Prison abolition movement

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The prison abolition movement is a network of groups and activists that seek to reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with systems of rehabilitation that do not place a focus on punishment and government institutionalization.[1] The prison abolitionist movement is distinct from conventional prison reform, which is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons.[2]: 3 

Some supporters of decarceration and prison abolition also work to end solitary confinement, the death penalty, and the construction of new prisons through non-reformist reform.[3][4] Others support books-to-prisoner projects and defend the rights of prisoners to have access to information and library services. Some organizations, such as the Anarchist Black Cross, seek total abolishment of the prison system, without any intention to replace it with other government-controlled systems. Many anarchist organizations believe that the best form of justice arises naturally out of social contracts, restorative justice, or transformative justice.

Definition[edit]

Scholar Dorothy Roberts takes the prison abolition movement in the United States to endorse three basic theses:[5]

  1. "[T]oday’s carceral punishment system can be traced back to slavery and the racial capitalist regime it relied on and sustained."
  2. "[T]he expanding criminal punishment system functions to oppress black people and other politically marginalized groups in order to maintain a racial capitalist regime."
  3. "[W]e can imagine and build a more humane and democratic society that no longer relies on caging people to meet human needs and solve social problems."

Thus, Roberts situates the theory of prison abolition within an intellectual tradition including scholars such as Cedric Robinson, who developed the concept of racial capitalism,[6][7] and characterizes the movement as a response to a long history of oppressive treatment of black people in the United States.

Legal scholar Allegra McLeod notes that prison abolition is not merely a negative project of "opening … prison doors", but rather "may be understood instead as a gradual project of decarceration, in which radically different legal and institutional regulatory forms supplant criminal law enforcement."[8] Prison abolition, in McLeod's view, involves a positive agenda that reimagines how societies might deal with social problems in the absence of prisons, using techniques such as decriminalization and improved welfare provision.[8]

Like Roberts, McLeod sees the contemporary theory of prison abolition as linked to theories regarding the abolition of slavery. McLeod notes that W. E. B. Du Bois—particularly in his Black Reconstruction in America—saw abolitionism not only as a movement to end the legal institution of property in human beings, but also as a means of bringing about a "different future" wherein former slaves could enjoy full participation in society.[9] (Davis explicitly took inspiration from Du Bois's concept of "abolition democracy" in her Abolition Democracy.[10]) Similarly, on McLeod's view, prison abolition implies broad changes to social institutions: "[a]n abolitionist framework", she writes, "requires positive forms of social integration and collective security that are not organized around criminal law enforcement, confinement, criminal surveillance, punitive policing, or punishment."[11]

Historical development[edit]

Joseph Smith, as part of his campaign for President of the United States in 1844, included "Abolish[ing] the cruel custom of prisons (except certain cases) [and] penitentiaries … and let reason and friendship reign over the ruins of ignorance and barbarity; yea, I would, as the universal friend of man, open the prisons, open the eyes, open the ears, and open the hearts of all people, to behold and enjoy freedom—unadulterated freedom…"[12]

Angela Davis traces the roots of contemporary prison abolition theory at least to Thomas Mathiesen's 1974 book The Politics of Abolition, which had been published in the wake of the Attica Prison uprising and unrest in European prisons around the same time.[13] She also cites activist Fay Honey Knopp's 1976 work Instead of Prisons: A Handbook for Abolitionists as significant in the movement.[13]

Eduardo Bautista Duran and Jonathan Simon point out that George Jackson's 1970 text Soledad Brother drew global attention to the conditions of prisons in the United States and made prison abolition a tenet of the New Left.[14]

Liz Samuels observes that, following the Attica Prison uprising, activists began to coalesce around a vision of abolition, whereas previously they had endorsed a program of reform.[15]

1973 Walpole Prison uprising[edit]

Main article: Walpole prison strike

In 1973, two years after the Attica Prison uprising, the inmates of Walpole prison formed a prisoners' union to protect themselves from guards, end behavioral modification programs, advocate for the prisoner's right for education and healthcare, gain more visitation rights, work assignments, and to be able to send money to their families.

