Ban Prisons Affirmative and Negative - Northwestern 2015.docx

7/25/2019 Ban Prisons Affirmative and Negative - Northwestern 2015.docx

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Prisons - AFF


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1ACsObviously dont read both racism and gender pick one and

then read framing


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1AC !acism

Harsh sentencing laws render those who commit minor crimes

dangerous felons who are now barred from mainstream society andrelegated to second-class status.Michelle Ale"ander 1#, Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State Uniersity,!"#", $%he new &im 'row( Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness.),htt*(++www.ro*f*olisci.com+racial.ustice.aleander.*dfOnce a *erson is labeled a felon, he or she is ushered into a *arallel unierse inwhich discrimination, stigma, and eclusion are *erfectly legal, and *riileges ofciti/enshi* such as oting and ury serice are o0-limits. 1t does not matter whether you haeactually s*ent time in *rison2 your second-class citi$enship begins the moment youare branded a felon Most *eo*le branded felons, in fact, are not sentenced to *rison. As of !""3,there were a**roimately !.4 million *eo*le in *risons and ails, and a staggering5.# million *eo*le under6community correctional su*erision67i.e., on *robation or *arole.38Merely reducing *rison terms does not hae a maor im*act on the maority of*eo*le in the system %t is the badge of inferiority 7 the felony record7 thatrelegates people for their entire lives& to second-class status . As described incha*ter 9, for drug felons, there is little ho*e of esca*e. :arred from *ublic housing bylaw, discriminated against by *riate landlords, ineligible for food stam*s, forced to6chec the bo6 indicating a felony coniction on em*loyment a**lications fornearly eery ob, and denied licenses for a wide range of *rofessions, *eo*le whoseonly crime is drug addiction or *ossession of a small amount of drugs forrecreational use ;nd themseles locked out of the mainstream society andeconomy'permanently

(tatistics sho) that African Americans are disproportionatelysurveilled and abused by police o*cerss Public Serice Program, S*ring #88?, @%H1


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blatant *olice brutality that is a tragic *art of the African American e*erience.Bodney ing, unarmed and clearly no isible threat to the ;fteen or more *olicemen that surrounded him,receied ;fty-si blows and electric shocs from four Nhite *olice oIcers. n##:eamed into homes across the country was the image of Sergeant Stacey oon twice ;ring a 5","""-olt %aser 6stun gun6 at the *rostrate ing, while three other members of the LAP= 6tooturns icing him and smashing him in the head, nec, idneys and legs with their

truncheons.6 n#! As a result of this seere beating, ing receied ## sull fractures, a crushed cheebone, abroen anle, internal inuries, a burn on his chest, and brain damage. n#4 Unfortunately, this was not the ;rst, nor

the last incident of *olice brutality and, absent ideota*ed footage, it *robably would haebeen ignored . Statistics reeal that there are disproportionate ly high rates ofthe use of e"cessive and deadly force by *olice against *eo*le of color.n#9Besearch has shown that a ariety of factors contribute to the *roblem of *olice brutality, including racism and*reudice, unfettered *olice discretion, the infamous *olice 6code of silence,6 inadeuate disci*li- JK?! narymeasures by *olice de*artments and administrators, and the ine0ectieness of current remedies. n#5

.rug use serves as a prime e"ample of institutionali$ed andcondoned racism - /lack men are arrested on drug charges 10times as often as )hite men even though )hite men are more

likely to use and sell drugsMichelle Ale"ander 1#, Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State Uniersity,!"#", $%he new &im 'row( Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness.),htt*(++www.ro*f*olisci.com+racial.ustice.aleander.*df

%here is, of course, an oIcial e*lanation for all of this( crime rates. %his e*lanation has tremendous a**eal7before you now the facts7for it is consistent with, and reinforces, dominant racial narraties about crime and

criminality dating bac to slaery. %he truth, howeer, is that rates and *atterns of drug crime do note*lain the glaring racial dis*arities in our criminal ustice system. Peo*le of allraces use and sell illegal drugs at remarably similar rates.#" 1f there are signi;cantdi0erences in the sureysto be found, theyfreuently suggest that whites, *articularly whiteyouth, are more liely to engage in illegal drug dealing than *eo*le of color. ## Onestudy, for eam*le, *ublished in !""" by the


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students tend to sell to each other.# Bural whites, for their *art, don>t mae a s*ecial tri* to the >hood to *urchasemariuana. %hey buy it from somebody down the road.#? Nhite high school students ty*ically buy drugs from whiteclassmates, friends, or older relaties. en :arry Mc'a0rey, former director of the Nhite House OIce of


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a huge *ercentage of them are not free to moe u* at all. 1t is not ust that they laco**ortunity, attend *oor schools, or are *lagued by *oerty. %hey are barred by lawfrom doing so .And the maor institutions with which they come into contact are designed to *reent their mobility. %o *utthe matter starly(%he current system of control *ermanently locs a huge *ercentage ofthe African American community out of the mainstream society and economy. %hesystem o*erates through our criminal ustice institutions, but it functions more lie a

caste system than a system of crime control.Ciewed from this *ers*ectie, the so-calledunderclass is better understood as an undercaste 7 a lower caste of indiiduals whoare *ermanently barred by law and custom from mainstream society. Although thisnew system of raciali/ed social control *ur*orts to be colorblind, it creates andmaintains racial hierarchy much as earlier systems of control did. Lie &im 'ro wEandslaeryF, mass incarceration o*erates as a tightly networed system of laws, *olicies,customs, and institutions that o*erate collectiely to ensure the subordinate statusof a grou* de;ned largely by race.

'olorblindness has legitimi/ed mass incarceration by failing to see thecreation of a racial under caste only a massie shift in *olicy can

change dominant iews.Michelle Ale"ander 1#, Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State Uniersity,!"#", $%he new &im 'row( Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness.),htt*(++www.ro*f*olisci.com+racial.ustice.aleander.*dfSaying that colorblindness is the *roblem may alarm some in the ciil rightscommunity, es*ecially the *ollsters and *olitical consultants who hae become increasingly inQuential in ciilrights adocacy. Dor decades, ciil rights leaders hae been saying things lie 6we all want acolorblind society, we ust disagree how to get there6 in defense of race-conscious*rograms lie aIrmatie action or racial data collection.45 AIrmatie action has been framedas a legitimate ece*tion to the colorblindness *rinci*le7a *rinci*le now endorsed by the oerwhelming maority ofthe American electorate. 'iil rights leaders are uic to assure the *ublic that when we reach a colorblind nirana,

race consciousness will no longer be necessary or a**ro*riate. Dar from being a worthy goal,howeer, colorblindness has *roed catastro*hic for African Americans. 1t is not anoerstatement to say the systematic mass incarceration of *eo*le of color in theU nited S tates would not hae been *ossible in the *ost7ciil rights era if the nationhad not fallen under the s*ell of a callous colorblindness .%he seemingly innocent*hrase, 6 % dont care if hes black 2 *erfectly captures the perversion of3 artin 4 uther 5 ing &r. s dream that we may, one day, be able to see beyond raceto connect s*iritually across racial lines.Saying that one does not care about race is o0ered as anecul*atory irtue, when in fact it can be a form of cruelty. 1t is *recisely because we , as a nation,hae not cared much about African Americans that we hae allowed our criminal

ustice system to create a new racial undercaste .%he dee*ly Qawed nature ofcolorblindness, as a goerning *rinci*le, is eidenced by the fact that the *ublicconsensus su**orting mass incarceration is oIcially colorblind. 1t *ur*orts to see blac and

brown men not as blac and brown, but sim*ly as men7raceless men7who hae failed miserably to *lay by therules the rest of us follow uite naturally.%he fact that so many blac and brown men arerounded u* for drug crimes that go largely ignored when committed by whites isunseen.Our collectie colorblindness *reents us from seeing this basic fact. Our blindness also*reents us from seeing the racial and structural diisions that *ersist in society (the segregated, uneual schools, the segregated, obless ghettos, and thesegregated *ublic discourse7a *ublic conersation that ecludes the current *ariahcaste. Our commitment to colorblindness etends beyond indiiduals to institutions


