California’s “justice system” is so ingrained with institutional racism that it astounds me.  How is it that a group of policy makers decided that putting people in cages would help the state out of its economic slump? Other countries have done well without further instituting racism and raising spending on incarceration. It is so ingrained in American culture to hold on to our very racist past that these are the solutions that the government comes up with. The United States lags behind the world in areas such as education, healthcare, and maternity leave, but leads the world in defense and incarceration spending.

Recently, I went to a conference where I learned that many Scandinavian countries have universal healthcare despite the main population’s extreme racism. This surprised me because America is the same, if not less racist, but does not have this health equity. I asked the speaker about this and learned the key difference: Scandinavian countries, like Sweden, realize their need for minority and immigrant workers and respect this need, whereas, America does not. Whether or not this is entirely beneficial, is hard to say. However, it does get rid of institutional racism and, perhaps, prevents things like the prison industrial complex.

Question: What attempts have been made to combat the prison industrial complex?