On March 24, 2025, Religion and Public Life hosted the first session of Breaking the Matrix, a five-part series of online conversations on carcerality in the United States. This first session, “The U.S. Carceral State,” highlighted America’s culture of incarceration. Elizabeth Bliss-Burger, MTS ‘25, moderated the discussion, which featured Sincerity Garcia (Artist/Educator), Rosie Butts (Trauma-Informed Care Specialist), and Dr. Stanley Andrisse, (Executive Director of From Prison Cells to PhD and Assistant Professor of Medicine at Howard University). The talk was made available in a number of prisons through collaboration with UCLA’s Prison Education Program and Center for Justice.
The speakers explained carcerality as something that extends past physical incarceration. Carceral culture pervades our schools, workplaces, and everyday life. It colors surveillance, policies, institutions, and societal structures—all of which disproportionately impact marginalized communities. Stanley Andrisse explained,
“Carcerality is this entanglement of everything in life. Incarceration has gone far beyond prison walls into broader structures that criminalize people from the cradle to the grave.”
The expansive nature of carcerality means we grow up accepting carceral systems as a forgone conclusion, internalizing the belief that change isn’t possible. Referencing the film 13th, Stanley Andrisse used the metaphor of a birdcage of intertangled wires to describe the web of carcerality. Many people don’t see the cage for what it is, feeling that carcerality does not impact them despite it being all around them.
As an artist, Sincerity Garcia has seen the U.S. culture of carcerality impact family structures, economic mobility, and artistic expression. For example, “So many young individuals have gotten incarcerated due to the music,” she said, describing how the creative and cultural expression of hip-hop lyrics, have been used to target Black youth and Black males.
Yet, Rosie Butts highlighted that it is precisely the cultural nature of carcerality that can allow for change:
“We don’t need to accept the carceral system as it is. We have the power to redefine it, to cultivate a culture that values rehabilitation over retribution, second chances over punishment, and healing over harm.”
When faced with the deep-rooted problems of carcerality, it may seem easier to surrender than to imagine change. Yet, all the panelists emphasized the necessity of sustained hope to break the cycle. Change must be grounded not only in hope but also in real victories. As Stanley Andrisse pointed out, there is no reason to believe the 13th Amendment cannot change. While the amendment permits slavery in carceral settings, examples like Maine’s prison system—where incarcerated people can earn regular wages—demonstrate that reform is possible. Education, community support, and policy change were all identified as crucial to this transformation.
Based on personal experience, both Stanley Andrisse and Rosie Butts attested to the truth that education provides an essential alternative. Rosie Butts cautioned, though, that investing in educational opportunities and reentry programs for formerly incarcerated individuals works only insofar as they are situated within the lived experiences of those directly impacted. Citing his work in Prison Cells to PhDs, Stanley Andrisse explained that programs must go beyond resume writing workshops and provide sustainable career pathways to navigate the systemic obstacles presented to marginalized communities. “Justice should be about transformation,” Stanley Andrisse affirmed.
Stanley Andrisse further asserted that systemic change requires that the U.S. rethink justice itself: “Dignity should not be conditional, and we must reframe how we perceive people who were incarcerated, recognizing their potential instead of defining them by their past mistakes. The current culture suggests that people [must] “earn back” their dignity.” On the contrary, all the panelists asserted throughout the conversation that a flaw of the current culture of incarceration is that it denies people their basic humanity.
Central to the recognition of this dignity is love—both communal love and self-love. Sincerity Garcia explained that “love is essential, because then you’ll be able to recognize your own [and others’] potential.” Rosie Butts emphasized that, in particular, self-love is essential to making sustainable the work of building a more justice-centered world. “We’ve got to come back, breathe and say, I love you, and we’re going to finish out our day because we got work to do. There is work to be done, and we can do it. But we’ve got to love ourselves to do it first.” When we lead by example and love formerly incarcerated people, we create evidence for love as a possibility, and they are worthy of the dignity that the culture of carcerality has denied them.
Sincerity Garcia pointed out that for many Americans, extending humanity to those in prison can be understood as a faith practice, citing Hebrews 13:3: “Continue to remember those in prison as if you were together with them in prison.” She continued,
“Scripture speaks volumes to what our conversation is about today, whether it’s about kindness, treating others with dignity, trusting, hoping, and persevering. All those things are love embodied.”
To Rosie Butts and Stanley Andrisse, as well, drawing on themes of faith means giving back to impacted communities. “We need boots on the ground in our own communities,” Rosie said, mentioning community-based solutions like block clubs, neighborhood watch groups, and grassroots organizations to provide support systems outside the criminal legal system. This is part of a collective responsibility that allows for a fundamental reimagining of what justice ought to look like, giving way to, what Stanley Andrisse called, a “justice system that prioritizes these community-based solutions.”
Repeatedly emphasized throughout the conversation was that the carceral state is more than just prisons. The carceral state is a cultural symptom that infiltrates schools, workplaces, families, policies, and communities. What resounded even more strongly was the speakers’ emphasis on hope, self-love, education, and community action to dismantle it. To change the culture, we must keep the conversation going and support programs that help restore justice. As Hussein Rashid closed out: “If we’re not taking this conversation forward on our own after this, we haven’t been listening well enough.”
by Perlei Toor, MDiv ’26