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==Prisons== | ==Prisons== | ||
What is generally referred to as the prison abolition movement is a movement that seeks to reduce or eliminate prisons and the prison system, and replace them with more humane and effective systems. This definition includes immediatists and gradualists. It tends to veil the fact that there are not many abolitionists in the strict sense of the term, i.e. who demand the immediate and complete elimination of imprisonment as a criminal sanction. | |||
Historically, Quakers were among the first advocates for alternatives to prison. Outside of religious groups, the small [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anarchist_Black_Cross Anarchist Black Cross] seeks the total abolishment of the prison system. 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 and ethnic minorities, and do not generally rehabilitate criminals, in many cases making them worse.[citation needed] As a result, the prison abolition movement often is associated with humanistic socialism, anarchism and anti-authoritarianism. | |||
The reasons for this weakness are not difficult to detect: | |||
#Prisons themselves originated as a rather benevolent alternative to the cruel corporal (and capital) punishments of earlier times, making it difficult to perceive them as inherently bad | #Prisons themselves originated as a rather benevolent alternative to the cruel corporal (and capital) punishments of earlier times, making it difficult to perceive them as inherently bad | ||
#Prison inmates do not elicit the public sympathy reserved for innocent victims; they belong to a different moral category from victims of slavery | #Prison inmates do not elicit the public sympathy reserved for innocent victims; they belong to a different moral category from victims of slavery | ||
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What is generally referred to as "the prison abolition movement" consists of initiatives that - in their overwhelming majority - are highly critical of the effects of incarceration, but that limit their demands to stopping the expansion of the prison system (e.g. by means of a moratorium on prison construction) or to the step-by-step reduction of the prison system and to replace prisons with more humane and effective systems (reductionism). While reductionism can be seen as a kind of gradualism with the long-term perspective of abolition, the more conventional sectors of the prison reform movement are not aiming at overcoming the prison system as such, but rather at the improvement of prison conditions. | What is generally referred to as "the prison abolition movement" consists of initiatives that - in their overwhelming majority - are highly critical of the effects of incarceration, but that limit their demands to stopping the expansion of the prison system (e.g. by means of a moratorium on prison construction) or to the step-by-step reduction of the prison system and to replace prisons with more humane and effective systems (reductionism). While reductionism can be seen as a kind of gradualism with the long-term perspective of abolition, the more conventional sectors of the prison reform movement are not aiming at overcoming the prison system as such, but rather at the improvement of prison conditions. | ||
Not to be confused with prison reform, which is the attempt to improve conditions inside prisons; though, relying on prisons less can significantly improve their conditions by eliminating overcrowding.[1]:3 | |||
1 Advocates for prison abolition | 1 Advocates for prison abolition | ||
2 Prison reforms and alternatives | 2 Prison reforms and alternatives | ||
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6 References | 6 References | ||
7 External links | 7 External links | ||
Proposals for prison reform and proposed alternatives to prisons differ significantly depending on the political beliefs behind them. Proposals and tactics often include: | Proposals for prison reform and proposed alternatives to prisons differ significantly depending on the political beliefs behind them. Proposals and tactics often include: | ||