Prison abolition movement in the United States

Last updated

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 and education that do not focus on punishment and government institutionalization. [1] The prison abolitionist movement is distinct from conventional prison reform, which is intended to improve conditions inside prisons. [2] :3

Contents

Supporters of prison abolitionism are a diverse group with differing ideas as to exactly how prisons should be abolished, and what, if anything, should replace them. 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 reforms. [3] [4] Others support books-to-prisoner projects and defend prisoners' right to access information and library services. Some organizations, such as the Anarchist Black Cross, seek the total abolishment of the prison system without any intention to replace it with other government-controlled systems.

Definition

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. In Canada, many abolitionists have called Canada's prisons the "new residential schools", which were designed as a cultural genocide of Indigenous people. [8]

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." [9] 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. [9]

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. [10] (Angela Davis explicitly took inspiration from Du Bois's concept of "abolition democracy" in her book Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture. [11] ) 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." [12]

The abolition of prisons is not only about the closure of prisons. [13] Abolitionist views is also a way to counter the hegemonic discourse, and gives an alternative ways of thinking. [13] It is a way to reconceptualize basic notions like crime, innocence, punishment etc. [13]

Historical development

Anarchism and prison abolition

Many anarchist organizations believe that the best form of justice arises naturally out of social contracts, restorative justice, or transformative justice.

Anarchist opposition to incarceration can be found in articles written as early as 1851, [14] and is elucidated by major anarchist thinkers such as Proudhon, [15] Bakunin, [16] Berkman, [15] Goldman, [15] Malatesta, [15] Bonano, [17] and Kropotkin. [15]

Personal experiences in prison because of revolutionary activity prompted many anarchists who were “deeply affected by their experiences” to publish their criticisms. [15] In 1886, the trial of eight anarchists following the Haymarket riots brought state repression to public attention. Lucy Parsons, an anarchist and wife of one of the Haymarket eight, embarked on a speaking tour through 17 different states speaking to a total of almost 200,000 people. [18] A single rally in Havana, Cuba, to support the families of the eight accused anarchists raised nearly $1000. [19] Speaking at his trial, in a widely disseminated speech, one of the co-accused, August Spies, stated:

It is not likely that the honorable Bonfield and Grinnell can conceive of a social order not held intact by the policeman's club and pistol, nor of a free society without prisons, gallows, and State's attorneys. In such a society they probably fail to find a place for themselves. And is this the reason why Anarchism is such a "pernicious and damnable doctrine?" [20]

The Anarchist Red Cross, a prisoner support group and the precursor to the Anarchist Black Cross, was founded roughly in 1906. [21] By that year, groups existed in Kiev, Odessa, Bialystok, and trials of its members, led to its spread across Europe and North America. [21] A 2018 guide to starting an Anarchist Black Cross group states that "we need to destroy all the prisons, and free all the prisoners. Our position is an abolitionist stance against the state and it’s prisons." [22]

In 1917, the Anarchist Red Cross would disband and members joined the revolution in Russia. [21] Following the February revolution, political prisoners were released from Russian jails, in a massive wave of amnesties. [21] The Anarchist Red Cross reorganised in 1919 as the Anarchist Black Cross, with some members joining the anarchist insurgent, Nestor Makhno. [21]

Makhno, a Ukrainian anarchist who was freed in 1917 from a life sentence in prison, organised a revolutionary insurgent army along anarchist principles that would come to control a territory of seven-and-a-half million people. [23] Upon taking control of a town, Makhnovists would destroy “all remnants and symbols of slavery: prisons, police and gendarmerie posts were blown up with dynamite or put to the torch.” [23] Prisoners in battle who were not officers were typically welcomed into the ranks of Makhnovists or freed. [23] The Makhnovist revolutionary insurgent army adopted a declaration in 1919, stating

we are against all rigid judicial and police machinery, against any legislative code prescribed once and for all time, for these involve gross violations of genuine justice and of the real protections of the population. These ought not to be organized but should be instead the living, free and creative act of the community. Which is why all obsolete forms of justice—court administration, revolutionary tribunals, repressive laws, police or militia, Cheka, prisons and all other sterile and useless anachronisms—must disappear of themselves or be abolished from the very first breath of the free life, right from the very first steps of the free and living organization of society and the economy. [23]

