Angela Davis does not want prisons to be reformed. She wants them to be abolished.

‘We need to shift all the resources that go into the construction of prisons to education and health care and housing and jobs. Then we would have a much better society,’ Davis said.

Davis, a renowned civil rights activist, former Black Panther and professor, spoke Tuesday evening to a packed Watson Theater on what is wrong with today’s correctional facility system, 21st century abolition movements and the challenge of feminism. A question and answer session and a book signing followed her speech.

This is the third year Davis has given a free public lecture as part of a three-year visiting professorship in the women and gender and African American studies departments.

Davis herself was arrested and in jail in the 1970s while on trial as an accomplice to conspiracy, kidnapping and homicide. She allegedly owned firearms used to shoot and kill a Marin County, Calif., judge in an attempt to free Black Panther George Jackson from the courtroom. She was found not guilty.

Davis said it isn’t her as an individual that has inspired others, but the larger movements of which she has been a part.

‘Many years ago when I was in jail, millions of people all over the country came together and demanded my freedom, and they were successful,’ Davis said. ‘So I think when people say I’m inspiring, they’re actually referring to the fact that a mass movement can be inspiring and can be powering and can bring about change.’

Davis also expressed many grievances about the penitentiary system, including who it targets and the crimes for which people get sent there. She said she felt criminalization of drugs was wrong and that a complete prison overhaul and dismantling of the current institution are needed.

Money spent on prisons is astronomic, Davis said, and the reforms prisons strive for do not work. One solution to improve the penal system is to place more emphasis on education, she said.

‘Education is the only hope for people in prison. It is the only way to live another life,’ she said.

Davis said she thinks it is important college students hear her message to make them think about the issue.

‘I hope to make people think and not really try to immediately change anyone’s mind, but I want them to think differently about these issues,’ she said.

Kayla Rivera, a senior sociology major, said when she heard Davis was to lecture at SU, she knew she had to attend. Rivera had been told by a friend that Davis was going to teach an intensive seminar class this October, but the class was filled by the time she went to sign up for it.

‘I am a huge fan of Angela Davis. She’s a huge inspiration to me as a pioneer in feminism, in the anti-racism movement and in the civil rights movement,’ said Rivera, who skipped one of her classes to make the event.

Shaquana Gardner, a senior political science and African American studies major, was required to be there, as she is part of Davis’ seminar class. But she said she enjoys Davis’ passionate speeches.

‘She’s so determined. She’s doing something relentlessly. She has been going at the civil rights movement for years,’ Gardner said.

Although Gardner said Davis has strong opinions, she is still unsure if she agrees with everything Davis says.

‘In terms of abolitionism of prisons, I’m still mixed on how I feel about it because in some ways, in theory, it sounds like a great idea,’ Gardner said. ‘But in practice, if I was raped today, I’d want the guy to go to jail tomorrow.’

dgproppe@syr.edu

Published on October 12, 2010 at 12:00 pm