#the word prisoner DOES have MANY negative and dehumaizing connotations

[to-dance-beneath-the-diamond-sky]

idk why people are having such a hard time wrapping their brains around the fact that not referring to people as prisoners and instead referring to them as people in prison or incarcerated people is a really really simple thing you can do to help combat decades of the systemic dehumanization of black, brown, and poor people. in the US and a lot of other countries around the world, the term prisoner has extremely negative connotations and stigma associated with it, and invokes a whole lot of bias and stereotypes about who is in prison and what for. the idea that people who are in prison are there because they are bad awful people is deeply ingrained in almost every aspect of US society and culture. prisons systemically dehumanize people and do everything to strip away people's autonomy, individuality, identity, freedom, and human rights.

the push for person first language when discussing those who are incarcerated literally comes from people who have been systemically dehumanized from these oppressive punitive systems. this is not an ahistorical uwu sjw don't say "autistic" say "person-with-autism" thing. there are decades, fuck even centuries of significant, deeply racialized and oppressive political and historical context you have to take into account.

so please don't feed into this dehumanization by referring to people as objects in this extremely oppressive, racist, classist, harmful punitive system. use person first language y'all, it's not that fucking hard.

here's some articles if people actually care enough to educate themseves

The language of incarceration People First: The Use and Impact of Criminal Justice Labels in Media Coverage The Language Project Forget labels like ex-con and felon, realize that words matter and learn how to humanize language