The Anarchist Black Cross was reconstituted in the aftermath of the Spanish Civil War and Anarchist Revolution. The pressure from the number of anarchist prisoners in need of aid led to the closing of “most of the chapters in the United States and Europe.” [21] Alternative groups, such as the Alexander Berkman Aid Fund and the Society to Aid Anarchist Prisoners in Russia would take their place. [21] Another resurgence was felt in 1967, and, again, in 1979 owing to the efforts of Lorenzo Kom’boa Ervin, whose writings on prison and anarchism are credited as having spread and been foundational to Black anarchism. [21] [24]

Anarchists agitation against prisons in Canada has included Bulldozer, an anti-prison anarchist project founded in Toronto in 1980. [25] Bulldozer was closed after being raided and charged with sedition. The End the Prison Industrial Complex (Epic) was formed in 2009, and Anarchist Black Cross projects emerged throughout the 2000s. Anarchists and abolitionists within Québec organise yearly noise demonstrations outside of prison facilities on New Year's Eve. [26] A campaign to stop the construction of a migrant prison involved anarchists unloading thousands of crickets into the offices of an architectural firm in 2018. [27]

Campaigns to free anarchist prisoners have served as the basis for calling for freedom for all prisoners. June 11, 2011, international solidarity actions for anarchist prisoners Marie Mason and Eric McDavid triggered the start of an international day and week of solidarity with all anarchist prisoners in 2015. [28] 2022's week of solidarity included actions in Poland, Russia, Ukraine, Uruguay, Greece, the UK, and other countries. [29] The 2022-2023 hunger strike of anarchist prisoner Alfredo Cospito led to police skirmishes with protesters in Rome, a Turin cell tower being lit on fire, and a letter with bullets was sent to a newspaper stating "if Alfredo Cospito dies judges will all be targets, two months without food, burn down the prisons." [30] International actions to free Cospito, included the burning of a Strabag excavator in Germany. The Italian placed their embassies on "alert" in response to mobilizations. [30]

The Rojavan Revolution, which many have considered illustrative of, and rooted in, anarchist theory, [31] involved the mass liquidation of prisons and freeing of political prisoners and nonviolent offenders. [32] Neighbourhood based "peace committees," composed of elected community members with, largely, no formal legal education, were created to resolve conflicts using a model of consensus and restorative justice. [32]

Prison abolition and the New Left

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. [33] She also cites activist Fay Honey Knopp's 1976 work Instead of Prisons: A Handbook for Abolitionists as significant in the movement. [33]

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. [34]

Liz Samuels has observed that, following the Attica Prison uprising, activists began to coalesce around a vision of abolition, whereas previously they had endorsed a program of reform. [35]

1973 Walpole Prison uprising

In 1973, two years after the Attica Prison uprising, the inmates of Walpole prison, in Massachusetts, 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 medical care and food. [36]

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.

Advocates of prison abolition

Anarchist banner in Melbourne Australia, on 16 June 2017 Fuck the border burn the prisons banner - Refugee Action protest 27 July 2013 Melbourne (9374745465).jpg
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." [37]

In 1997, 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." [38] [39] 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," [40] and Black & Pink, an abolitionist organization that focuses around LGBTQ rights, all broadly advocate for prison abolition. [41] Furthermore, the Human Rights Coalition, a 2001 group based in the city of Philadelphia that aims to abolish prisons, [42] [43] with their mission stating "to empower prisoners' families to be leaders in prison organizing and to teach them how to advocate on behalf of their loved ones in prison and expose the inhumane practices of the Department of Corrections." [44] In addition, the California Coalition for Women Prisoners, a grassroots organization dedicated to dismantling the PIC, [45] can all be added to the long list of organizations that desire a different form of justice system. [46]

Project NIA, an organization founded in 2009 by Mariame Kaba, helps to end the incarceration of youth, as well as victims of violence "through community-based alternatives to the criminal legal process." [47]

Since 1983, [48] 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)," [49] 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." [50]

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. [51]

In October 2015, members at a plenary session of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) released and adopted a resolution in favor of prison abolition. [52] [53]

In Canada, a number of organizations support prison abolition, which includes the Saskatchewan Manitoba Alberta Abolition Organization (SMAAC) or the Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project. [54] [55] These organizations collaborate and organize on issues of prison abolition and work towards prison abolition.

