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The second application (2ap)
The Question Found Everywhere
A Lifetime of Second Class Citizenship
A Lifetime of Second Class Citizenship
The prisoner is “A person who…is confined to a place or position.”[1] The place, the prisoner-industrial-complex itself (the prison) is a set location in which slave labor is concentrated. The position in the broader society is the prisoner class in the United States. A group of nearly 100 million [a]mericans now share the lowest common denominator in society. This position in the social stratification of the United States could be referred to as the bottom rung, except the ladder analogy of American culture implies the ability to climb the rungs, which is no longer possible for the prisoner class.
The position of the prisoner class in America is constantly being reinforced by use of the 2ap. Prisoner theory states:
Belief 3. Institutional mechanisms exist to further isolate and marginalize this prisoner class. The most recognizable of these mechanisms is the second application (2ap), the question found everywhere—Have you ever been convicted of a crime?
A yes or a no box follows the 2ap for the applicant to select. If the applicant chooses yes a space is provided for the obligatory comment/explanation. A pair of lines often follows this for the yes applicant to fill in the blank. It is a difficult task, one that cannot be avoided because in this technology and information driven environment no one can escape the background check. So the yes/prisoner must self-sacrifice on every application—the prisoner ever attempting to pull together some strong phrases that portray just the right amount of self-effacement. These few lines are the 2ap, an almost daily question that will follow the prisoner for the rest of life.
By answering yes on the 2ap the prisoner has admitted to being a criminal and a member of the prisoner class. Essentially telling the reader of the application, “yes, I have made really bad decisions and as such have been punished by the law of society.” In no way can the yes be thought of as advantageous to the application reader. Thus the 2ap works as a tool of negation, making the prisoner essentially self-excluded from the application process.
[1] “Prisoner,” Def. 3.a. Oxford, Oxford English Dictionary.
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The 2ap is a mechanism that not only is a determinant of past deeds, but also is a marker to society of the never-ending punishment imposed on the prisoner. The 2ap is the executioner’s scaffold described by Foucault in Discipline and Punish: The Birth of the Prison: “We must regard public execution, as it was still ritualized in the eighteenth century, as a political operation.”[1] That is, publicly carried out executions were the visible extension of the ruling parties hegemony, and master morality.
Today, executions, and most all of the organized system of punishment carried out in the prisoner-industrial-complex within the United States exists virtually behind a wall, unseen by the individuals of the society. However, the 2ap has taken the scaffolds place. Everyone knows the 2ap. And by complacent account the members of society accept the presence of the 2ap everywhere. Because it is necessary to have a scapegoat class of society below even the most oppressed law-abiding citizens.
[1] Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 53. Print.
A Lifetime of Second Class Citizenship
A Lifetime of Second Class Citizenship
A Lifetime of Second Class Citizenship
Belief 4. The 2ap creates a line in society that can be answered yes, or no. Those who answer the 2ap yes are forced by application to accept second-class citizenship in the form of substandard housing, employment, and education.
The reason the 2ap is posed is ostensibly to protect the reader of the application from danger associated with the yes applicant/prisoner. The 2ap thus works as a filtering mechanism to separate candidates into two separate groups: yes and no. The no applicant is free to skip the comment section to complete the application. In a way this move is a reward to the no applicant and a reminder that a definable line exists in the 2ap to separate all candidates. Possibly there is a momentary reflection for each no candidate at the 2ap that at least I have something over all the yes candidates giving a greater percentage of success. Conversely, the yes/prisoner is reminded that an artificial barrier exists between those who have pled comment and their opposite who are free from shamefully divulging past deeds—begging for a second chance.
So why is the 2ap posed if background checks have made them superfluous? The answer is punishment. Looking back on the definition of discipline, punishment is seen as a corrective process. The idea of punishment is something Nietzsche expressed as a part of mankind—something intrinsically a part of human nature.[1]
By definition punishment is: “The infliction of a penalty or sanction in retribution for an offence or transgression; (also) that which is inflicted as a penalty; a sanction imposed to ensure the application and enforcement of a law.”[2] But punishment is more than cause and effect, more than a set of sentences handed down by a judge. And it is important to note that the definition of punishment does not mention correction. Instead, punishment is punitive in nature and as such does not imply any overt change in behavior or sentiment. Foucault wrote, “Punishment looks toward the future, and that at least one of its major functions is to prevent crime [deterrence] had, for centuries, been one of the current justifications of the right to punish.”[3] The effect is not on the prisoner but on society by generating fear of punishment, and this fear is continually heightened by the 2ap.
[1] Nietzsche, On the Genealogy of Morality. Print.
[2] “Punishment,” Def. 1. Oxford, Oxford English Dictionary.
[3] Foucault, Discipline & Punish: The Birth of the Prison, 93. Print.
Michel Foucault
Discipline and Punish: The Birth of Prison
"Today, criminal justice function and justifies itself only by this perpetual reference to something other than itself, by this unceasing reinscription in non-juridical systems."
13th Amendment
"Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction."