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Title: What is Abolition? Author: Critical Resistance Date: June 2012 Language: en Topics: abolition, abolitionism, prison abolition, prisons Source: http://criticalresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/06/What-is-Abolition.pdf
Critical Resistance’s mission is to end the prison industrial complex
(PIC). The PIC is a system that uses policing, courts, and imprisonment
to “solve” problems. We don’t agree that we need the PIC to keep us
safe. Instead, we work to build safe and healthy communities that do not
depend on prisons and punishment.
We take the name “abolitionist” purposefully from those who called for
the abolition of slavery in the 1800’s. Abolitionists believed that
slavery could not be fixed or reformed. It needed to be abolished. As
PIC abolitionists today, we also do not believe that reforms can make
the PIC just or effective. Our goal is not to improve the system; it is
to shrink the system into non-existence.
We all want safe communities. The question is how do we build safe
communities? Is it by locking up and policing more and more people? Or
is it by dealing with the causes of the harm that is called “crime” in
our communities?
Even the worst kinds of harm do not happen without a reason. Putting
people in cages does not solve any of the problems that lead to harm,
like harmful drug use, poverty, violence, or mental illness. By
separating people from their home communities, and isolating them in
abusive and violent environments, these problems can even get worse. We
take seriously the harms that happen between people. We believe that in
order to reduce harm we must change the social and economic conditions
in which those harms take place.
For example, providing drug users with health care and harm reduction
strategies instead of locking them in cages helps reduce the harm that
drug use might cause. When public funding is directed into policing and
prisons, budget cuts for social programs, including women’s shelters,
welfare and public housing are the side effect. These cutbacks leave
women less able to escape violent relationships. Focusing more energy on
creating safe and stable conditions instead of policing and imprisonment
reduces harm.
Studies have shown that states with more prisons and prisoners do not
have lower crime rates than other states. The PIC claims to be about
safety and order. In reality, the PIC makes the lives of most people –
especially the poor and people of color – less safe and more disordered.
For example, poor people and people of color are often targeted by the
cops based on the way they look. And even in instances where people call
the cops to solve problems, the cops are often more disruptive than the
original problem. We cannot build strong communities when people are
constantly being taken out of them.
We do not have all the answers. But, we do know that people in other
parts of the world rely on prisons and police far less than the U.S.
does, and suffer from far less harm. We also know that communities where
people have housing, food, education and jobs have the lowest crime
rates. The best way to reduce harm is by building safe, healthy
communities where people have their basic needs met.
Today, there are small steps that will move us toward abolition, such
as:
horrible conditions that most prisoners live in a little better, we can
push for alternatives that reduce the number of people locked in cages.
neighborhoods, we can establish community forums and mediation practices
to deal with harm and conflict.
barriers to housing and jobs faced by people coming home from prison to
help them stay out of the system.
The PIC did not always exist. The modern day prison is only about 200
years old. Even today there are places where people rely on each other
instead of police, courts, and cages.
It has taken over 200 years to build up the PIC. We can’t expect to take
apart such a complicated system in a short time. The first slavery
abolitionists began working decades before they won the abolition of
slavery. Our struggle is a long one. Believing we can abolish the PIC is
the first step.