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and social arrangements. 6e have become blind & not so much to race& but tothe e"istence of racial caste in America

Prisons dehumani$e inmates by sei$ing their privacy& strippingthem of their personhood& and reducing all inmates to a

disposable numberAllegra M. 3c4eod 17, Associate Professor at Teorgetown Uniersity Law 'enter,!"#5, $Prison Abolition and Trounded &ustice), U'LA Law Beiew, ! U'LA L. Be.##5 E!"#5F, htt*(++www.uclalawreiew.org+w*-content+u*loads+!"#5+"+McLeod.!"#5.*dfKedited for gendered languagePrisons are *laces of intense brutality, iolence, and dehumani/ation.?" 1n his seminalstudy of the


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become a widely tolerated and $ regular part of the rhythm of prison life ,)8#yet this basic structure of *rison disci*line in the United States entails profoundviolence and dehumani$ation 2 indeed, solitary con;nement *roduces e0ectssimilar to *hysical torture.Psychiatrist Stuart Trassian ;rst introduced to the*sychiatric and medical communityin the early #83"s that *risoners liing in isolation

su0ered a constellation of sym*toms including oerwhelming aniety, confusion,hallucinations, and sudden iolent and self-destructie outbursts .8! %his *attern ofdebilitating sym*toms, suIciently consistent among *ersons subect to solitary con;nement Eotherwise nown as

the S*ecial Housing Unit ESHUFF, gae rise to the designation of SHU Syndrome.84 Partly on this basis, theU nited < ations S*ecial Ba**orteur on %orture has found tha t certain U.S. *racties ofsolitary con;nement iolate the U.


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stimulate abolitionist ideas. 'riminologist Nillem de Haan *ublished a boo in #88"entitled %he Politics of Bedress( 'rime, Punishment, and Penal Abolition. One of themost interesting tets, from the *oint of iew of U.S. actiist history is Day Honeyno**>s olume 1nstead of Prison( A Handboo for Prison Abolitionists, which was*ublished in #8?, with funding from the American Driends. %his handboo *ointsout the contradictory relationshi* between im*risonment and an 6enlightened, free

society.6 Prison abolition, lie the abolition of slaery, is a long-range goal and thehandboo argues that an abolitionist a**roach reuires an analysis of 6crime6 thatlins it with social structures, as o**osed to indiidual *athology, as well as6anticrime6 strategies that focus on the *roision of social resources. Of course,there are many ersions of *rison abolitionism -- including those that *ro*ose toabolish *unishment altogether and re*lace it with reconciliatory res*onses tocriminal acts. 1n my o*inion, t he most *owerful releance of abolitionist theory and*ractice today resides in the fact that without a radical *osition is-a-is the ra*idlye*anding *rison system , *rison architecture, *rison sureillance, and *risonsystem cor*orati/ation, *rison culture, with all its racist and totalitarianim*lications, will continue not only to claim eer increasing numbers of *eo*le ofcolor, but also to sha*e social relations more generally in our society. Prison needsto be abolished as the dominant mode of addressing social *roblems that are bettersoled by other institutions and other means. %he call for *rison abolition urges usto imagine and strie for a ery di0erent social landsca*e.

Abolition is not an institutional change but instead challengesthe moral legitimacy behind the idea of con8nementAllegra M. 3c4eod 17, Associate Professor at Teorgetown Uniersity Law 'enter,!"#5, $Prison Abolition and Trounded &ustice), U'LA Law Beiew, ! U'LA L. Be.##5 E!"#5F, htt*(++www.uclalawreiew.org+w*-content+u*loads+!"#5+"+McLeod.!"#5.*df1n contrast to leading scholarly and *olicy e0orts to reform criminal law,abolitiondecidedly does not see

merely to re*lace incarceration with alternatiesthat are closely related to im*risonment, suchas *unitie *olicing, noncustodialcriminal su*erision, *robation, ciilinstitutionali/ation, and *arole.!5 Abolition instead entails a re;ection of themoral legitimacy of con8ning people in cages , whether that caging is deemed$ciil) or whether it follows a failure to com*lywith technical termsof su*erised releaseor a *olice order.! So too the*ositie*roect of abolitionaddressed in this Articleis decidedly not ane0ort to re*licat e theinstitutional transfer that occurred in the aftermath of thedeinstitutionali/ation of mental institutions.!? An abolitionist framewor reuires*ositieforms of social integration and collectie security that are not organi/edaround criminal law enforcement, con;nement, criminal sureillance, *unitie *olicing,or*unishment .

!acism must be re;ected in every instance )ithout surcease %t;usti8es atrocities& and is truly the capital sin3emmi


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gie itmerely a foothold means to augment the bestial part in us and in other*eo*le which is to diminish )hat is human %o acce*t the racist unierse to theslightest degree is to endorse fear& in;ustice& and violence 1t is to accept thepersistence of the dark history in which we still largely lie. 1t is to agree thatthe outsider )ill al)ays be a possible victim Eand which J*erson man is not Jthemself

himself an outsider relatie to someone elseGF. Bacism illustratesin sum, the inevitablenegativity of the condition of the dominated 2 that is it illuminates in a certainsense the entire human condition .%he anti-racist struggle, diIcult though it is, andalways in uestion, isneertheless one of the *rologues to the ultimate passage fromanimality to humanity 1n that sense, we cannot fail to rise to the racist challenge.Howeer, it remains true that oneRs moral conduct only emerges from a choice( one has to want it. 1t is a choiceamong other choices, and always debatable in its foundations and its conseuences. Let us say, broadly s*eaing,that the choice to conduct oneself morally is the condition for the establishment of a human order for which racism

is the ery negation. %his is almost a redundancy. One cannot found a moral order& let alone

a legislative order & on racism because racism signi8es the e"clusion of

the other and his or her sub;ection to violence and domination Drom anethical *oint of iew, if one can de*loy a little religious language, racism is $ thetruly capital sin )fn!! 1t is not an accidentthat almost all of humanityRs s*iritual traditions counselres*ect for the wea, for or*hans, widows, or strangers. 1t is not ust a uestion of theoreticalcounsel res*ectfor the wea, for or*hans, widows or strangers. 1t is not ust a uestion oftheoretical morality and disinterested commandments. Such unanimity in the safeguarding ofthe other suggests the real utility of such sentiments. All things considered, we hae an interest in banishinginustice, because inustice engenders iolence and death. Of course, this is debatable. %here are those who thinthat if one is strong enough, the assault on and o**ression of others is *ermissible. :ut no one is eer sure of

remaining the strongest. One day, *erha*s, the roles will be reersed. All unust societycontains within itself the seeds of its own death. 1t is *robably smarter to treatothers with res*ect so that they treat you with res*ect. $Becall,) says the bible, $that you wereonce a stranger in gy*t,) which means both that you ought to res*ect the stranger because you were a stranger

yourself and that you ris becoming once again someday.1t is an ethical and a *ractical a**eal indeed, it is a contract, howeer im*licit it might be. 1n short, the refusal of racism isthe condition for all theoretical and *ractical morality . :ecause, in the end, the ethicalchoice commands the political choice . A ust society must be a societyaccepted by all 1f this contractual *rinci*le is not acce*ted, then only con=ict&violence& and destruction will be our lot. 1f it is acce*ted, we can ho*e somedayto lie in *eace. %rue, it is a wager, but the staes are irresistible.

