Capitalism attempts to sustain itself in ever more barbaric ways. Since the 1980s, one way has been to incarcerate whole sections of society. This empire of punishment, which formed a central pillar of neoliberal propaganda, has performed a covert role in the entrenchment of an economic system designed to extract wealth, liberty and life from the people who live within it.

In this new, materialist understanding of mass incarceration, prison abolitionist Emmy Rakete theorises how we got here. As capitalism floundered in the 1980s, it increased its economic exploitation, which in turn made it harder for workers to live well and continue to be productive members of society. The imprisonment of many of these people that swiftly followed was a calculated, yet dysfunctional response by the very system that created the problem.

Empire of Punishment offers a deft and powerful new application of decolonial theory, prison abolitionist theory, and social reproduction theory. At its heart, this is a book about strategy and resistance, showing that opposition to mass incarceration is a necessity for anti-capitalist struggle.