The union also created a general truce within the prison and race-related violence sharply declined. During the Kwanzaa celebration, black prisoners were placed under lockdown, angering the whole facility and leading to a general strike. Prisoners refused to work or leave their cells for three months, to which the guards responded by beating prisoners, putting prisoners in solitary confinement, and denying prisoners of medical care and food.[16]

The strike ended in the prisoners' favour as the superintendent of the prison resigned. The prisoners were granted more visitation rights and work programs. Angered by this, the prison guards went on strike and abandoned the prison, hoping that this would create chaos and violence throughout the prison. But the prisoners were able to create an anarchist community where recidivism dropped dramatically and murders and rapes fell to zero. Prisoners volunteered to cook meals. Vietnam veterans who had been trained as medics took charge of the pharmacy and distribution of medication. Decisions were made in community assemblies.

Guards retook the prison after two months, leading to many prison administrators and bureaucrats quitting their jobs and embracing the prison abolition movement.[17]

Advocates of prison abolition[edit]

Anarchist banner in Melbourne Australia, on 16 June 2017

Angela Davis writes: "Mass incarceration is not a solution to unemployment, nor is it a solution to the vast array of social problems that are hidden away in a rapidly growing network of prisons and jails. However, the great majority of people have been tricked into believing in the efficacy of imprisonment, even though the historical record clearly demonstrates that prisons do not work."[18]

Angela Davis and Ruth Wilson Gilmore co-founded Critical Resistance, which is an organization working to "build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe."[19][20] Other similarly motivated groups such as the Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC), a group "committed to exposing and challenging all forms of institutionalized racism, sexism, able-ism, heterosexism, and classism, specifically within the Prison Industrial Complex,"[21] and Black & Pink, an abolitionist organization that focuses around LGBTQ rights, all broadly advocate for prison abolition.[22] Furthermore, the Human Rights Coalition, a 2001 group that aims to abolish prisons,[23][24] and the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, a grassroots organization dedicated to dismantling the PIC,[25] can all be added to the long list of organizations that desire a different form of justice system.[26]

Since 1983,[27] the International Conference on Penal Abolition (ICOPA) gathers activists, academics, journalists, and "others from across the world who are working towards the abolition of imprisonment, the penal system, carceral controls and the prison industrial complex (PIC),"[28] to discuss three important questions surrounding the reality of prison abolition ICOPA was one of the first penal abolitionist conference movements, similar to Critical Resistance in America, but "with an explicitly international scope and agenda-setting ambition."[29]

Anarchists wish to eliminate all forms of state control, of which imprisonment is seen as one of the more obvious examples. Anarchists also oppose prisons given that statistics show incarceration rates affect mainly poor people and ethnic minorities, and do not generally rehabilitate criminals, in many cases making them worse.[30] As a result, the prison abolition movement often is associated with humanistic socialism, anarchism and anti-authoritarianism.

In October 2015, members at a plenary session of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) released and adopted a resolution in favor of prison abolition.[31][32]

Mental illness and prison[edit]

Further information: Mentally ill people in United States jails and prisons

Prison abolitionists such as Amanda Pustilnik take issue with the fact that prisons are used as a "default asylum" for many individuals with mental illness:[33]

Why do governmental units choose to spend billions of dollars a year to concentrate people with serious illnesses in a system designed to punish intentional lawbreaking, when doing so matches neither the putative purposes of that system nor most effectively addresses the issues posed by that population?

In the United States, there are more people with mental illness in prisons than in psychiatric hospitals.[33] This statistic is one of the major pieces of evidence that prison abolitionists claim highlights the depravity of the penal system.

Prison abolitionists contend that prisons violate the Constitutional rights (5th and 6th Amendment rights) of mentally ill prisoners on the grounds that these individuals will not be receiving the same potential for rehabilitation as the non-mentally ill prison population. This injustice is sufficient grounds to argue for the abolishment of prisons.[33][34][35] Prisons were not designed to be used to house the mentally ill, and prison practices like solitary confinement are damaging to mental health. Additionally, individuals with mental illnesses have a much higher chance of committing suicide while in prison.[36]

Proposed reforms and alternatives[edit]

2022 Spanish-language graffiti in Vallcarca i els Penitents (Barcelona) advocating for the freeing of prisoners.
2022 Catalan-language graffiti in Vallcarca i els Penitents (Barcelona) deeming prisons as torture.

Proposals for prison reform and alternatives to prisons differ significantly depending on the political beliefs behind them. Often they fall in one of three categories from the "Attrition Model", a model proposed by the Prison Research Education Action Project in 1976: moratorium, decarceration, and excarceration.[37][38] Proposals and tactics often include:[38]

  • Penal system reforms:
  • Prison condition reforms
  • Crime prevention rather than punishment
  • Abolition of specific programs which increase prison population, such as the prohibition of drugs (e.g., the American War on Drugs) and prohibition of sex work.
  • Education programs to inform people who have never been in prison about the problems
  • Fighting individual cases of wrongful conviction

The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime published a series of handbooks on criminal justice. Among them is Alternatives to Imprisonment which identifies how the overuse of imprisonment impacts fundamental human rights, especially those convicted for lesser crimes.

