I do think that a society without prisons is a realistic future possibility, but in a transformed society, one in which peoples needs, not profits, constitute the driving force. At the same time, prison abolition appears as a utopian idea precisely because the prison and its bolstering ideologies are so deeply rooted in our contemporary world. There are vast numbers of people behind bars in the United States - some two and a half million - and imprisonment is increasingly used as a strategy of deflection of the underlying social problems - racism, poverty, unemployment, lack of education, and so on. These issues are never seriously addressed. It is only a matter of time before people begin to realize that the prison is a false solution. Abolitionist advocacy can and should occur in relation to demands for quality education, for anti-racist job strategies, for free healthcare, and within other progressive movements. It can help promote an anti-capitalist critique and movements toward socialism.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Sep 2014 06:15:22 +0000
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