Disability, mental illness and prison

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: [56]

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. [56] In Canada, mental health issues are 2 to 3 times more prevalent in prisons than in the general population. [57]

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. [56] [58] [59] 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. [60]

In response to the fear that prisons are needed for the most serious cases of mentally ill, Liat Ben-Mosh describe prison abolitionist's' view on the issue: "Many prison abolitionists advocate for transformative justice and healing practices in which no one will be restrained or segregated, while some, like PREAP, believe that there will always be a small percentage of those whose behavior is so unacceptable or harmful that they will need to be incapacitated, socially exiled, or restrained and that this should be done humanely, temporarily, and not in a carceral or punitive manner." [61] Another point raised is that the current focus in criminal justice reform on nonviolent, nonserious and nonsexual offences shrinks the borders and understandings of innocence and guilt. [62]

Aging in prison

The prison abolition movement and prison abolitionists like Liat Ben-Moshe have taken issue with the treatment of the aging population in prisons. [63] Prolonged sentencing policies have resulted in an increased aging population in prisons as well as the harsh conditions of imprisonment. [63] A number of reasons can contribute to older adult's risk for illness while in prison. [64] Prisons are not intended to be used as nursing homes, hospice or long-term care facilities for the aging prison population. [65] Despite this, prison hospice does exist. [66] [67]

In Canada, individuals 50 years of age and older in federal custody account for 25% of the federal prison population. [65] Investigations into the Canadian federal penitentiary have found that there is a general failure of the Correctional Service of Canada to meet safe and humane custody and assisting in the rehabilitation and reintegration of offenders into the community. [65] The conditions of confinement of older individuals jeopardize the protection of their human rights. [65] The conditions of the aging population in Canada has been denounced by persons who are incarcerated. [68]

Proposed reforms and alternatives

2022 Spanish-language graffiti in Vallcarca i els Penitents (Barcelona) advocating for the freeing of prisoners Presxs a la calle.jpg
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 La preso es tortura.jpg
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. [69] [70] Proposals and tactics often include: [70]

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. [71] According to Sweden's former Prison and Probation Service Director-General, Nils Öberg, this emphasis is popular among the Swedish because the act of imprisonment is considered punishment enough. [72] This focus on rehabilitation includes an emphasis on promoting normalcy for inmates, a charge led by experienced criminologists and psychologists. [73] 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". [74] The Swedish incarceration rate decreased by 6% between 2011 and 2012. [75]

Abolitionist views

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. [76]

Abolitionists like Angela Davis recommend four measures as a way to deal with violent and other serious crimes: (1) make mental health care available to all (2) everyone should have access to affordable treatment for substance use disorders (3) make a stronger effort to rehabilitate those who commit criminal offences and (4) employ reparative or restorative justice measures as an accountability tool to reconcile offenders with their victims and undo or compensate the harm done. [77]

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 relationships. Instead, victims, especially those who are poor, minorities, transgender or gender non-conforming can experience additional violence at the hands of the state. [78] 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. [79] 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). [80] 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. [81]

“Nine perspectives for prison abolitionists”

Instead of prisons: a handbook for abolitionists, republished by Critical Resistance in 2005, outlines what the organization identifies as the nine main perspectives for prison abolitionists: [82]

  • 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 resources 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.

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Solitary confinement</span> Strict form of imprisonment

Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment in which an incarcerated person lives in a single cell with little or no contact with other people. It is a punitive tool used within the prison system to discipline or separate incarcerated individuals who are considered to be security risks to other incarcerated individuals or prison staff, as well as those who violate facility rules or are deemed disruptive. However, it can also be used as protective custody for incarcerated individuals whose safety is threatened by other prisoners. This is employed to separate them from the general prison population and prevent injury or death.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prison–industrial complex</span> Attribution of the U.S.s high incarceration rate to profit

The prison-industrial complex (PIC) is a term, coined after the "military-industrial complex" of the 1950s, used by scholars and activists to describe the many relationships between institutions of imprisonment and the various businesses that benefit from them.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incarceration in the United States</span> Form of punishment in United States law