Social justice and advocacy organizations such as Students Against Mass Incarceration (SAMI) at the University of California, San Diego often look to Scandinavian countries Sweden and Norway for guidance in regard to successful prison reform because both countries have an emphasis on rehabilitation rather than punishment.[39] According to Sweden's Prison and Probation Service Director-General, Nils Öberg, this emphasis is popular among the Swedish because the act of imprisonment is considered punishment enough.[40] This focus on rehabilitation includes an emphasis on promoting normalcy for inmates, a charge lead by experienced criminologists and psychologists.[41] In Norway a focus on preparation for societal re-entry has yielded "one of the lowest recidivism rates in the world at 20%, [while] the US has one of the highest: 76.6% of [American] prisoners are re-arrested within five years".[42] The Scandinavian method of incarceration seems to be successful: the Swedish incarceration rate decreased by 6% between 2011 and 2012.[43]

Abolitionist views[edit]

Many prison reform organizations and abolitionists in the United States advocate community accountability practices, such as community-controlled courts, councils, or assemblies as an alternative to the criminal justice system.[44]

Instead of prisons: a handbook for abolitionists, republished by Critical Resistance in 2005, outlines what they identify as the nine main perspectives for prison abolitionists:[45]

Perspective 1: The imprisonment of a human being is inherently immoral, and while total abolition of the current prison system is not an easy task, it is possible. The first step towards abolition is admitting that prisons cannot be reformed, as a carceral system is founded on brutality and contempt for those imprisoned. Additionally, the current system works to disproportionally imprison poor and working-class people, so its abolition would ensure progress towards equality. Abolitionists see many similarities between today's carceral system and the slavery establishment of the past, and would in fact say that the current system is simply reformed enslavement which perpetuates the same oppressive and discriminatory patterns. But just as superficial reforms could not alter the brutality of the slave system, reforms cannot change a system rooted in racism.

Perspective 2: The abolitionist message requires changing our language and definitions of punishment “treatment” and “inmates”. In order to break away from the prison system, we must use honest language and take back the power of our vocabulary.

Perspective 3: Imprisonment is not a proper response to deviance. Abolitionists promote reconciliation rather than punishment, a perspective seeking to restore both the criminal and the victim while limiting the disruption of their lives in the process.

Perspective 4: Abolitionists advocate for changes beneficial to the prisoner but do so while remaining a non-member of the system. In a similar fashion, abolitionists respect the personhood of system managers but oppose their role in the perpetuation of an oppressive system.

Perspective 5: The abolitionist message extends farther than the traditional helping relationship; Abolitionists identify themselves as allies of the imprisoned, respecting their perspectives as well as the requirements for abolition.

Perspective 6:The empowerment of prisoners and ex-prisoners is crucial to the abolitionist movement. Programs and resources dedicated to reinstating that which has been stripped from them by the prison system are fundamental in putting power back in their own hands.

Perspective 7: Abolitionists believe that citizens are the true source of institutional power which can lead to the abolition of the prison system. Giving or limiting support from certain policies and practices will enable the progression of the abolitionist movement.

Perspective 8: Abolitionists believe that crime is a consequence of a broken society, and recourses must be used towards social programs instead of the funding of prisons. They advocate for public solutions to public problems, producing effects which will benefit everyone in society.

Perspective 9: An emphasis is placed on the correction of society rather than the correction of an individual. It is only in a corrected or caring community that individual redemption and rehabilitation can be achieved. Thus, abolitionists see that the only adequate alternative to the prison system is building a kind of society which has no need for prisons.

Organizations such as INCITE! and Sista II Sista that support women of color who are survivors of interpersonal violence argue that the criminal justice system does not protect marginalized people who are victims in violent relationships. Instead, victims, especially those who are poor, minorities, transgender or gender non-conforming can experience additional violence at the hands of the state.[46] Instead of relying on the criminal justice system, these organizations work to implement community accountability practices, which often involve collectively-run processes of intervention initiated by a survivor of violence to try to hold the person who committed violence accountable by working to meet a set of demands.[47] For organizations outside the United States see, e.g. Justice Action, Australia.