+he federal system of incarceration creates a perpetual cycleof discrimination'once felons& people are stripped of basic

rights'only total elimination of the system )ill solve&sentencing reform is not enoughMichelle Ale"ander 1#, associate *rofessor of law at Stanford Law School, ciilrights lawyer, adocate and legal scholar, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration inthe Age of Colorblindness, !"#", *. 84-

%he Prison LabelMost *eo*le imagine that the e*losion in the U.S. *rison *o*ulation during the *ast twenty-;eyears reQects changes in crime rates. Dew would guess that our *rison *o*ulation lea*ed from a**roimately45",""" to !.4 million in such a short *eriod of time due to changes in laws and *olicies, not changes in crime

rates. Xet it has been changes in our laws7*articularly the dramatic increases in the


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length of *rison sentences7that hae been res*onsible for the growth of our *risonsystem, not increases in crime. One study suggests that the entire increase inthe prison population from #83" to !""# can be e*lained by sentencingpolicy changes .33 :ecause harsh sentencing is a maor cause of the *risone*losion, one might reasonably assume that substantially reducing the length of

*rison sentences would e0ectiely dismantle this new system of control +hatvie)& ho)ever& is mistaken . %his system de*ends on the *rison label, not *risontime. Once a *erson is labeled a felon& he or she is ushered into a *arallelunierse in which discrimination, stigma, and eclusion are *erfectly legal, and*riileges of citi/enshi* such as oting and ury serice are o0-limits. 1t does not matterwhether you hae actually s*ent time in *rison2 your second-class citi/enshi* begins the moment you are brandeda felon. Most *eo*le branded felons, in fact, are not sentenced to *rison. As of !""3, there were a**roimately !.4million *eo*le in *risons and ails, and a staggering 5.# million *eo*le under $community correctional

su*erision)7i.e., on *robation or *arole.38 Merely reducing *rison terms does not hae a maorim*act on the maority of *eo*le in the system. 1t is the badge of inferiority7 thefelony record7that relegates *eo*le for their entire lies, to secondclass status. Asdescribed in cha*ter 9, for drug felons, there is little ho*e of esca*e. :arred from *ublic

housing by law, discriminated against by *riate landlords, ineligible for foodstam*s, forced to $chec the bo) indicating a felony coniction on em*loymenta**lications for nearly eery ob, and denied licenses for a wide range of *rofessions, *eo*lewhose only crime is drug addiction or *ossession of a small amount of drugs forrecreational use ; nd themseles loced out of the mainstream society andeconomy7*ermanently.


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unnecessary su0ering caused by this system, but it will not disturb the closedcircuit. %hose labeled felons will continue to cycle in and out of *rison, subect to*er*etual sureillance by the *olice, and unable to integrate into the mainstreamsociety and economy. Unless the number of *eo*le who are labeled felons isdramatically reduced, and unless the la)s and policies that keep e"-o>enders

marginali$ed from the mainstream society and economy are eliminated&the system )ill continue to create and maintain an enormous undercaste


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1AC ?ender

Contention @@ is ?ender

Prisons are running rampant )ith se"ual victimi$ation& femaleprisoners su>er brutal treatment euivalent to torture inma"imum security facilities=ae N. Frank& 1B& Attorneyat 'hristo*her '. Myers Z Associates, Ohio


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Male Tuards regularly abuse female *risoners--- forced se,harassment, gro*ing, and hostility form a highly seuali/ed and*atriarchal enironmentAngela X. .avis #0, Professor of Deminist Studies at Uniersity of 'A Santa 'ru/,!""4, $Are Prisons ObsoleteG), htt*(++www.feministes-radicales.org+w*-

content+u*loads+!"#"+##+Angela-=ais-ArePrisonsObsolete.*dfAs the leel of re*ression in women>s *risons increases, and, *aradoically, as the inQuence ofdomestic *rison regimes recedes, seual abuse7which, lie domestic iolence, is yet anotherdimension of the *riati/ed *unishment of women7has become an institutionali/edcom*onent of *unishment behind *rison walls. Although guard- on-*risoner seualabuse is not sanctioned as such, the wide- s*read leniency with which o0endingoIcers are treated suggests that for women, *rison is a s*ace in which the threat ofseuali/ed iolence that looms in the larger society is e0ectiely sanctioned as aroutine as*ect of the land - sca*e of *unishment behind *rison walls. According to a#88 Human Bights Natch re*ort on the seual abuse of women in U.S. *risons( Our ;ndings indicate thatbeing a woman *risoner in U.S. state *risons can be a terrifying e*erience. 1f youare seually abused & you cannot escape from your abuser . Trieance or

inestigatory *rocedures, where they eist, are often ine0ectual, and correctionalem*loyees continue to engage in abuse because they beliee they will rarely beheld accountable, administratiely or criminally. Dew *eo*le outside the *rison walls nowwhat is going on or care if they do now. Dewer still do anything to address the*roblem. %he following ecer*t from the summary of this re*ort, entitled All %oo Damiliar( Seual Abuse ofNomen in U.S. State Prisons, reeals the etent to which women>s *rison enironments are iolently seuali/ed,

thus reca*itulating the familiar iolence that characteri/es many women>s *riate lies( Ne found that male

correctional employees have vaginally& anally& and orally raped femaleprisoners and seually assaulted and abused them. Ne found that in the course ofcommitting such gross mis- conduct, male oIcers hae not only used actual orthreatened *hysical force, but hae also used their near total authority to *roide or

deny goods and *riileges to female *risoners to com*el them to hae se or, in othercases, to reward them for haing done so. 1n other cases, male oIcers hae iolated their mostbasic *rofessional duty and engaged in seual contact with female *risoners absentthe use of threat of force or any material echange.1n addition to engaging in seual relationswith *risoners, male oIcers hae use d mandatory *at-friss or room searches togrope )omens breasts& buttocks& and vaginal areas and to iew themina**ro*riately while in a state of undress in the housing or bathroom areas. Malecorrectional oIcers and sta0 hae also engaged in regular verbal degradationand harassment of female prisoners & thus contributing to a custodialenironment in the state *risons for women that is often highly seuali/ed andecessiely hostile .6

Prisons dehumani$e inmates by sei$ing their privacy& strippingthem of their personhood& and reducing all inmates to adisposable numberAllegra M. 3c4eod 17, Associate Professor at Teorgetown Uniersity Law 'enter,!"#5, $Prison Abolition and Trounded &ustice), U'LA Law Beiew, ! U'LA L. Be.##5 E!"#5F, htt*(++www.uclalawreiew.org+w*-content+u*loads+!"#5+"+McLeod.!"#5.*df
http://www.uclalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/McLeod_6.2015.pdfhttp://www.uclalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/McLeod_6.2015.pdfhttp://www.uclalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/McLeod_6.2015.pdfhttp://www.uclalawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/06/McLeod_6.2015.pdf


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Kedited for gendered languagePrisons are *laces of intense brutality, iolence, and dehumani/ation.?" 1n his seminalstudy of the