Incarceration in the United States is one of the primary means of punishment for crime in the United States. In 2021, over five million people were under supervision by the criminal justice system, with nearly two million people incarcerated in state or federal prisons and local jails. The United States has the largest known prison population in the world. It has 5% of the world’s population while having 20% of the world’s incarcerated persons. China, with more than four times more inhabitants, has fewer persons in prison. Prison populations grew dramatically beginning in the 1970s, but began a decline around 2009, dropping 25% by year-end 2021.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prison reform</span> Reform of the prison system

Prison reform is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons, improve the effectiveness of a penal system, reduce recidivism or implement alternatives to incarceration. It also focuses on ensuring the reinstatement of those whose lives are impacted by crimes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Critical Resistance</span> International organization working to dismantle the prison-industrial complex

Critical Resistance is a U.S. based organization with the stated goal of dismantling what it calls the prison-industrial complex (PIC). Critical Resistance's national office is in Oakland, California, with three additional chapters in New York City, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Rehabilitation (penology)</span> Process to re-integrate a person into society

Rehabilitation is the process of re-educating those who have committed a crime and preparing them to re-enter society. The goal is to address all of the underlying root causes of crime in order to decrease the rate of recidivism once inmates are released from prison. It generally involves psychological approaches which target the cognitive distortions associated with specific kinds of crime committed by individual offenders, but it may also entail more general education like reading skills and career training. The goal is to re-integrate offenders back into society.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Feminist school of criminology</span> School of criminology

The feminist school of criminology is a school of criminology developed in the late 1960s and into the 1970s as a reaction to the general disregard and discrimination of women in the traditional study of crime. It is the view of the feminist school of criminology that a majority of criminological theories were developed through studies on male subjects and focused on male criminality, and that criminologists often would "add women and stir" rather than develop separate theories on female criminality.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prison</span> Facility where people are kept as punishment for a crime

A prison, also known as a jail, gaol, penitentiary, detention center, correction center, correctional facility, remand center, hoosegow, and slammer, is a facility where people are imprisoned against their will and denied their liberty under the authority of the state, generally as punishment for various crimes. Authorities most commonly use prisons within a criminal-justice system: people charged with crimes may be imprisoned until their trial; those who have pled or been found guilty of crimes at trial may be sentenced to a specified period of imprisonment.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incarceration of women</span> Imprisonment of women

Approximately 741,000 women are incarcerated in correctional facilities, a 17% increase since 2010 and the female prison population has been increasing across all continents. The list of countries by incarceration rate includes a main table with a column for the historical and current percentage of prisoners who are female.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Prisoner</span> Person who is deprived of liberty against their will

A prisoner is a person who is deprived of liberty against their will. This can be by confinement or captivity in a prison, or physical restraint. The term usually applies to one serving a sentence in prison.

In England and Wales, the imprisonment for public protection sentence was a form of indeterminate sentence introduced by section 225 of the Criminal Justice Act 2003 by the Home Secretary, David Blunkett, and abolished in 2012. It was intended to protect the public against criminals whose crimes were not serious enough to merit a normal life sentence but who were regarded as too dangerous to be released when the term of their original sentence had expired. It is composed of a punitive "tariff" intended to be proportionate to the gravity of the crime committed, and an indeterminate period which commences after the expiry of the tariff and lasts until the Parole Board judges the prisoner no longer poses a risk to the public and is fit to be released. The equivalent for under-18s was called detention for public protection, introduced by s. 226 of the 2003 Act. The sentences came into effect on 4 April 2005.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Alternatives to imprisonment</span> Types of punishment or treatment other than time in prison

The alternatives to imprisonment are types of punishment or treatment other than time in prison that can be given to a person who is convicted of committing a crime. Some of these are also known as alternative sanctions. Alternatives can take the form of fines, restorative justice, transformative justice or no punishment at all. Capital punishment, corporal punishment and electronic monitoring are also alternatives to imprisonment, but are not promoted by modern prison reform movements for decarceration due to them being carceral in nature.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Anarchist Black Cross</span> Anarchist support organisation

The Anarchist Black Cross (ABC), formerly the Anarchist Red Cross, is an anarchist support organization. The group is notable for its efforts at providing prisoners with political literature, but it also organizes material and legal support for class struggle prisoners worldwide. It commonly contrasts itself with Amnesty International, which is concerned mainly with prisoners of conscience and refuses to defend those accused of encouraging violence. The ABC openly supports those who have committed illegal activity in furtherance of revolutionary aims that anarchists accept as legitimate.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Criminal justice reform in the United States</span> Reforms seeking to address structural issues in criminal justice systems of the United States

Criminal justice reform seeks to address structural issues in criminal justice systems such as racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and recidivism. Reforms can take place at any point where the criminal justice system intervenes in citizens’ lives, including lawmaking, policing, sentencing and incarceration. Criminal justice reform can also address the collateral consequences of conviction, including disenfranchisement or lack of access to housing or employment, that may restrict the rights of individuals with criminal records.

