According to the Guardian, 30 officers at California’s Los Padrinos Juvenile Prison have been charged with facilitating “gladiator fights” between incarcerated youth. Footage had surfaced of guards seemingly laughing and shaking hands with boys for beating up another kid. In nearly 70 known fights between July and December 2023, there were 140 victims, some as young as 12.
In 2015, the Justice Department was asked to investigate California guards exposed for forcing incarcerated children and adults to fight with “sadistic pleasure.” From 1989 to 1994, dozens of Black and Latinx incarcerated adults at another prison were injured, and guards shot seven of them dead.
During slavery, white people fetishized the “physical prowess” of Black bodies. Enslaved Africans applied cultural fighting traditions in wrestling and boxing rings as whites placed bets on who would win, entertaining themselves and keeping down “the spirit of insurrection,” according to Frederick Douglass.
Today, police justify brutalizing us with their fantasy of “excited delirium.” Just as enslaved children had to fight over food in a trough, incarcerated women now battle over sanitary pads and tampons. Like plantations, prisons create a high-alert environment of scarcity and violence, one that exploits incarcerated youth under the guise of “rehabilitation.”
But let’s also remember the enslaved who used rehearsed fighting skills for resistance. Women fought off would-be rapists. Overseers and masters got jumped. Families escaped. If prison gladiator fights ultimately ignite a similar breaking point, history already tells the story.