Are Prisons Obsolete?
E160405
Are Prisons Obsolete? is a influential book by Angela Davis that critiques the prison-industrial complex and argues for prison abolition as part of broader social and political transformation.
All labels observed (1)
| Label | Occurrences |
|---|---|
| Are Prisons Obsolete? canonical | 2 |
How this entity was disambiguated
This entity first appeared as the object of triple T1396070 — resolving that mention is where its identity was fixed. The disambiguator weighed these candidate entities and picked the highlighted one (or “None”, minting a new entity). This is how homonymy is resolved: the same surface form can point to different entities.
NED1
Entity disambiguation (via context triple)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Are Prisons Obsolete? Context triple: [Angela Davis, notableWork, Are Prisons Obsolete?]
-
A.
The Algebra of Infinite Justice
The Algebra of Infinite Justice is a collection of political essays by Indian author Arundhati Roy that critiques globalization, nuclear nationalism, and U.S. foreign policy.
-
B.
The Man Versus the State
The Man Versus the State is a political philosophy book by Herbert Spencer that critiques government intervention and defends individual liberty and limited state power.
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C.
The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis
The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis is a historical and political study that examines the arrest, trial, and broader significance of activist Angela Davis within the context of U.S. racism, repression, and social movements.
-
D.
An Essay on Liberation
An Essay on Liberation is a 1969 philosophical work by Herbert Marcuse that critiques advanced industrial society and explores the possibilities for radical social transformation and human emancipation.
-
E.
A People’s History of the United States
A People’s History of the United States is a landmark revisionist history book that retells American history from the perspective of marginalized and oppressed groups rather than political and economic elites.
- F. None of above. chosen
- G. Unsure - the case is ambiguous/there is not enough information to decide.
NED2
Entity disambiguation (via description)
gpt-5-mini-2025-08-07
Target entity: Are Prisons Obsolete? Target entity description: Are Prisons Obsolete? is a influential book by Angela Davis that critiques the prison-industrial complex and argues for prison abolition as part of broader social and political transformation.
-
A.
The Algebra of Infinite Justice
The Algebra of Infinite Justice is a collection of political essays by Indian author Arundhati Roy that critiques globalization, nuclear nationalism, and U.S. foreign policy.
-
B.
The Man Versus the State
The Man Versus the State is a political philosophy book by Herbert Spencer that critiques government intervention and defends individual liberty and limited state power.
-
C.
The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis
The Morning Breaks: The Trial of Angela Davis is a historical and political study that examines the arrest, trial, and broader significance of activist Angela Davis within the context of U.S. racism, repression, and social movements.
-
D.
An Essay on Liberation
An Essay on Liberation is a 1969 philosophical work by Herbert Marcuse that critiques advanced industrial society and explores the possibilities for radical social transformation and human emancipation.
-
E.
A People’s History of the United States
A People’s History of the United States is a landmark revisionist history book that retells American history from the perspective of marginalized and oppressed groups rather than political and economic elites.
- F. None of above. chosen
Statements (49)
| Predicate | Object |
|---|---|
| instanceOf |
abolitionist text
ⓘ
book ⓘ non-fiction book ⓘ political book ⓘ |
| argues |
prisons are not an inevitable or natural feature of society
ⓘ
prisons function to manage racial and social inequality ⓘ prisons should be abolished ⓘ social transformation is needed instead of prison expansion ⓘ |
| author |
Angela Davis
ⓘ
Angela Davis ⓘ
surface form:
Angela Y. Davis
|
| countryOfPublication |
United States of America
ⓘ
surface form:
United States
|
| critiques |
gendered violence within prisons
ⓘ
mass incarceration in the United States ⓘ prison–industrial complex ⓘ
surface form:
prison-industrial complex
racialized criminalization ⓘ |
| focusesOn |
alternatives to incarceration
ⓘ
economic interests in imprisonment ⓘ gender and incarceration ⓘ history of prisons in the United States ⓘ racialized nature of punishment ⓘ |
| genre |
critical theory
ⓘ
prison abolition literature ⓘ social criticism ⓘ |
| hasInfluenced |
academic debates on mass incarceration
ⓘ
activist organizing against prisons ⓘ contemporary prison abolition movements ⓘ |
| influencedBy |
Black feminist thought
ⓘ
Marxist theory ⓘ abolitionist movements ⓘ critical race theory ⓘ |
| language | English ⓘ |
| mainSubject |
abolition democracy
ⓘ
criminal justice reform ⓘ feminism ⓘ mass incarceration ⓘ prison abolition ⓘ prison–industrial complex ⓘ
surface form:
prison-industrial complex
racial justice ⓘ |
| notableFor |
accessible introduction to prison abolition
ⓘ
historical analysis of punishment and prisons ⓘ linking prison abolition to broader social transformation ⓘ |
| proposes |
abolitionist approaches to justice
ⓘ
community-based alternatives to incarceration ⓘ |
| publicationYear | 2003 ⓘ |
| publisher | Seven Stories Press ⓘ |
| targetAudience |
activists
ⓘ
general readers interested in criminal justice ⓘ scholars ⓘ students ⓘ |
How these facts were elicited
The pipeline generated the facts above by prompting gpt-5.1 with this entity's name + description and the instruction below.
Instruction
You are a knowledge base construction expert. Given a subject entity and a description of it, return factual statements that you know for the subject as a JSON list of dictionaries(triples), where keys must be "subject", "predicate" and "object". The number of facts may be very high, between 25 to 50 or more, for very popular subjects. For less popular subjects, the number of facts can be very low, like 5 or 10. # Requirements - If you don't know the subject at all, return an empty list. - If the subject is not a named entity, return an empty list. - Include at least one triple where predicate is "instanceOf". - Do not get too wordy. - Separate several objects into multiple triples with one object.
Input
Subject: Are Prisons Obsolete? Description of subject: Are Prisons Obsolete? is a influential book by Angela Davis that critiques the prison-industrial complex and argues for prison abolition as part of broader social and political transformation.
Referenced by (2)
Full triples — surface form annotated when it differs from this entity's canonical label.