow highlight the many facets of nuclear medicine and the Society for Nuclear Medicine and Molecular Imaging (SNMMI) members currently working in the profession. Nuclear medicine is a multidisciplinary field that encompasses physicians, chemists, physicists, pharmacists, and technologists—all ...

Serine racemase expression in the brain during aging in male and female rats

Serine racemase expression in the brain during aging in male and female rats
2024-06-05
“The findings of the present study reveal that aging is linked to a decline in serine racemase protein levels across various brain regions [...]” BUFFALO, NY- June 5, 2024 – A new research paper was published in Aging (listed by MEDLINE/PubMed as "Aging (Albany NY)" and "Aging-US" by Web of Science) Volume 16, Issue 10, entitled, “Serine racemase expression profile in the prefrontal cortex and hippocampal subregions during aging in male and female rats.” Aging is associated with a decrease in N-methyl-D-aspartate (NMDA) receptor ...

Virginia Tech researcher helps reach nutrition security goals

Virginia Tech researcher helps reach nutrition security goals
2024-06-05
Food is many things. It nourishes our bodies, delights our senses, and gives us something to gather around. Food is also a powerful cultural symbol, reflecting traditions, values, and histories of communities around the world. But for a researcher in the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, food is also medicine. Bailey Houghtaling Ph.D. ’19, a registered dietician, is working to promote overall wellness among low-income individuals experiencing food insecurity, aiming to prevent or treat diet-related diseases. “Access to enough nutritious food is essential for individual well-being,” ...

William T. Grant Foundation announces funding for UT, Cherokee Health Systems for research-practice partnership

William T. Grant Foundation announces funding for UT, Cherokee Health Systems for research-practice partnership
2024-06-05
Trustees of the William T. Grant Foundation, the Spencer Foundation, the Doris Duke Foundation and the Bezos Family Foundation have approved funding for the winners of the 2024 Institutional Challenge Grant competition. The University of Tennessee, Knoxville, and Cherokee Health Systems will receive $650,000 to grow their unique research-practice partnership — and to learn how to implement community-engaged scholarship that results in ongoing positive outcomes. UT has a long history of working with CHS, a federally qualified ...

Democratizing plant research: A new cost-effective solution for advanced phenotyping

2024-06-05
Phenotyping, which involves assessing observable plant characteristics, is crucial for understanding plant development and response to environmental stresses. Traditional methods are often cumbersome, costly, and destructive, limiting research scope and scale. A new system of affordable, mobile, and high-throughput phenotyping tools is making the technology accessible to a wider range of users. The "all-in-one" solution, developed by a team at the Boyce Thompson Institute (BTI), includes low-cost hardware designs, data processing pipelines, and a user-friendly data analysis ...

LAST 30 PRESS RELEASES:

New antibody-drug conjugate shows promising efficacy in EGFR-mutated NSCLC patients

Iza-Bren in combination with osimertinib shows 100% response rate in EGFR-mutated NSCLC, phase II study finds

COMPEL study shows continuing osimertinib treatment through progression with the addition of chemotherapy improves progression-free survival in EGFR-mutated NSCLC

CheckMate 77T: Nivolumab maintains quality of life and reduces symptom deterioration in resectable NSCLC

Study validates AI lung cancer risk model Sybil in predominantly Black population at urban safety-net hospital

New medication lowered hard-to-control high blood pressure in people with chronic kidney disease

Innovative oncolytic virus and immunotherapy combinations pave the way for advanced cancer treatment

New insights into energy metabolism and immune dynamics could transform head and neck cancer treatment

Pennington Biomedical’s Dr. Steven Heymsfield named LSU Boyd Professor – LSU’s highest faculty honor

Study prompts new theory of human-machine communication

New method calculates rate of gene expression to understand cell fate

Researchers quantify rate of essential evolutionary process in the ocean

Innovation Crossroads companies join forces, awarded U.S. Air Force contract

Using new blood biomarkers, USC researchers find Alzheimer’s disease trial eligibility differs among various populations

Pioneering advances in in vivo CAR T cell production

Natural medicines target tumor vascular microenvironment to inhibit cancer growth

Coral-inspired pill offers a new window into the hidden world of the gut

nTIDE September2025 Jobs Report: Employment for people with disabilities surpasses prior high

When getting a job makes you go hungry

Good vibrations could revolutionize assisted reproductive technology

More scrutiny of domestic fishing fleets at ports could help deter illegal fishing

Scientists transform plastic waste into efficient CO2 capture materials

Discovery of North America’s role in Asia’s monsoons offers new insights into climate change

MD Anderson and Phoenix SENOLYTIX announce strategic cross-licensing agreement to enhance inducible switch technologies for cell and gene therapies

Researchers discover massive geo-hydrogen source to the west of the Mussau Trench

Even untouched ecosystems are losing insects at alarming rates, new study finds

Adaptive visible-infrared camouflage with wide-range radiation control for extreme ambient temperatures

MD Anderson research highlights for September 5, 2025

Physicists create a new kind of time crystal that humans can actually see

Reminder: Final media invitation for EPSC-DPS2025 and details of media briefings on RAMSES and Juno missions

[Press-News.org] The problem with prison abolition? Misunderstanding it