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1nhuman and =egrading Punishment.89 s im*risonment, the stri* search .As actiists and *risoners themseles hae *ointed out,the state itself is directly im*licated in this routini$ation of se"ual abuse bothin permitting such conditions that render women ulnerable to e"plicit se"ualcoercion carried out by guards and other *rison sta0 and by incorporating into

routine *olicy such practices as the stri* search and body caity search.Australianlawyer+actiist Amanda Teorge has *ointed out that at as *risons. Seeral womensei/ ed control of the stageand, some *laying guards, others *laying the roles of *risoners,dramati/ed a stri* search .According to Teorge, the gathering was so re*ulsed by thisenactment of a *ractice that occurs routinely in women>s *risons eerywhere thatmany of the participants felt compelled to disassociate themselves fromsuch *ractices, insisting that this was not what they did. (ome of the guards , Teorge said,simply cried u*on watching re*resentations of their own actions outside the*rison contet.Nhat they must hae reali/ed is that 6 )ithout the uniform& )ithout the

po)er of the state& Ethe strip search )ould be se"ual assault .688 :ut why is anunderstanding of the *erasieness of seual abuse in women>s *risons an im*ortant element of a radical analysisof the *rison system, and es*ecially of those forward-looing analyses that lead us in the direction of abolitionG

:ecause the call to abolish the *rison as the dominant form of *unishment cannotignore the etent to which the institution of the *rison has stoc*iled ideas and*ractices that are ho*efully a**roaching obsolescence in the larger society, but thatretain all their ghastly itality behind *rison walls. %he destructie combination ofracism and misogyny, howeer much it has been challenged by social moements, scholarshi*, and artoer the last three decades, retains all its awful conseuences within women>s *risons. %he


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relatiely uncontested *resence of seual abuse in women>s *risons is one of manysuch eam*les.%he increasing eidence of a U.S. *rison industrial com*le with global resonances leads us tothin about the etent to which the many cor*orations that hae acuired an inestment in the e*ansion of the*rison system are, lie the state, directly im*licated in an institution that *er*etuates iolence against women.

%he *rison system turns female *risoners into $fallen women) whoseonly *ur*ose is domestic serice and subugation to men.Angela X. .avis #0, Professor of Deminist Studies at Uniersity of 'A Santa 'ru/,!""4, $Are Prisons ObsoleteG), htt*(++www.feministes-radicales.org+w*-content+u*loads+!"#"+##+Angela-=ais-ArePrisonsObsolete.*dfAccording to dominant iews, )omen convicts )ere irrevocably fallen )omen ,with no *ossibility of salation. 1f male criminals were considered to be *ublic indiiduals who hadsim*ly iolated the social contract, female criminals were seen as haing transgressedfundamental moral principles of )omanhood %he reformers, who, followingli/abeth Dry, argued that women were ca*able of redem*tion , did not really contestthese ideological assum*tions about women>s *lace. 1n other words, they did not

uestion the ery notion of 6fallen women.6 Bather, they sim*ly o**osed the ideathat 6fallen women6 could not be saed. %hey could be saed, the reformers contended, and towardthat end they adocated se*arate *enal facilities and a s*eci;cally female a**roach to*unishment. %heir a**roach called for architectural models that re*laced cells withcottages and 6rooms6 in a way that was su**osed to infuse domesticity in to *rison life. %hismodel facilitated a regime deised to reintegrate criminali/ed women into thedomestic life of wife and mother +hey did not & howeer, ackno)ledge theclass and race underpinnings of this regime %raining that was, on the surface,designed to *roduce good wies and mothers in e0ect steered *oor women Eandes*ecially blac womenFinto 6free world6 obs in domestic serice .1nstead of stay-at-home silledwies and mothers, many women *risoners, u*on release, would become maids, coos,and washerwomen for more a\uent women.A female custodial sta0, the reformers also argued,would minimi/e the seual tem*tations, which they belieed were often at the root of female criminality.

Prisons inherently perpetuate rape culture and foster se"ualassault and rape )ithin their institutions& a*rming thepatriarchal norms that dominate society reforms cant solve

&osh 5itto& 17& freelance *olitical ournalist who has written for the Tuardian,Cice, and %ruthout. He is *articularly interested in LT:%] and feminist issues,*rotest moements, *risons, immigration, and counterterrorism *olicy, !+!9+#5,$Ba*e culture( would *rison abolition hel* womenG),htt*s(++www.o*endemocracy.net+transformation+osh-itto+ra*e-culture-would-*rison-abolition-hel*-women

Prisons $ both reuire and foster iolence), criminology *rofessor Sarah Lamble argues.%heentire system of incarceration, from *risons and the *olice to immigration detentioncentres, are sim*ly another one of ra*e culture>s functions. 1 n turn, ra*e and assault*roides a *ererse stability to the *rison system. %his further *reents therealisation of transformatie ustice for sur iors.Often u*ending the *atriarchaliolence ingrained within the *rison system is considered more disru*tie than theiolence itself .As Michael =en/el Smith states( $%he fact that we do little to enforce thoselaws is the tacit recognition that in order for the current system to remain intact, adegree of iolence against women is necessary).Nhat>s more, relocating ra*ists


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incubates ra*e culture.Statistics on U *rison ra*e are more ague than in the US, with &ustice Secretary'hrist Trayling blocing a Howard League inestigationinto the issue - the Ministry of &ustice says uestions aboutassault are @intrusieR. Besearch suggests guards routinely seually coerce women *risonersEa third of who aresuriors of seual abuseF. %here are also reelations of endemic seual assault and harassment of women

detaineesat Xarl>s Nood immigration detention centre, for eam*le.1n the US, the res*onse to *risonra*e is to moe the ictim to @*rotectie custody>, or solitary con;nement. :ut thisis also a tool em*loyed to silence women who re*ort seual assault by guards .Durther, Solitary Natch estimate half of trans women in transformatie ustice>, which focuses on deelo*ing >community accountability>structuresto disru*t cycles of abuse and assault. %his framewor has been deelo*ed by womenof colour-led US grou*s lie 1


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masculinehuman characteristics, lierationality, indiidualism, com*etition, egoism, greedand *ro;t-maimi/ation. At the same time the femininehuman characteristics of emotion,community, coo*eration and conseration hae been oerlooed. %his has lead tounethical human behaiour and dominant relationshi* among many *eo*le, s*eci;callybetween men and women, adults and children, white and coloured *eo*le, modern and traditional *eo*le, rich and

*oor *eo*le. %he *riority on masculine traits has also resulted in an almost com*lete lac of

relationshi* between human beings and nature. =e;ciency of balance between yang and yin hasmoreoer meant that feminine e*eriences including indigenous nowledge cannotoIcially be included in the current masculine nowledge system. %he *roduct is a distortednowledge system. Since this nowledge system is the foundation of modern *olitical,economic and social organisation , it has resulted in absence of care and concern forcreation and maintenance of sustainable social and natural inter-relations. %he eclusion offeminine attributes has conseuently created disharmony, which has culminated in the crises of warand iolence, *oerty and ineuality, enironmental destruction and humanre*ression. %he main su0erers from these crises are women, Others and nature. 5#5 Since these crisescontinuously are intensifying, and etinction of the human race has become anissue of *ublic concern, it is increasingly im*ortant to change the masculine*erce*tion of reality. %his dissertation suggests that the solution must be a re*lacement of

theeclusie, masculine world-iew by an inclusie ontology, which has a dynamic tensionbetween masculine and feminine elements. 1n cha*ter 4 Smuts> holism, the general systems theory and the'hinese 1 'hing Eyin+yangF schemes were suggested as *ossible alternaties. %hey *resent a shift from areductionist to a holistic *erce*tion of reality, hence all three models would logically include the *erce*tion of

women, Others and nature. Such a transformation would reuire a re-de;nition of thecurrent basicscienti;c conce*ts lie its de;nition of a *erson2 its uantitatie nowledgegeneration2its *erce*tion of human communities, andessentially its militaristic manner ofenforcing *eace. %he aim of this cha*ter is, in a limited way, to try and suggest what should be included inthese new, holistic conce*ts.

