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The Prison Citizen

DifferenTakes Series
54 ~ Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex
[PDF Version]
By Sara Ahmed

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Editors' Note: In this issue of DifferenTakes Sara Ahmed reveals how the prison-industrial complex has produced a new category of citizenship in the U.S. "the prison citizen“ whose rights are constricted both inside and outside prison walls. While this type of forced citizenship mainly effects prisoners and ex-prisoners, it threatens all of us with the prospect of undermining basic democracy. We are publishing this article simultaneously with issue No. 53, "Prison Abolition: Families in Strategies for Change" so that readers can explore the ideas in both complimentary articles.
-Co-editors Elizabeth Barajas-Roman and Betsy Hartmann

Sara Ahmed graduated from Hampshire College in 2008. Her studies focused on incarceration and the application of legal theory to punishment and citizenship in the United States, with a specific concentration on women and juveniles of color. Her four years culminated in a project titled "The Prison Citizen: A Law and Policy Analysis of Belonging." Currently, Sara is a Coro Fellow in Public Affairs and Democracy in New York City.