Some anarchists and socialists contend that a large part of the problem is the way the judicial system deals with prisoners, people, and capital. According to Marxists, in capitalist economies incentives are in place to expand the prison system and increase the prison population. This is evidenced by the creation of private prisons in America and corporations like CoreCivic, formerly known as Correction Corporation of America (CCA).[48] Its shareholders benefit from the expansion of prisons and tougher laws on crime. More prisoners is seen as beneficial for business. Some anarchists contend that with the destruction of capitalism, and the development of social structures that would allow for the self-management of communities, property crimes would largely vanish. There would be fewer prisoners, they assert, if society treated people more fairly, regardless of gender, color, ethnic background, sexual orientation, education, etc.

The demand for prison abolition is a feature of anarchist criminology, which argues that prisons encourage recidivism and should be replaced by efforts to rehabilitate offenders and reintegrate them into communities.[49]

See also[edit]

References[edit]

Further Reading[edit]

  • Davis, Angela Y. (2003). Are prisons obsolete? (PDF). New York. ISBN 1-58322-581-1. OCLC 52832083.
  • Bagaric, Mirko; Hunter, Dan; Svilar, Jennifer (Spring 2021). "Prison Abolition: From Naive Idealism to Technological Pragmatism". Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. 111 (2): 351–407. JSTOR 48614943.
  • Herivel, Tara; Wright, Paul, eds. (2003). Prison Nation: The Warehousing of America's Poor. Psychology Press. ISBN 978-0-415-93538-8.
  • The Growth of Incarceration in the United States: Exploring Causes and Consequences. Washington, D.C.: National Academies Press. 2014-04-24. doi:10.17226/18613. ISBN 978-0-309-29801-8. S2CID 155470810.

Sources[edit]

Notes[edit]