ighly militaristic vie)s of the )orld endorsed by patriarchyserves as the root cause to all other impacts6arren chair of the *hiloso*hy de*artment at Macalester 'ollege and Cady -*rofessor of *hiloso*hy at Hamline Uniersity,,BJaren and =uane, $Deminism and Peace(Seeing 'onnections), Hy*atia, Colume 8, 1ssue !, *. #O*erationali/ed, the eidence of *atriarchy as a dysfunctional system is found in the behaiors to which it gies

rise, EcF, and the unmanageability, EdF, which results. Dor eam*le, in the United States, current estimatesare that one out of eery three or four women will be ra*ed by someone she nows2globally, rape& se"ual harassment& spouse-beating& and sado-masochisticpornography are eam*les of behaviors practiced& sanctioned& or tolerated)ithin patriarchy . 1n the realm of enironmentally destructie behaiors, stri*-mining, factoryfarming, and *ollution of the air, water, and soil are instances of behaiorsmaintained and sanctioned within *atriarchy.%hey , too, rest on the faulty beliefsthat it is okay to 2rape the earth&2 that it is 2mans ?od-given right2 to

have dominion Ethat is, dominationF over the earth , that nature has only instrumentalalue, that enironmental destruction is the acce*table *rice we *ay for 6*rogress.6And the *resum*tion of warism,that war is a natural, righteous, and ordinary way to im*ose dominion on a *eo*le or nation, goes hand in hand with

*atriarchy and leads to dysfunctional behaiors of nations and ultimately to international unmanageability. Muchof the current6 unmanageability6 of contem*orary life in *atriarchal societies , EdF, isthen iewed as a conseuence of a *atriarchal *reoccu*ation with actiities, eents,and e*eriences that reQect historically male-gender identi;ed beliefs , alues,attitudes, and assum*tions . 1ncluded among these real-life conseuences are*recisely those concerns with nuclear proliferation& )ar& environmental


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destruction& and violence to)ard )omen , which many feminists see as thelogical outgrowth of *atriarchal thining. 1n fact, it is often only through obsering thesedysfunctional behaiors-the sym*toms of dysfunctionality that one can truly see that and how *atriarchy seres tomaintain and *er*etuate them. Nhen *atriarchy is understood as a dysfunctional system, this 6unmanageability6can be seen for what it is-as a *redictable and thus logical conseuence of *atriarchy.># %he theme that globalenironmental crises, war, and iolence generally are *redictable and logical conseuences of seism and*atriarchal culture is *erasie in ecofeminist literature Esee Bussell #838, !F. cofeminist 'harlene S*retna, for

instance, argues that 6 militarism and )arfare are continual features of apatriarchal society because they re=ect and instill patriarchal value s andful;ll needs of such a system. Acnowledging the contet of *atriarchal conce*tuali/ations that feedmilitarism is a ;rst ste* toward reducing their im*act and *resering life on arth6 ES*retna #838, 59F. Stated interms of the foregoing model of *atriarchy as a dysfunctional social system, the claims by S*retna and other

feminists tae on a clearer meaning( Patriarchal conce*tual framewors legitimate im*airedthining Eabout women, national and regional conQict, the enironmentF which ismanifested in behaiors which , if continued, )ill make life on earth di*cult& ifnot impossible . 1t is a star message, but it is *lausible. 1ts *lausibility lies in understanding the conce*tualroots of arious woman-nature-*eace connections in regional, national, and global contets.

Only complete abolition can solve the impacts--- it spills overto the abolition of all prisons and prompts a massivediscussion on gender in society=ae N. Frank& 1B& Attorneyat 'hristo*her '. Myers Z Associates, Ohio


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system, and if an alternatie model is aailable, and further, if that alternatiemodel addresses the legitimate needs of society, then the U.S. should faor thealternatie as a re*lacement for incarceration.#? An alternatie a**roach based onthe U.. model of community care and su**ort is the solution needed.

Abolition is not an institutional change but instead challenges

the moral legitimacy behind the idea of con8nementAllegra M. 3c4eod 17, Associate Professor at Teorgetown Uniersity Law 'enter,!"#5, $Prison Abolition and Trounded &ustice), U'LA Law Beiew, ! U'LA L. Be.##5 E!"#5F, htt*(++www.uclalawreiew.org+w*-content+u*loads+!"#5+"+McLeod.!"#5.*df1n contrast to leading scholarly and *olicy e0orts to reform criminal law,abolitiondecidedly does not seemerely to re*lace incarceration with alternatiesthat are closely related to im*risonment, suchas *unitie *olicing, noncustodialcriminal su*erision, *robation, ciilinstitutionali/ation, and *arole.!5 AbolitionG instead entails a re;ection of themoral legitimacy of con8ning people in cages ,whether that caging isdeemed $ciil) or whether it follows a failure to com*lywith technical termsofsu*erised release or a *olice order.! So too the*ositie*roect of abolitionaddressed in this Articleisdecidedly not an e0ort to re*licat etheinstitutional transfer that occurred in theaftermath of the deinstitutionali/ationof mental institutions.!? An abolitionistframewor reuires *ositieforms of social integration and collectie security thatare not organi/ed aroundcriminal law enforcement, con;nement, criminal sureillance, *unitie*olicing,or *unishment .

+he federal system of incarceration creates a perpetual cycleof discrimination'once felons& people are stripped of basicrights'only total elimination of the system )ill solve&

sentencing reform is not enoughMichelle Ale"ander 1#, associate *rofessor of law at Stanford Law School, ciilrights lawyer, adocate and legal scholar, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration inthe Age of Colorblindness, !"#", *. 84-

%he Prison LabelMost *eo*le imagine that the e*losion in the U.S. *rison *o*ulation during the *ast twenty-;eyears reQects changes in crime rates. Dew would guess that our *rison *o*ulation lea*ed from a**roimately45",""" to !.4 million in such a short *eriod of time due to changes in laws and *olicies, not changes in crime

rates. Xet it has been changes in our laws7*articularly the dramatic increases in thelength of *rison sentences7that hae been res*onsible for the growth of our *risonsystem, not increases in crime. One study suggests that the entire increase inthe prison population from #83" to !""# can be e*lained by sentencingpolicy changes .33 :ecause harsh sentencing is a maor cause of the *rison

e*losion, one might reasonably assume that substantially reducing the length of*rison sentences would e0ectiely dismantle this new system of control +hatvie)& ho)ever& is mistaken . %his system de*ends on the *rison label, not *risontime. Once a *erson is labeled a felon& he or she is ushered into a *arallelunierse in which discrimination, stigma, and eclusion are *erfectly legal, and*riileges of citi/enshi* such as oting and ury serice are o0-limits. 1t does not matterwhether you hae actually s*ent time in *rison2 your second-class citi/enshi* begins the moment you are brandeda felon. Most *eo*le branded felons, in fact, are not sentenced to *rison. As of !""3, there were a**roimately !.4million *eo*le in *risons and ails, and a staggering 5.# million *eo*le under $community correctional


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su*erision)7i.e., on *robation or *arole.38 Merely reducing *rison terms does not hae a maorim*act on the maority of *eo*le in the system. 1t is the badge of inferiority7 thefelony record7that relegates *eo*le for their entire lies, to secondclass status. Asdescribed in cha*ter 9, for drug felons, there is little ho*e of esca*e. :arred from *ublichousing by law, discriminated against by *riate landlords, ineligible for foodstam*s, forced to $chec the bo) indicating a felony coniction on em*loyment

a**lications for nearly eery ob, and denied licenses for a wide range of *rofessions, *eo*lewhose only crime is drug addiction or *ossession of a small amount of drugs forrecreational use ; nd themseles loced out of the mainstream society andeconomy7*ermanently.


