1. Soc 329 Parenti Lockdown America – Some background 1950s and 1960s (before the binge started) Prisons were “an ugly little corner of American society” Affected few and did little long term damage - poor young males accused of serious crimes Cheap to operate – guards major expense *** Released prisoners aged out and could get jobs Prisons mostly operated “under the radar” Some inclination to get rid of prisons completely

2. Soc 329 Parenti How and why did this change? How did the “land of the free” become the worlds leading jailer? From IR 100 +/- to 700+ today and the worlds leading torturer? Guantanamo, renditions, SHUs, etc. (a recent ACLU report on LA County jails – routine abuse of inmates!)

3. Soc 329 Parenti Superficial view – conservative turn and “get tough” politics Warped political response to rising crime rates in the 1960s (which had already ended – baby boomers aged in then aged out) and the “failure of liberalism” in the 1960s Conservative criminologist James Q. Wilson – the only thing left is to lock “them” up – “zero tolerance”

4. Soc 329 Parenti Parenti offers a diff view – a radical/critical analysis -- there was a bigger set of political and economic crises driving the changes over several decades Polit:backlash against Civil Rights Movement, anti-war movement, women’s movement, counterculture (hippies, drugs, etc.) Econ:rising competition from Europe & Asia plus huge cost of the Vietnam War led to economic crisis – dropping profits

5. Soc 329 Parenti Parenti focuses on changes in the Crim Just System -- but as part of the larger crisis and changes Early changes were political (mostly racist) Later changes were economic (whole working class) Long term – development of an oppressive racist militarized police state in the US Sort of a modern version of the bloody code? Savage repression directed at surplus pops!

6. Soc 329 Parenti Some earlier background: Amer Civil War –beginning of end of British Empire Germany and US catching up in indus prod Development of industrial capitalism Two European capitalist world wars with a massive global depression in between led to decline of Europe and a major crisis of capitalism

7. Soc 329 Parenti Focusing on the US: 1870s – 1920s modern- urban- industrial- ization 1930sThe Great Depression 1940sWorld War 2 and aftermath 1950s – 1960s post war US economic boom based on socialist policies!

8. Soc 329 Parenti The Great Depression (1930s) Increasing productivity, flat wages Led to over-production and collapse Surplus goods and surplus people Nothing worked until WW2 ended the crisis (no surplus goods, no surplus people) (US played relatively minor role in the war)

9. Soc 329 Parenti Post War US new depression? (1946-47) Increased productivity + surplus of workers Instead massive govt socialist reforms – designed to “rationalize” productivity and absorb the surplus pops Some of the socialist changes:

10. Soc 329 Parenti Social Security + beginnings of retirement systems - Unions for workers plus benefits required by govt: - minimum wage laws, overtime rules, etc. - unemployment insurance - workers compensation and disability insurance - regulation of working conditions – safety, etc. - and many more changes benefiting wage workers

11. Soc 329 Parenti Child labor banned (common before WW2) Universal public education - required Free or low cost higher education (e.g. Calif) Public welfare and child protection services Public health and safety regulation -- product safety, food, water and air safety, research on diseases and health issues, etc.

12. Soc 329 Parenti Infrastructure National parks, interstate highway system, building standards (codes), emergency responses, etc. Govt regulation itself employed huge numbers of workers in good jobs with benefits and even military spending (cold war) had similar effects

13. Soc 329 Parenti Meanwhile, the GI Bill and Veterans Admin provided (socialist) subsidies and/or resources for millions of people to buy houses and/or pursue higher education. All of these changes combined also produced disposable income for American families, which allowed them to afford many services that had been out of reach (doctors, dentists, legal and financial services, entertainment, etc.) and these in turn provided more good jobs for workers, both professional and support staffs.

14. Soc 329 Parenti These socialist changes are what generated/supported the expanding American middle class - which had been very small before WW2 – most Americans were either farmers or impoverished factory workers before. Regulated productivity of capitalism plus government regulation of distribution created American prosperity (and power!) that made the US an almost unchallenged global empire for two decades – the 1950s and 1960s. But there were serious problems ahead

15. Soc 329 Parenti Because of “traditional” American racism and sexism, most of the benefits of the socialist reforms went to white males and their families – union, professional, and govt jobs, housing and higher education benefits (e.g., GI Bill benefits), etc. Left behind were women and minorities, and also people who continued to live in small towns and rural areas plus millions of men who had been left behind and continued to work in “unprotected” areas of the economy.

16. Soc 329 Parenti Another problem was the “split in the service sector” As professional job markets became “saturated” (slowing relative growth) the balance of new jobs became “McJobs” - low paying, low benefit, unstable jobs. Another potential problem was the high tax rates needed to support the govt regulation - and the growing size of the govt itself – conflicts with capitalist culture

17. Soc 329 Parenti Also among the overall outcomes of the changes was a new class system in America consisting of Capitalist Class (1% - live off inherited wealth) Business/Professional Class (10% - high salaries/benefits) Stable working class (30% - medium wages/benefits) Unstable working class (40% - low wages/benefits) The poor (20% - low to no wages/benefits) The class system is reproduced across generations by family access to education, housing segregation, etc.

