Prison Abolition

[anarch]

Is this something that will ever be given serious consideration, or will it always be thought of as a stupid and crazy idea?

I mean abolition of the entire prison system, and the adoption of some less oppressive way of dealing with society's problems.

Every time I bring this up with anyone IRL, they look at me like I am completely insane.

:hippie:

[JVS]

1. You'd have to phase in your alternative over a period of time.

otherwise you'd invite chaos. So what's your plan, exile people to Alaska?

[anarch]

3. I'm open to suggestions...

Yeah, it's always at the "so what's your plan?" stage that I sort of give up...you're right that it would have to be done by phases. I guess in general, I'd plan on decriminalizing a whole lot of things that people get locked up for now *cough*drugs*coughcough*, and then by imposing fines or other restitution on people who commit crimes against others, instead of just locking them up. Starting like that, you'd eliminate all but the truly violent offenders from the prisons...them, I dunno. Not Alaska, though.

[JVS]

5. Criminal offenses should be exiled to Alaska, drug offenses to Florida

That way we can keep the groovy party away from violence.
:-)

[datasuspect]

4. the system makes borderline people more dangerous

and completely "institutionalizes" the far gone.

i've had interaction with many felons (drug crimes/murder/felony assault types). they are a scary bunch, but lots of them were more decent than people i worked with in offices.

in a strange way, the convict has a more innate sense of what is "fair" than the average "citizen" does.

[Radical Activist]

2. Most people will never take it seriously.

No matter how much you deal with societal problems, there will always be dangerous people. The people I've heard advocate for this are socialists/marxists who want to believe that all of societies problems can be solved by making the economic system more fair or making other systemic changes, but they fail to address that often criminal behavior has nothing to do with societal inequalities.

[anarch]

6. well, I think they refuse to believe that it isn't somehow related

to a class struggle, or some kind of inequality that is endemic in our so-called capitalist system.

I tend to agree with you, though. I think there will always be people consumed by greed, or just inherently violent or severely sociopathic or whatever, and that doesn't really have anything to do with social inequality...look at George Bush: a privileged child if there ever was one, and still he turned out to be a thief and a murderer.

I mean, I don't want to just let violent criminals run loose in our society...it's just that something about imprisonment offends me on a very basic level.

I didn't say I had a solution....

[Radical Activist]

7. I think its much easier

to make arguments against the prison system if its not part of an argument to abolish the system. There's too much social programming and fear that goes on to convince people we need prisons. We may never get rid of them, but there might be a decent chance that we can make the system much, much smaller than it is now.

[anarch]

8. that's undoubtedly the way to start n/t

[Burma Jones]

9. The Last Time we had no Prisons

You would be hanged for stealing. Or set ablaze for being a smart-ass.

[anarch]

10. well, there is that...

I'd like to believe we can do a little better in the future.


I know, I'm too idealistic. But what the hell? Let's have an end to war and all forms of domestic oppression while we're at it.

[Burma Jones]

12. Well, I'm with you for non-violent offenders

Restitution, perhaps some sort of service to the Crime Victim(s). But, violent offenders, sexual predators, pedophiles and the like should be either locked up or euthanized.

[Deep13]

11. Not insane, just not realistic right now.

I don't know if it ever will be, but it won't be for a long time. After all, we can't even decide it it is acceptable to kill murders.