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Plan +e"ts

+hus the planH +he 9nited (tates Federal ?overnment shouldabolish federal prisons


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Framing

9tilitarianism disregards respect for the individual andperpetuates societal ineuality by evaluating utility as a )hole

Freeman ,B Aalon Professor in the Humanities at the Uniersity ofPennsylania, Ph.=. Harard Uniersity, &.=. Uniersity of


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utility cannot be a 6by-*roduct6 of a *rocedure that gies eual consideration toeeryone>s interests. 1nstead, it de;nes what that *rocedure is. 1f anything is a by-*roduct here, it is the a**eal to eual consideration. Utilitarians a**eal to im*artiality in order toetend a method of indiidual *ractical rationality so that it may be a**lied to society as a whole Ecf. %&, **. !-!?F.1m*artiality, combined with sym*athetic identi;cation, allows a hy*othetical obserer to e*erience the desires ofothers as if they were his own, and com*are alternatie courses of action according to their conducieness to a

single maimand, made *ossible by eual consideration and sym*athy.%he signi;cant fact is that, in this*rocedure, a**eals to eual consideration hae nothing to do with im*artiality between*ersons. Nhat is really being gien eual consideration are desires or e*eriencesof the same magnitude. %hat these are the desires or e*eriences of se*arate*erson sEor, for that matter, of some other sentient beingF is sim*ly an incidental fact that has nosubstantie e0ect on utilitarian calculations.%his becomes a**arent from the fact that we canmore accurately describe the utilitarian *rinci*le in terms of giing, not eual consideration to each *erson>sinterests, but instead eual consideration to eually intense interests, no matter where they occur.


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to be no imaginable eil which some grou* is not willing to inQict on another forsae of surial, no rights, liberties or dignities which it is not ready to su**ress. 1t iseasy, of course, to recogni/e the danger when surial is falsely and mani*ulatiely inoed. =ictators neer talabout their aggressions, but only about the need to defend the fatherland to sae it from destruction at the handsof its enemies. :ut my *oint goes dee*er than that. 1t is directed een at a legitimate concern for surial, whenthat concern is allowed to reach an intensity which would ignore, su**ress or destroy other fundamental human

rights and alues. %he *otential tyranny surial as alue is that it is ca*able, if not

treated sanely, of wi*ing out all other alues.Surial can become an obsession and a disease,*rooing a destructie single-mindedness that will sto* at nothing. Ne come here to the fundamental moraldilemma. 1f, both biologically and *sychologically, the need for surial is basic to man, and if surial is the*recondition for any and all human achieements, and if no other rights mae much sense without the *remise of aright to life7then how will it be *ossible to honor and act u*on the need for surial without, in the *rocess,destroying eerything in human beings which maes them worthy of surial. %o *ut it more strongly, if the *rice ofsurial is human degradation, then there is no moral reason why an e0ort should be made to ensure that surial.1t would be the Pyrrhic ictory to end all Pyrrhic ictories. Xet it would be the defeat of all defeats if, because humanbeings could not *ro*erly manage their need to surie, they succeeded in not doing so.

9tilitarianism destroys value to life by forcing the individual totake risks on a cost-bene8t basis in an e>ort to increaseoverall utility of an entity& )hile demorali$ing the individuals

o)n system of values(chroeder IJ Professor of Law at =ue E'hristo*her H., Prof of Law at =ue,$Bights Against Biss,), A*ril, 'olumbia Law Beiew, **. 985-5!,htt*(++www.stor.org+*ss+##!!4FDrom the indiidual>s *oint of iew, the balancing of costs and bene;ts thatutilitarianism endorses renders the status of any indiidual ris bearer*rofoundly insecure. A ris bearer cannot determine from the ind of risbeing im*osed on him whether it is im*ermissible or not. %he identical ris may be

usti;ed if necessary to aoid a calamity and unusti;ed if the *roduct of an act of *ro;tless carelessness, but

the nature and etent of the underlying bene;ts of the risy action are freuently unnown to the ris bearer so that he cannot now whether or nothe is being wronged. Durthermore, een when the gain that lies behind the ris is well-nown,

the status of a ris bearer is insecure because indiiduals can usti;ablybe inQicted with eer greater leels of ris in conunction with increasinggains. 'ertainly, indiidual ris bearers may be entitled to more *rotection if the risy action e*osesmany others to the same ris, since the lielihood that technological riss will cause greater harmincreases as more and more *eo*le e*erience that ris. %his maes the risy action less liely to be

usti;able. Once again, howeer, that insight seems scant comfort to an indiidual, forit reinforces the reali/ation that, standing alone, he does not count for much .A strategy of weighing gains against riss thus renders the status of any s*eci;c ris ictim substantiallycontingent u*on the claims of others, both those who may share his ictim status and those who standto gain from the risy actiity. %he aniety to *resere some fundamental *lace for the indiidual thatcannot be oerrun by larger social considerations underlies what H.L.A. Hart has a*tly termed the

6distinctiely modern criticism of utilitarianism,653 the criticism that, des*ite its famous slogan,6eeryone Jis to count for one,658 utilitarianism ultimately denies eachindiidual a *rimary *lace in its system of alues. Carious ersions of utilitarian ism

ealuate actions by the conseuences of those actions to maimi/e ha**iness, the net of *leasure oer*ain, or the satisfaction of desires." Nhateer the s*eci;c formulation, the goal of maimi/ingsome mea sure of utility obscures and diminishes the status of eachindiidual. 1t reduces the indiidual to a conduit, a reference *oint that registers the a**ro*riate 6utiles,6but does not count for anything inde*endent of his monitoring function.# 1t also *roduces moralreuirements that can tram*le an indiidual, if necessary, to maimi/e utility,since once the net e0ects of a *ro*osal on the maimand hae been taeninto account, the indiidual is e*endable. 'ounting *leasure and *ain eually acrossindiiduals is a laudable *ro*osal, but counting only *lea sure and *ain *ermits the grossest ineuities


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among indiiduals and the tram*ling of the few in furtherance of the utility of the many. 1n sum,utilitarianism maes the status of any indiidual radically contingent. %heindiidual>s status will be *resered only so long as that status con tributes to increasing total utility.Otherwise, the indiidual can be discarded.

+he only )ay to preserve individualism is to allo) all personsto have the right to o)n themselves regardless of any negativeconseuentialist impacts(chroeder IJ Professor of Law at =ue E'hristo*her H., Prof of Law at =ue,$Bights Against Biss,), A*ril, 'olumbia Law Beiew, **. 985-5!,htt*(++www.stor.org+*ss+##!!4F!. Liberal %heories in the 6Bights6 %radition. A second grou* of theories aoids the moderncriticism of utilitarianism by maing the indiidual central.'ontem*orary theorists as dierseas &ohn Bawls, Bobert


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Case


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Abolition (olvency

Abolition is a gradual process& that )ill transform criminal la)and peoples livelihoods

