In discussions about prison reform and decarceration, how does the concept of “risk” influence who goes to prison and for how long? Popular logic deems some prisoners to be “safety risks,” and therefore consigned to long periods of incarceration, while others – including a very large percentage of women – are labeled “low-risk” or less “dangerous.” On this panel, Truthout staff and contributors – Leslie Thatcher, Maya Schenwar, Glenn E. Martin and Victoria Law – delve into the politics and frameworks by which risk is evaluated in the criminal justice system. Who is deemed “dangerous” and why? How is race entrenched in evaluations of risk at every level? What makes women as a whole a less risky population, and why are so many “low-risk” women sent to prison? What very real risks to society are never included in the rhetoric of risk (to the environment, economy, or families and communities of the incarcerated, for example)? How does risk assessment intersect with gender in ways that harm women and gender-nonconforming people? This conversation probes our assumptions around danger, safety, gender, and the measures used to maintain “security” in a society pervaded by prisons.
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We’ve borne witness to a chaotic first few months in Trump’s presidency.
Over the last months, each executive order has delivered shock and bewilderment — a core part of a strategy to make the right-wing turn feel inevitable and overwhelming. But, as organizer Sandra Avalos implored us to remember in Truthout last November, “Together, we are more powerful than Trump.”
Indeed, the Trump administration is pushing through executive orders, but — as we’ve reported at Truthout — many are in legal limbo and face court challenges from unions and civil rights groups. Efforts to quash anti-racist teaching and DEI programs are stalled by education faculty, staff, and students refusing to comply. And communities across the country are coming together to raise the alarm on ICE raids, inform neighbors of their civil rights, and protect each other in moving shows of solidarity.
It will be a long fight ahead. And as nonprofit movement media, Truthout plans to be there documenting and uplifting resistance.
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