Davis gives call for action

The ovation came fast and furious for activist Angela Davis Wednesday night. But for Davis, the applause wasn't enough.

Scanning the crowd, Davis intoned, "How many of you who have applauded so passionately tonight are ready to follow up with action?"

The audience, moved by Davis's powerful analysis of the American prison system, was quick to respond with a second round of applause.

Davis, a professor at the University of California at Santa Cruz, is a veteran organizer. An early member of the Black Panther Party, Davis first earned public attention as a political prisoner. Since her release in 1972, Davis has been an impassioned and outspoken critic of the criminal justice system.

"There are ways we need to think about our prisons," Davis said. "We need to think about eradicating prisons insofar as it serves as a spurious solution to a problem that really ought to be dealt with by other institutions."

Davis's visit was sponsored by Oberlin Action Against Prisons. More than 400 people gathered to hear Davis speak.

Davis outlined a number of problems with the prison system, ranging from racism to privatization. After she had spoken for more than an hour, Davis said there were still topics she didn't have time to discuss.

"I haven't been able to talk about Mumia Abu," she said. "I haven't been able to talk about the health crisis, and I haven't been able to talk about Ashanti Shakur."

Davis was able to address the role of race in the criminal justice system.

"The prison system becomes the way in which racism becomes entrenched," Davis said. "It is the way in which racism becomes part of the social order."

Davis offered a short overview of the history of prisons, which she stressed is relatively short. According to Davis, prisons were styled after the monastery model. Jail was intended to be a humane alternative to corporal punishment.

Davis said prisons proliferated after the Civil War, when former slave owners developed the convict lease system.

"Now, isn't this interesting this isn't in a textbook?," Davis said. "Now isn't it?"

According to Davis, definitions of crime and punishment are ripe for reconsideration.

"Studies show a lot of people have broken the law," Davis said. "I'm not going to ask you to raise your hands. Street crime is just one form of crime. When you hear about getting tough on crime, are they talking about corporate crime?"

Davis said crime is largely an economic problem.

"It used to be young black men could find a job," Davis said. "Now, poor people go to the military, and if they don't go to the military, where do they go? They end up doing something illegal, and they end up in prison. We ought to reflect on ways we can change these conditions."