Allegra M. 3c4eod 17, Associate Professor at Teorgetown Uniersity Law 'enter,!"#5, $Prison Abolition and Trounded &ustice), U'LA Law Beiew, ! U'LA L. Be.##5 E!"#5F, htt*(++www.uclalawreiew.org+w*-content+u*loads+!"#5+"+McLeod.!"#5.*df1f *rison abolition is conce*tuali/ed as an immediate and indiscriminateo*ening of*rison doors7that is, the imminent *hysical elimination of all structuresof incarceration7reection ofabolition is *erha*s warranted . :ut abolitionmay be understood instead as agradual *roect of decarceration , in which radicallydi0erent legal and institutionalregulatory forms su**lant criminal law enforcement.%hese institutional alternatiesinclude meaningful ustice reinvestment toG strengthen the social arm of thestate and im*roe human )elfare K decriminali$ingG less serious infractions 2im*roed design of s*aces and *roducts to reduce o**ortunities foro0ending2urban redevelopment and greeningD pro;ects 2 *roliferatingrestoratie forms of redress2

and creating both safe harbors for indiiduals at risof or Qeeing iolence andalternative livelihoods for *ersons otherwise subect tocriminal lawenforcement. Nhen abolition is conce*tuali/edin these terms7asa transformatie goalof gradual decarceration and *ositie regulatory substitutionwherein *enalregulation is recogni/ed as morally unsustainable7then inattentionto abolition incriminal law scholarshi* and reformist discourses comes intofocus as a moretroubling absence .# Durther, the reection of abolition as a hori/onfor reform mistaenlyassumes that reformist critiues concern only the occasional,*eri*heral ecesses ofim*risonment and *rison-baced *olicing ratherthan more fundamentallyim*ugning the core o*erations of criminal law enforcement,and therefore reuiring ade*arture from *rison-baced criminalregulation to other regulatory framewors.

Lven if abolition has problems& its important to image to setthe agenda for decarcerative politicsAngela X. .avis #0, Professor of Deminist Studies at Uniersity of 'A Santa 'ru/,!""4, $Are Prisons ObsoleteG), htt*(++www.feministes-radicales.org+w*-content+u*loads+!"#"+##+Angela-=ais-ArePrisonsObsolete.*df'reating agendas of decarceration and broadly casting the net of alternaties hel*sus to do the ideological wor of *ulling a*art the conce*tual lin between crime and*unishment.%his more nuanced understanding of the social role of the *unishment system reuires us to gieu* our usual way of thining about *unishment as an ineitable conseuence of crime. Ne would recogni/e

that 6*unishment6 does not follow from 6crime6 in the neat and logical seuenceo0ered by discourses that insist on the ustice of im*risonment, but rather*unishment 7*rimarily through im*risonmentEand sometimes deathF7is lined to theagendas of *oliticians , the *ro;t drie of cor*orations, and media re*resentations ofcrime. 1m*risonment is associated with the raciali/ation of those most liely to be*unished. 1t is associated with their class and , as we hae seen, gender structuresthe *unishment system as well. 1f we insist that abolitionist alternaties trouble these relationshi*s, thatthey strie to disarticulate crime and *unishment, race and *unishment, class and *unishment, and gender and

*unishment, then our focus must not rest only on the *rison system as an isolated


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institution but must also be directed at all the social relations that su**ort the*ermanence of the *rison. An attem*t to create a ne) conceptual terrain forimagining alternatives to imprisonment inoles t he ideological wor ofuestioning why 6criminals6 hae been constituted as a class and, indeed, a class ofhuman beings undesering of the ciil and human rights accorded to others. Badical

criminologists hae long *ointed out that the category 6law- breaers6 is far greater than thecategory of indiiduals who are deemed criminalssince, many *oint out, almost all of ushae broen the law at one time or another. en President :ill 'linton admitted that he hadsmoed mariuana at one time, insisting, though, that he did not inhale. Howeer, acnowledged dis*arities in theintensity of *olice sureillance7as indicated by the *resent-day currency of the term 6racial *ro;ling6 which oughtto coer far more territory than 6driing while blac or brown67account in *art for racial and class-based dis*arities

in arrest and im*risonment rates. %hus, if we are willing to tae seriously the conseuences ofa racist and class-biased ustice system, we will reach the conclusion that enormousnumbers of *eo*le are in *rison sim*ly because they are, for eam*le, blac 'hicano,Cietnamese,


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A+H (tate Prisons Alt Cause

Federal prisons are the largest proportion of prisoners in the9(

Pew +rusts 17&Dederal Prison System Shows =ramatic Long-%erm Trowth( Policydecisions contribute to stee* rise in inmate *o*ulation and costs, Debruary !?,!"#5, htt*(++www.*ewtrusts.org+en+research-and-analysis+fact-sheets+!"#5+"!+federal-*rison-system-shows-dramatic-long-term-growthDrom #83" to !"#4, the number of o0enders incarcerated in federal *risonsincreased from a**roimately !9,""" to more than !#5,""", maing the federalsystem the largest in the nation .# Policy choices contributed signi;cantly to thise*ansion as lawmaers added criminal laws to the boos, lengthened sentences,and abolished *arole.! %o accommodate the growing inmate *o*ulation, the number of federal*risons nearly tri*led, driing a surge in corrections s*ending.4%a*ayers s*ent almost asmuch on federal *risons in !"#47`.? billion7as they s*ent to fund the entire U.S.=e*artment of &usticein #83", after adusting for inQation.9 =es*ite these e*enditures, recent data showthat a third of all o0enders who leae federal *risons under community su*erision return to custody for iolatingthe terms of their release.5


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3ore 9til

O)ning oneself is a moral imperative utilitarianism imposesinterpersonal obligations to society& )hich destroys morality

Freeman ,B Aalon Professor in the Humanities at the Uniersity ofPennsylania, Ph.=. Harard Uniersity, &.=. Uniersity of


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good, or the total aggregate satisfaction, as was the case for those young A/tec women chosen by their societyeach year to be sacri;ced to the Tods for the welfare of the grou*.


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MMOther Possible Advantages


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+argeting the homeless

+he homeless are targeted by the Prison %ndustrial Comple"---their circumstances are abused by the police to constantly

arrest themCritical resistance #B, abolitionist website, !""9, $1nformation Sheets),htt*(++criticalresistance.org+w*-content+u*loads+!"#!+"+Ab-%oolit-Part-!.*df

%HB AB MA


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%argeting ueer *eo*le

]ueer *eo*le are routinely harassed by *olice oIcers---their identitiesare abused both by guards and other *risoners.

Andrew Cohen 10, fellow at the :rennan 'enter for &ustice, legal analyst, andcontributing editor at %he Atlantic, #!-#9-#4, $Toernment Natchdog( Ne Hae aTrowing Dederal Prison >'risis>),htt*(++www.theatlantic.com+national+archie+!"#4+#!+goernment-watchdog-we-hae-a-growing-federal-*rison-crisis+!3!49#+]UB POPL DA' H1THB SUBC1LLA98V ofattacs on transgendered *eo*le in San Drancisco are committed by *olice. .Prisoners are forced intoliing conditions segregated 6male6 and 6female.6 .A *risoner who doesn>t identifywith either of those gender labels, or who identi;es with a gender that guards and*olice don>t agree 6match6 the *risoner>s genitals, is often forced into solitary

con8nement or a cell )ith people of di>erent genders Howeer *risoners areclassi;ed, it>s not based on their choice, or with concern for their safety. >Peo*le using hormones areoften denied access , or regular access, to hormones in *rison. >]ueer *eo*le in*rison are at high ris of erbal and *hysical abuse, from guards and other*risoners .