  1. ^ Shaw, Robin Ferguson (March 2009). "Angela Y. Davis and the prison abolition movement, Part II". Contemporary Justice Review. 12 (1): 101–104. doi:10.1080/10282580802685452. S2CID 143896668.
  2. ^ Handbook of basic principles and promising practices on Alternatives to Imprisonment (PDF). United Nations. April 2007. ISBN 978-92-1-148220-1.
  3. ^ "Non-reformist reforms defined". Archived from the original on 2017-11-11.
  4. ^ Berger, Dan; Kaba, Mariame; Stein, David (August 24, 2017). "What Abolitionsts Do". Jacobin. Archived from the original on November 7, 2018. Retrieved March 23, 2018.
  5. ^ Roberts 2019, p. 7–8.
  6. ^ Robinson, Cedric (1983). Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. Chapel Hill, North Carolina: University of North Carolina Press (published 2011). pp. 2, 10. ISBN 9780807876121.
  7. ^ Roberts 2019, p. 14.
  8. ^ a b McLeod 2015, p. 1161.
  9. ^ McLeod 2015, p. 1162.
  10. ^ Davis, Angela Y. (2011). Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture. New York: Seven Stories Press. p. 73. ISBN 9781609801038.
  11. ^ McLeod 2015, p. 1164.
  12. ^ Roberts, B. H. (1900), "Appendix 3", The Rise and Fall of Nauvoo, Salt Lake City, Utah: The Deseret News, p. 389
  13. ^ a b Davis & Rodríguez 2000, p. 215.
  14. ^ Duran, Eduardo Bautista; Simon, Jonathan (2019). "Police Abolitionist Discourse? Why It Has Been Missing (And Why It Matters)". The Cambridge Handbook of Policing in the United States. pp. 85–103. doi:10.1017/9781108354721.005. ISBN 978-1-108-35472-1. S2CID 202437734.
  15. ^ Samuels, Liz (2010). "Improvising on Reality: The Roots of Prison Abolition". In Berger, Dan (ed.). The Hidden 1970s: Histories of Radicalism. New Brunswick, New Jersey: Rutgers University Press. p. 22. ISBN 9780813550336.
  16. ^ Gelderloos, Peter (2010). Anarchy Works.
  17. ^ Bisonnette, Jamie (2008). When the prisoners ran Walpole: a true story in the movement for prison abolition. Cambridge: South End Press.[page needed]
  18. ^ Davis, Angela (1998-09-10). "Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex". Colorlines. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  19. ^ "About". Critical Resistance. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  20. ^ Kushner, Rachel (2019-04-17). "Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  21. ^ "About PARC | Prison Activist Resource Center". www.prisonactivist.org. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  22. ^ "Purpose and Analysis | black and pink". www.blackandpink.org. Archived from the original on 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  23. ^ "HR Coalition's Vision for Prisoners | Human Rights Coalition". hrcoalition.org. Archived from the original on 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  24. ^ "Organizational Spotlight: the Human Rights Coalition | Decarcerate PA". decarceratepa.info. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  25. ^ "California Coalition for Women Prisoners". womenprisoners.org. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  26. ^ "The Real Cost of Prisons Project". www.realcostofprisons.org. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  27. ^ Levinson, David (2002-01-01). Encyclopedia of crime and punishment. Volume 1, Volume 1. Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Sage Publications. ISBN 978-0761922582. OCLC 51883999.
  28. ^ "actionICOPA :: The International Conference on Penal Abolition". www.actionicopa.org. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  29. ^ Piché, Justin; Larsen, Mike (December 2010). "The moving targets of penal abolitionism: ICOPA, past, present and future". Contemporary Justice Review. 13 (4): 391–410. doi:10.1080/10282580.2010.517964. S2CID 143501655.
  30. ^ National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals (US). A National Strategy to Reduce Crime. National Advisory Commission on Criminal Justice Standards and Goals, 1973. p. 358
  31. ^ "NLG Adopts Resolution Supporting Prison Abolition". National Lawyers Guild. 2015-12-17. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  32. ^ "National Lawyers Guild Adopts Resolution Supporting Prison Abolition". The Commons | Common Dreams. 2015-12-17. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  33. ^ a b c Pustilnik, Amanda C. (2005). "Prisons of the Mind: Social Value and Economic Inefficiency in the Criminal Justice Response to Mental Illness". The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology. 96 (1): 217–266. JSTOR 30038029. SSRN 785367. Gale A143871807 ProQuest 218437454.
  34. ^ Rollin, Henry R. (June 2006). "The mentally ill should be in hospital, not in jail". Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology. 17 (2): 326–329. doi:10.1080/14789940500497875. S2CID 145468549.
  35. ^ "Developments in the Law: The Law of Mental Illness" (PDF). Harvard Law Review. 121 (4): 1114–1191. February 2008. PMID 18354871.
  36. ^ Senior, Jane; Hayes, Adrian J.; Pratt, Daniel; Thomas, Stuart D.; Fahy, Tom; Leese, Morven; Bowen, Andy; Taylor, Greg; Lever-Green, Gillian; Graham, Tanya; Pearson, Anna; Ahmed, Mukhtar; Shaw, Jenny J. (September 2007). "The identification and management of suicide risk in local prisons". Journal of Forensic Psychiatry & Psychology. 18 (3): 368–380. doi:10.1080/14789940701470218. S2CID 53611921.
  37. ^ Morris, Mark (1976). Instead of Prisons: A Handbook for Abolitionists. Prison Research Education Action Project.
  38. ^ a b Washington, John (2018-07-31). "What Is Prison Abolition?". The Nation. ISSN 0027-8378. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  39. ^ "The Breakthrough of Students Against Mass Incarceration". UCSD Guardian. 2 December 2013. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  40. ^ James, Erwin (2014-11-26). "Prison is not for punishment in Sweden. We get people into better shape". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  41. ^ Larson, Doran (2013-09-24). "Why Scandinavian Prisons Are Superior". The Atlantic. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  42. ^ Sterbenz, Christina. "Why Norway's prison system is so successful". Business Insider. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  43. ^ James, Erwin (December 2013). "Why is Sweden closing its prisons?". The Guardian. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  44. ^ "Purpose and Analysis – black and pink". Archived from the original on 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  45. ^ Instead of prisons: a handbook for abolitionists (Republished with a new foreword ed.). Oakland, CA: Critical Resistance. 2005. ISBN 978-0-9767070-1-1. {{cite book}}: |first1= missing |last1= (help)
  46. ^ Richie, Beth E. (2012). Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation. New York, NY: New York University Press. p. 17.
  47. ^ Rojas Durazo, Ana Clarissa (2011–2012). "Community Accountability: Emerging Movements to Transform into Violence". Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict & World Order. 37 (4).[verification needed]
  48. ^ Monbiot, George (2009-03-03). "George Monbiot: This revolting trade in human lives is an incentive to lock people up". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2019-10-18.
  49. ^ Ferrell, Jeff (2010). "Anarchist Criminology". Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory. doi:10.4135/9781412959193.n11. ISBN 978-1-4129-5918-6.
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