What is abolition?
For a world of care instead of cages
Abolitionists want to live in a world without prisons, immigration detention centres and secure juvenile facilities. We want to end the whole prison industrial complex. The prison industrial complex is the system that uses policing, courts, and imprisonment to "solve" problems. Abolitionists don't agree that we need this system to keep us safe. In fact, we know the prison industrial complex to be the opposite of safe: it is violent, destructive and makes the world worse. So, instead of this system, abolitionists work to build safe and healthy communities that do not depend on prisons and punishment.
We must build other means for preventing and addressing harm that will actually keep us safe.
- Lamble, Practising Everyday Abolition
Why not improve the system instead of abolishing it?
The name "abolitionist" is purposefully taken from those who called for the abolition of slavery in the 1800s. Abolitionists rightly believed that slavery could not be fixed or reformed. It needed to be abolished. As prison industrial complex abolitionists today, we also do not believe that reforms can make that system just or effective. Our goal is not to improve the system; it is to shrink the system into non-existence.
The history of reform attempts further demonstrate their futility, as they've failed time and again to make meaningful change. Reforms don't work on a system that's irredeemable. The only solution is abolition.
Prisons cannot be reformed, any more than slavery can be reformed. They have to be abolished.
- Howard Zinn, 'Solutions' in Justice in Everyday Life
What about public safety?
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 the abusive and violent prison environment, 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.
Parts of the world with more prisons and prisoners do not have lower crime rates than others. The prison industrial complex claims to be about safety and order. In reality, the prison industrial complex makes the lives of most people - especially the poor and people of colour - less safe and more disordered. For example, poor people and people of colour are often targeted by the police based on the way they look. And even in instances where people call the police to solve problems, the police are often more disruptive than the original problem. We cannot build strong communities when people are constantly being taken out of them.
What are the alternatives?
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 UK 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.
We say stop building the infrastructure of punishment, and let's get people's basic needs met. That will increase safety.
- Dean Spade, 'Abolition infrastructures'
What can I do today?
Today, there are small steps that will move us toward abolition, such as:
- Instead of supporting construction of a new prison to make the horrible conditions that most prisoners live in a little better, we can push for alternatives that reduce the number of people locked in cages.
- Instead of calling the police every time there is a conflict in our neighbourhoods, we can establish community forums and mediation practices to deal with harm and conflict.
- We can build safer and healthy communities by working to eliminate barriers to housing and jobs faced by people coming home from prison to help them stay out of the system.
- We can lobby for decriminalisation, the removal of laws that target, for example, drug users or sex workers, so that fewer people are put in unnecessary contact with a deeply prejudiced judicial system.
- We can advocate for improved access to mental health care services.
- We can fight against inequalities based on class, race, ability, gender, and sexuality.
Abolition is a realistic vision
The prison industrial complex 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 prison industrial complex. 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. We believe we do not need to accept prisons and police as a fact of life. We believe a world without prisons and police is possible.
Brick by brick, prisons will be dismantled.
Brick by brick, we will build a better world.