Is prison truly about justice, or is it just another form of modernized slavery?
As a society, we often claim that the prison system is about rehabilitation, accountability, and deterrence, but when you look closely that narrative crumbles. There is no rehabilitation in a system that criminalizes my Black skin. There is no fairness in a system where my culture itself is treated as criminal. And there is no true justice when punishment is determined not by the act committed, but by the color of the person who committed it.
Who decides what punishment is enough? Who gave the system the authority to say that justice must always end in a prison sentence? When you fight for equality, you begin to see that all forms of punishment start to look the same no matter who you are – but let’s be clear: Black people are punished more harshly, sentenced more severely, and judged more cruelly than others for the very same crimes. That is not an accident. That is a design.
We are told that mass incarceration is a result of personal choices, that crime is self-inflicted and prison is simply the natural consequence. But I’m here to tell you that is not true. The system was never built to serve us equally. It was built to enslave us in new forms, to trap generations of Black youth before they are even old enough to fully understand the world around them. Before their brains are even fully developed, children are funneled into a pipeline that leads directly from underfunded schools to overcrowded prisons.
Take a hard look at the sentences handed down to our youth. Teenagers – children – are being tried as adults and condemned to 50, 60, even 100 years behind bars. Think about that: a child who has barely learned who they are is told their life is over before it has truly begun. What does that say about the so-called rehabilitation we claim to value?
How can you rehabilitate someone when they haven’t been habilitated? How can you rehabilitate someone when you deny them any chance of redemption? The prison system does not rehabilitate – it warehouses human beings. It profits from their confinement. It targets their disenfranchisement – those already living on the margins. And it preys most viciously on Black communities. Families are torn apart, futures are stolen, and entire neighborhoods are destabilized under the weight of incarceration.
And when we look at the statistics, the truth becomes impossible to deny: Black people are imprisoned at vastly higher rates than white people for the same offenses. That is not about crime. That is about control.
The system says it is about justice, but what justice is there in a system where punishment is determined by zip codes, by school district, and by skin color? What justice exists when poverty is criminalized, when survival is treated as a crime, when the cycle of oppression is passed down from one generation to the next?
The present system in America does not need minor reforms – it needs to be rebuilt from the ground up. It must be restructured in a way that truly meets the needs of society, not just the demands of profits, punishment, and political power. It must shift from being a system that victimizes to one that heals; a system that does not strip people of their humanity but recognizes it; a system that invests in opportunity rather than incarceration, in education rather than the execution of futures.
Imagine a system where a mistake does not mean permanent exile from society. Imagine a system where accountability is met with resources, support, and a pathway back – not just a cell, a number, and a lifelong stigma. Imagine a system where young people are not discarded but mentored, where their potential is nurtured rather than destroyed.
We cannot keep accepting mass incarceration as normal. We cannot keep looking away while entire communities are enslaved under the guise of justice. We cannot keep justifying a system that was designed to oppress and continues to do exactly that.
This is not just a Black issue. This is a human issue. Because when you criminalize one community, you endanger every community. When you devalue one group of people, you weaken the moral foundation of the entire society. And when you allow injustice to go unchecked, it spreads until no one is safe.
Prison, as it exists today, is not about safety. It is not about justice. It is not about rehabilitation. It is about control. It is about profit. And it is about continuing a legacy of slavery by another name.
So I ask again: take a hard look. Who benefits from this system? Who is destroyed by it? And what kind of society do we want to build – one that punishes endlessly or one that heals and restores; one that enslaves or one that liberates?
The answers are in front of us, but it will take courage to confront them, and even more courage to change them. Our prison system does not just need reform – it needs transformation. Because justice is not cages. Justice is not slavery in disguise. Justice is freedom. Justice is equality. Justice is humanity. Justice is for all.
And until we rebuild a system that reflects that truth, none of us can truly say justice lives in the land of the free.
Anthony Fain is the Black Prisoners Caucus president for the Airway Heights Corrections Center.