Gender-responsive prisons are prisons constructed to provide gender-specific care to incarcerated women. Contemporary sex-based prison programs were presented as a solution to the rapidly increasing number of women in the prison industrial complex and the overcrowding of California's prisons. These programs vary in intent and implementation and are based on the idea that female offenders differ from their male counterparts in their personal histories and pathways to crime. Multi-dimensional programs oriented toward female behaviors are considered by many to be effective in curbing recidivism.

Criminal justice reform seeks to address structural issues in criminal justice systems such as racial profiling, police brutality, overcriminalization, mass incarceration, and recidivism. Criminal justice reform can take place at any point where the criminal justice system intervenes in citizens’ lives, including lawmaking, policing, and sentencing.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Incarceration in Norway</span> Overview of incarceration in Norway

Norway's criminal justice system focuses on the principles of restorative justice and the rehabilitation of prisoners. Correctional facilities in Norway focus on maintaining custody of the offender and attempting to make them functioning members of society. Norway's prison system is renowned as one of the most effective and humane in the world.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Carceral feminism</span> Forms of feminism that advocate for increased prison sentences

Carceral feminism is a critical term for types of feminism that advocate for enhancing and increasing prison sentences that deal with feminist and gender issues. The term criticises the belief that harsher and longer prison sentences will help work towards solving these issues. The phrase "carceral feminism" was coined by Elizabeth Bernstein, a feminist sociologist, in her 2007 article, "The Sexual Politics of the 'New Abolitionism'". Examining the contemporary anti-trafficking movement in the United States, Bernstein introduced the term to describe a type of feminist activism which casts all forms of sexual labor as sex trafficking. She sees this as a retrograde step, suggesting it erodes the rights of women in the sex industry, and takes the focus off other important feminist issues, and expands the neoliberal agenda.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Decarceration in the United States</span> Overview article

Decarceration in the United States involves government policies and community campaigns aimed at reducing the number of people held in custody or custodial supervision. Decarceration, the opposite of incarceration, also entails reducing the rate of imprisonment at the federal, state and municipal level. As of 2019, the US was home to 5% of the global population but 25% of its prisoners. Until the COVID-19 pandemic, the U.S. possessed the world's highest incarceration rate: 655 inmates for every 100,000 people, enough inmates to equal the populations of Philadelphia or Houston. The COVID-19 pandemic has reinvigorated the discussion surrounding decarceration as the spread of the virus poses a threat to the health of those incarcerated in prisons and detention centers where the ability to properly socially distance is limited. As a result of the push for decarceration in the wake of the pandemic, as of 2022, the incarceration rate in the United States declined to 505 per 100,000, resulting in the United States no longer having the highest incarceration rate in the world, but still remaining in the top five.

Liat Ben-Moshe is a disability scholar and assistant professor of criminology, Law, and Justice at the University of Illinois at Chicago. Ben-Moshe holds a PhD in sociology from Syracuse University with concentrations in Women and Gender Studies and Disability Studies. Ben-Moshe's work “has brought an intersectional disability studies approach to the phenomenon of mass incarceration and decarceration in the US”. Ben-Moshe's major works include Building Pedagogical Curb Cuts: Incorporating Disability into the University Classroom and Curriculum (2005), Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada (2014), and Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition (2020). Ben-Moshe is best known for her theories of dis-epistemology, genealogy of deinstitutionalization, and race-ability.

