Toward a Conceptualization of the College-Prison Nexus

Markers of entanglement: Survival strategies within the neoliberal university and the promise of carceral futures

“…In this paper, I take up the Canadian 3 context to provide a framework of analysis to interrogate how these survival strategies reveal the synergies that exist between criminology departments and carceral systems. In doing so, I extend previous conceptualizations of how the university and carceral systems are linked (see Johnson and Dizon, 2021;Oparah, 2014) and bridge sustained critiques of the discipline of criminology for its role in carceral expansion (see Cohen, 1998;Jackson, 2020;Schept et al, 2014) to develop a specific framework of analysis that situates the discipline of criminology within the current neoliberal-carceral university. Previous work has made clear that the university offers credentials and therefore legitimacy to employees of the carceral state (Oparah, 2014) and that criminology, in particular, is at the ready to staff its institutions (Schept et al, 2014).…”

“…Johnson and Dizon (2021: 518) conceptualize the “college-prison nexus” and identify the consideration of criminal history for admissions, campus police, student conduct codes, and campus crime alerts as four examples of how colleges and universities “exert carceral state power.” In this paper, I adopt a similar approach by focusing on just some of the ways that criminology departments reveal their existence within the nexus of carcerality. Though there are numerous nodes of entanglement that exist within this synergy, in this paper I highlight six of these that proliferate criminology departments and the tactics used to market to students.…”

“…I characterize these as markers of entanglement . As such, I extend the work of the “college-prison nexus” (Johnson and Dizon, 2021) by shifting the lens from how universities exert carceral power within their operations, to articulate how this carceral power is also reproduced within the context of the university, particularly the criminology department. Similarly, this conceptualization extends, the “academic-prison symbiosis” (Oparah, 2014) by focusing on the nodes of labor and knowledge production to articulate the specific ways criminology systematically works to preserve these roles and ensuring its survival.…”

“…These frames remind that the academy has never "stood apart from" enslavement, dispossession, or genocide (Grande, 2018: 28). 4 To further specify these conceptualizations scholars have articulated what is variously termed the "police-education nexus" (Seigel, 2018: 123), "college-prison nexus" (Johnson and Dizon, 2021), or "academic-prison symbiosis" (Oparah, 2014). This framing demonstrates that these spaces are "linked and mutually reinforcing" (Oparah, 2014: 99, 109).…”

Campus policing: Eight steps toward abolition.

“…Y. Davis, 2003A. Y. Davis, , 2022Dizon, 2023aDizon, , 2023bGilmore, 2022;Herzing, 2017;Johnson & Dizon, 2021;Kaba, 2021;Rodríguez, 2021;Spade, 2020). For instance, the title of this brief is directly inspired by "8 to Abolition: Abolitionist Policy Changes to Demand from Your City Officials."…”