High and Low

A meditation on American prisons

 photo illustrations and words by JUSTIN FANTL

When I watched the documentary 13th by filmmaker Ava DuVernay, I was appalled not only by how disproportionate the prison population is but by how large the prison system in the United States is. Incarceration is woven deeply into our society, and the greed to turn a profit at the expense of human life is disturbing, to say the least.

Large-scale ideas can often seem abstract and difficult to wrap your head around. What does prison look like when you are talking about thousands of inmates? I searched for lists of the largest prisons in the U.S. and then used Google Earth Pro to extract high-resolution satellite imagery and get an objective viewpoint of what these prisons actually look like. 

It’s staggering how many there are in our country. When you get a bird’s eye view of a prison, you begin to understand the extent of the system that has been created. It’s like a machine: inhumane, unforgiving, and a stain on the geography and history of our nation.

What we vote for often has an effect on things we can’t easily see. Understanding the scale and the gravity of policy making can be a great motivator to act, be aware, and, at minimum, vote.