References

Further reading

Sources

Notes

  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. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2020-04-08. Retrieved 2013-01-31.
  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. Sep 2, The Prison Abolition Issue editorial collective; Share, 2021 11 min read. "How the Prison Abolition Issue came to be". briarpatchmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  9. 1 2 McLeod 2015, p. 1161.
  10. McLeod 2015, p. 1162.
  11. Davis, Angela Y. (2011). Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture. New York: Seven Stories Press. p. 73. ISBN   9781609801038.
  12. McLeod 2015, p. 1164.
  13. 1 2 3 Ben-Moshe, Liat (2020). Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abilition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 116.
  14. The General Idea of the Revolution in the 19th Century. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  15. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Classic Writings in Anarchist Criminology. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  16. Statism and Anarchy. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  17. Locked Up. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  18. Lucy Parsons: "More Dangerous Than a Thousand Rioters". Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  19. "Haymarket Widows". The Anarchist Library. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  20. The Famous Speeches of the Eight Chicago Anarchists in Court. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  21. 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 "Yalensky's Fable: A History of the Anarchist Black Cross". The Anarchist Library. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  22. Starting an Anarchist Black Cross Group: A Guide (PDF). p. 3. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2022-06-13. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  23. 1 2 3 4 Nestor Makhno: Anarchy's Cossack. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  24. "Black Panther Radical Factionalization and the Development of Black Anarchism". The Anarchist Library. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  25. A Brief History of Prisons and Resistance to them in so-called Canada (PDF). Its Going Down. 2018. pp. 13–16. Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  26. Jun 25, Jon Milton; Share, 2019 11 min read. "This is a prison, no matter what you call it". briarpatchmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  27. "Anti-construction Crew Releases Thousands of Crickets into Immigration Prison Architecture Headquarters » Montréal Counter-information". mtlcounterinfo.org. 2018-05-19. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  28. Collective, CrimethInc Ex-Workers (7 June 2017). "CrimethInc. : June 11: The History of a Day of Anarchist Prisoner Solidarity : Including a Chronology of Events 2004-2017". CrimethInc. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  29. "Thanks for your Solidarity for WOSWAP 2022 – Till all are free". solidarity.international. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  30. 1 2 "Who is Alfredo Cospito, and What is 41bis?". It's Going Down. 2023-02-04. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  31. "Foreword by David Graeber". Revolution in Rojava. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  32. 1 2 "The New Justice System Consensus Is Key". Revolution in Rojava. Archived from the original on 2023-03-07. Retrieved 2023-03-07.
  33. 1 2 Davis & Rodríguez 2000, p. 215.
  34. 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.
  35. 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.
  36. Gelderloos, Peter (2010). Anarchy Works.
  37. Davis, Angela (1998-09-10). "Masked Racism: Reflections on the Prison Industrial Complex". Colorlines. Archived from the original on 2019-10-22. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  38. "About". Critical Resistance. Archived from the original on 2012-07-05. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  39. Kushner, Rachel (2019-04-17). "Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind". The New York Times. ISSN   0362-4331. Archived from the original on 2023-09-24. Retrieved 2020-04-24.
  40. "About PARC | Prison Activist Resource Center". www.prisonactivist.org. Archived from the original on 2019-08-19. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  41. "Purpose and Analysis | black and pink". www.blackandpink.org. Archived from the original on 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  42. "HOME". HumanRightsCoalition. Archived from the original on 2024-02-04. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
  43. "Organizational Spotlight: the Human Rights Coalition | Decarcerate PA". decarceratepa.info. Archived from the original on 2018-08-08. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  44. "ABOUT". HumanRightsCoalition. Archived from the original on 2024-02-02. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
  45. "California Coalition for Women Prisoners". womenprisoners.org. Archived from the original on 2019-05-19. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  46. "The Real Cost of Prisons Project". www.realcostofprisons.org. Archived from the original on 2019-05-13. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  47. "About Us". Project NIA. Archived from the original on 2023-12-26. Retrieved 2024-02-04.
