The prison abolition movement
seeks to abolish prison
and the prison system which advocates of the movement claim are inhumane. Prison abolitionists present a broad critique of the modern Western criminal justice system, alleged to be both racist
as well as ineffectual at reforming criminals, decreasing crime, or reconciling the victims of crime.
Advocates for prison abolition
were among the first advocates for alternatives to prison.
Anarchist groups such as Anarchist Black Cross have played a significant part in the prison abolition movement and this trend continues today. 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 because they house non-violent offenders (e.g., thieves and swindlers instead of just murderers and rapists), incarcerate mainly poor people or people of color, and do not generally rehabilitate criminals, in many cases making them worse. As a result, the prison abolition movement often is associated with anarchism and anti-authoritarianism.
Prison reforms and alternatives
Proposals for prison reform and proposed alternatives to prisons differ significantly depending on the political beliefs behind them. Proposals and tactics often include:
- 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. War on Drugs), gun control, prohibition of prostitution, and alcohol restrictions.
- Education programs to inform people who have never been in prison about the problems
- Fighting individual cases of wrongful conviction
In place of prisons, anarchism proposes community-controlled courts, councils, or assemblies to control the problem of social crime. They argue that with the destruction of capitalism, and the self-management of production by workers and communities, property crimes would largely vanish. A large part of the problem, according to anarchists, is the way the judicial systems deals with prisoners, people and capital. They argue that there would be fewer prisoners if society treated people more fairly, regardless of gender, color, ethnic background, sexual preference, education, etc.
Arguments made for prison abolition
- Prisons may be less effective at discouraging crimes and/or compensating victims than other forms of punishment.
- Degree and quality of access to justice depends on the financial resources of the accused.
- Laws are biased towards profiting one segment of the population over another. For example, in most countries tobacco is legal, while marijuana is not, because large corporations control the former, while the latter is not currently taxed.
- Prisons alienate people from their communities.
- In the U.S., people of color and from the lower class are much more likely to be imprisoned than people of European descent or people who are wealthy.
- People who are put in prison for what are arguably crimes motivated by need, such as some minor theft (food, etc) or prostitution, find it much harder to obtain legal employment once convicted of a crime. Arguably, this difficulty makes it more likely they will find themselves back in the prison system, having had few other options or resources available to support themselves and/or their families. Many prison abolitionists argue that we should "legalize survival" and provide help to those who need it instead of making it even harder to find work and perpetuating the non-violent crimes.
- Prisons are not proven to make people less violent. In fact, there is evidence that they may instead promote violence in individuals by surrounding them with other violent criminals, which can lead to predictable negative/violent results.
Opponents of the abolition argue that none of the above arguments addresses the protection of non-criminal population from the effects of crime, and from particularly violent criminals.
List of organizations supporting prison abolition
List of other relevant organizations