18. Soc 329 Parenti Capitalists and the falling rate of profit As a group (class) capitalists also benefited greatly from the socialist modifications – for several reasons; 1.Workers could now afford to buy their products 2.US capitalists dominated global markets 3.Govt projects/programs provided large scale investment opportunities with low/no risk Because of these and other factors, profits spiked

19. Soc 329 Parenti By the end of the 1960s, though, capitalist profits were returning to normal levels as global competition recovered (mainly Europe and Japan), workers wages began to level off along with consumption of goods and services, and profits from govt growth began to level off. Marx had written a century earlier about a “tendency” of the long term rate of profit to fall and now caps were falling off of a spike (with elevated expectations and more wealth to invest) and moving back toward a “normal” falling rate of profit.

20. Soc 329 Parenti Further, much wealth had shifted from capitalists to workers – higher wages meant workers got to keep more of what they produced - and this kept wages high and pressed down on profits And tax rates were high, which further sapped away profits on investments (and thus inherited wealth).

21. Soc 329 Parenti So the post world war period – and especially the 1960s – was the heyday of American wealth and power as both millions of American families and the owners of wealth benefited from the mix of capitalism and socialism and our political culture set out to eliminate poverty and even the wild idea of abolishing prisons seemed doable

22. Soc 329 Parenti Then, in the 1970s, things began to go very wrong Europe and Japan recovered and became competitors further threatening already-dropping profits White males (traditional head of family) besieged by rejection of culture and demands for equality and change (women, minorities, young). And Vietnam – maybe America’s biggest disaster ever

23. Soc 329 Parenti This is where Parenti begins – with this complex crisis Crisis then Police then Prisons Note – Parenti doesn’t discuss the role of the courts in the changes that followed the crisis From “normal” (doing justice) to the imp binge

24. Soc 329 Parenti Chapter 1 Page 3-4 -- a very vivid description of the beginnings of the complex crisis – to elites a world coming apart Police were brutal and repressive, but ineffective Nixon’s race/drug war based on racism + drug hysteria First wave of the response - “Nixon’s little war”

25. Soc 329 Parenti Two parts of the strategy: LEAA and policing communication and arms enhancement – paramilitary + outreach to communities – propaganda (this was similar to Vietnam War policy at the time) Note Foucault’s focus on surveillance!!

26. Soc 329 Parenti After Nixon’s fall (Watergate, etc.), the failure of policing changes and repression in general and the failure of “outreach” Most of Nixon’s strategy was abandoned “Stalemate” of the Ford and Carter years (1970s) (note – these strategies failed in Vietnam too)

27. Soc 329 Parenti Chapter 2 -- the second wave begins with Reagan admin (the 1980s) Key response was to the (much bigger!) economic crisis of capitalism – decreasing profits Focus was “rollback” of post-WW2 socialism and containing further expansion of the middle class (2011 - focus now is on decreasing the middle class!) “entitlements”

28. Soc 329 Parenti In Marxist terms (and in reality) the post war socialist changes had raised the wages of workers (they got to keep more of what they produced) – but as workers became more prosperous two things happened – the rate of profits began to drop (capitalists got a smaller share) and saturation of markets led to over accumulation making it harder to market products which also reduced profits. So the problem (from a cap point of view) was how to reverse the trends of increasing wages and the falling rate of profit – how to reverse post war socialism.

29. Soc 329 Parenti Alan Budd quote – how to weaken the working class A new class war Re-engineering the economy Disciplining the working class Engineering an economic recession which then becomes rationale for tax cuts, deregulation, weakening unions, and later, what would become known as outsourcing P 44. Summary of “Reaganomics”

30. Soc 329 Parenti Chapter 3 see p 45 summary Reversing the growth of the middle class has been subtle - tax cuts, deregulation, destruction of unions, etc. But the destruction “trickles down” to the unstable wc and the poor Generates large surplus populations – “social junk” and “social dynamite”

31. Soc 329 Parenti The problem that this poses for the cjs is what Parenti calls “policing the new rabble” First through the “war on drugs” (dealers to users) Then the war on petty crime – “zero tolerance” Then a new war on immigrants. This is all a byproduct of economic changes, and this is what drives the imprisonment binge

32. Soc 329 Parenti In Part 2, Parenti turns to an analysis of the changes in policing in the 1980s and 1990s as economic restructuring leads to chronic crime and disorder in the inner cities (urban “second rings” of cities). “Zero tolerance” and paramilitary policing lead to high levels of arrest even as serious crime rates are dropping (because of demographics – baby boomers aging out)