  48. Levinson, David (2002-01-01). Encyclopedia of crime and punishment. Volume 1, Volume 1 . Thousand Oaks, Ca.: Sage Publications. ISBN   978-0761922582. OCLC   51883999.
  49. "actionICOPA :: The International Conference on Penal Abolition". www.actionicopa.org. Archived from the original on 2019-04-21. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  50. 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.
  51. 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 Archived 2017-01-21 at the Wayback Machine , 1973. p. 358
  52. "NLG Adopts Resolution Supporting Prison Abolition". National Lawyers Guild. 2015-12-17. Archived from the original on 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  53. "National Lawyers Guild Adopts Resolution Supporting Prison Abolition". The Commons | Common Dreams. 2015-12-17. Archived from the original on 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  54. "SMAAC". SMAAC. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  55. "Toronto Prisoners' Rights Project". Toronto Prisoners' Rights Project. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  56. 1 2 3 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.
  57. John Howard Society. "Broken Record: The Continued Criminalization of Mental Health Issues" (PDF). Archived (PDF) from the original on 2023-03-10. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  58. 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.
  59. "Developments in the Law: The Law of Mental Illness" (PDF). Harvard Law Review. 121 (4): 1114–1191. February 2008. PMID   18354871. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2015-01-01. Retrieved 2021-05-06.
  60. 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. Archived from the original on 2022-03-11. Retrieved 2021-06-04.
  61. Ben-Moshe, Liat (2020). Decarcerating disability: deinstitutionalization and prison abolition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 278.
  62. Ben-Moshe, Liat (2020). Decarcerating Disability: Deinstitutionalization and Prison Abolition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. pp. 123–125.
  63. 1 2 Ben-Moshe, Liat (2020). Decarcerating disability: deinstitutionalization and prison abolition. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press. p. 8.
  64. Halley, Catherine (2019-07-17). "What Should We Do about Our Aging Prison Population?". JSTOR Daily. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  65. 1 2 3 4 Government of Canada, Office of the Correctional Investigator (2020-04-16). "Aging and Dying in Prison: An Investigation into the Experiences of Older Individuals in Federal Custody - February 28, 2019 - Office of the Correctional Investigator". www.oci-bec.gc.ca. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-21.
  66. Neumann, Ann (16 Feb 2016). "What Dying Looks Like in America's Prisons". The Atlantic. Retrieved 3 Apr 2024.
  67. "About NPHA". National Prison Hospice Association. 29 Nov 2011. Retrieved 3 Apr 2024.
  68. Sep 2, Christophe Lewis; Share, 2021 8 min read. "Death by a thousand cuts: Aging in Canadian prisons". briarpatchmagazine.com. Archived from the original on 2023-02-21. Retrieved 2023-02-21.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  69. Morris, Mark (1976). Instead of Prisons: A Handbook for Abolitionists. Prison Research Education Action Project. Archived from the original on 2021-04-16. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  70. 1 2 Washington, John (2018-07-31). "What Is Prison Abolition?". The Nation. ISSN   0027-8378. Archived from the original on 2021-04-16. Retrieved 2021-04-16.
  71. "The Breakthrough of Students Against Mass Incarceration". UCSD Guardian. 2 December 2013. Archived from the original on 2019-04-14. Retrieved 2016-11-28.
  72. James, Erwin (2014-11-26). "Prison is not for punishment in Sweden. We get people into better shape". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 2019-10-21. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  73. Larson, Doran (2013-09-24). "Why Scandinavian Prisons Are Superior". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on 2013-09-25. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  74. Sterbenz, Christina. "Why Norway's prison system is so successful". Business Insider. Archived from the original on 13 March 2020. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  75. James, Erwin (December 2013). "Why is Sweden closing its prisons?". The Guardian. Archived from the original on 1 October 2019. Retrieved 15 November 2016.
  76. "Purpose and Analysis – black and pink". Archived from the original on 2016-11-28. Retrieved 2015-04-05.
  77. Shelby, Tommie (2022). The Idea of Prison Abilition. Princeton: Princeton University Press. p. 166. ISBN   9780691229775.
  78. Richie, Beth E. (2012). Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America's Prison Nation. New York, NY: New York University Press. p. 17.
  79. Rojas Durazo, Ana Clarissa (2010). "In Our Hands: Community Accountability as Pedagogical Strategy". Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict & World Order. 37 (4): 76–100. ISSN   1043-1578. EBSCOhost   75348155.
  80. 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. Archived from the original on 2019-09-18. Retrieved 2019-10-18.
  81. Ferrell, Jeff (2010). "Anarchist Criminology". Encyclopedia of Criminological Theory. doi:10.4135/9781412959193.n11. ISBN   978-1-4129-5918-6.
  82. Mark Morris, ed. (2005). Instead of prisons: a handbook for abolitionists (Republished with a new foreword ed.). Oakland, CA: Critical Resistance. ISBN   978-0-9767070-1-1.