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Social+niro *roblems

Prisons are also social and enironmental catastro*hes---*ur*oselybuilt in *oor communities of color, they use water and land, only to

gie bac sewage and ha/ardous chemicals.Andrew Cohen 10, fellow at the :rennan 'enter for &ustice, legal analyst, andcontributing editor at %he Atlantic, #!-#9-#4, $Toernment Natchdog( Ne Hae aTrowing Dederal Prison >'risis>),htt*(++www.theatlantic.com+national+archie+!"#4+#!+goernment-watchdog-we-hae-a-growing-federal-*rison-crisis+!3!49#+t only harm the communities where *risoners come from. Prisonsare also environmental and social disasters for the to)ns )here prisons

are built .Part of abolishing the P1' also means building communities that hae the *ower to decide how theirresources are best used. Many US states build most *risons where the *oor and *eo*le ofcolor lie ..'ommunities are often shut out of the *rocess of deciding whether a *rison should be built in theirtown. >1n Mendota 'alifornia, the Dederal :ureau of Prisons refused to translate its #""" *age enironmental im*actre*ort into S*anish. 38 of Mendota residents are natie S*anish s*eaers. 1%>s 1MPOB%A


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Dinancially ineIcient

%he Dederal :ureau of Prisons is ;nancially ineIcient---it has receiedan increase in inmates and a decrease in funding

Andrew Cohen 10, fellow at the :rennan 'enter for &ustice, legal analyst, andcontributing editor at %he Atlantic, #!-#9-#4, $Toernment Natchdog( Ne Hae aTrowing Dederal Prison >'risis>),htt*(++www.theatlantic.com+national+archie+!"#4+#!+goernment-watchdog-we-hae-a-growing-federal-*rison-crisis+!3!49#+

%he ;rst *art of the *rison crisis is ;nancialand the math behind it is relatiely sim*le( thenumber of federal inmates has increased dramatically oer the *ast few years whilethe goernment funding aailable to safely house those federal inmates hasdecreased. 6 %ts a $ero sum gam e ,6 Horowit/ says. 6ery dollar s*ent on *risons is adollar that is going to come from somewhere else in the =e*artm ent. %hat forcesleadershi* to loo hard at what tools it has.6Drom the re*ort(After enoying an increase in itsdiscretionary budget from `!#.5 billion in;scal year EDXF !""# to `!3.8 billion in DX !"##,

the =e*artmentRs discretionary budget decreased in DX !"#! to `!3.4 billion, and by #"*ercent inDX!"#4 to `!5.5 billion. =uring this same *eriod, the *rison *o*ulation inthe Dederal :ureau of PrisonsR E:OPF facilities grew from about #5?,""" inmates inDX !""# to about !#8,""" inmates *resently.

Lmpirics prove---incarceration is vastly ine*cient and costlyLouis Michael (eidman 1#, 'armac Naterhouse Professor of 'onstitutional Law,Teorgetown Uniersity Law 'enter, !"#", $Hy*er-1ncarceration and Strategies of=isru*tion( 1s %here a Nay OutG),htt*(++scholarshi*.law.georgetown.edu+cgi+iewcontent.cgiGarticle[##9"Zcontet[fw*s*a*ersA de;ciency of the economic model is that it seems descri*tiely inaccurate, or at least uite incom*lete.

Anyone who has studied the *olitics of crime control nows that it is drien at leastas much by anger and fear as by careful cost-bene;t calculations.# Policy maerscan tal o*enly about the costs and bene;ts of, say, increasing the s*eed limit onhighways, but no one says *ublicly that there is an o*timal leel of ra*e andmurder. 1t is not sur*rising then, that our actual *olicies de*art substantially from the resultswe would attain if we focused solely on economic eIciency .Dor eam*le, :ruceNestern estimates that from #884 to !""# , increases in incarceration rates*roduced a ! to 5 *ercent dro* in serious crime at a cost of `54 billion.#?%his ;gurere*resents ust the direct economic costsof im*risonment. 1t includes none of the hugecosts to indiidual lies and communities im*osed by our gargantuan im*risonment*rogram.Nhether any *articular dro* in crime is worth the cost obiously de*ends on how one alues crimeaoidance, but almost eeryone would say that this is an eorbitant *rice to *ay for

relatiely insigni;cant bene;ts.Of course, not eeryone agrees with NesternRs analysis,#3 *ractice ofincarcerating su*erannuated *risoners who continue to sere ery long sentences into their dotage inoles a greatdeal of waste.#8


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+opicality


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Prisons N (urveillance

(urveillance means to keep )atch over prisoners and prisons

!andom ouse .ictionary 17, accessed athtt*(++dictionary.reference.com+browse+sureillance on ?++#5surveillance

noun#.a watch e*t oer a *erson, grou*, etc., es*ecially oer a sus*ect & prisoner& orthe lie(

%he sus*ects were under *olice sureillance.!. continuous observation of a place& *erson, grou*, or ongoing actiity inorder to gather information(ideo cameras used for coert sureillance.See also electronic sureillance.4. attentie obseration, as to oersee and direct someone or something(increased sureillance of *atients with chronic lier disease.

Prisoners are constantly under surveillance& both in and out ofprison

%imothy &. Flanagan& ,7& PBS1=


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C%- Fed Prisons N Custody

Counter-interpretationH

a (urveillance is keeping people in custody'ollins nglish =ictionary #!, accessed athtt*(++dictionary.reference.com+browse+sureillance on ?++#5surveillance

noun#. close obseration or su*erision maintained oer a *erson, grou*, etc, esp onein custody or under sus*icion

b Federal prisons are places )here people con8ned forcontinuous custody

/ureau of ustice (tatistics no date, $%erms Z =e;nitions( State AndDederal Prisoners And Prison Dacilities'ustody,) htt*(++www.bs.go+inde.cfmGty[tdt*Ztid[#4

%o have custody of a *risoner, a state or the Dederal :ureau of Prisons E:OPF must*hysically hold that *erson in one of its facilities. A locality, state, or the :OP may holdinmates oer whom a di0erent goernment maintains urisdiction.'ustody count%he number of o0enders in custody. %o hae custody of a *risoner, a state or the Dederal :ureau ofPrisons E:OPF must *hysically hold that *erson in one of its facilities. A locality, state, or the :OP mayhae custody of a *risoner oer whom a di0erent goernment maintains urisdiction.=esign ca*acity%he number of inmates that *lanners or architects intended for the facility.Dederal *risonsPrison facilities run by the Dederal :ureau of Prisons E:OPF. Prisoners housed in these facilitiesare under the legal authority of the federal goernment. %his ecludes *riatefacilities under eclusie contract with :OP.1m*risoned *o*ulation%he *o*ulation of inmates con;ned in *rison or other facilities under the urisdiction of the state orDederal :ureau of Prisons.1m*risonment rate%he number of *risoners under state or federal urisdiction sentenced to more than one year, *er#"",""" U.S. residents.1ncarcerated *o*ulation1ncarcerated *o*ulation is the *o*ulation of inmates con;ned in a *rison or a ail. %his may also includehalfway-houses, bootcam*s, weeend *rograms, and other facilities in which indiiduals are loced u*oernight.1nstitutional corrections1nstitutional corrections refers to those *ersons housed in secure correctional facilities. %here are manydi0erent ty*es of correctional facilities, o*erated by di0erent goernment entities. Local ails areo*erated by county or munici*al authorities, and ty*ically hold o0enders for short *eriods rangingfrom a single day to a year. Prisons sere as long-term con;nement facilities and are only run by the5" state goernments and the federal :ureau of Prisons. Priate correctional facilities also o*erateunder contracts for a wide ariety of local, state and federal agencies. Other correctional facilities areo*erated by s*ecial urisdictions such as the U.S. Armed Dorces, U.S. territories and federal agenciessuch as 1mmigrations and 'ustoms nforcement E1'F.&urisdiction
http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/surveillancehttp://dictionary.reference.com/browse/surveillance


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&urisdiction generally refers to a unit of goernment or to the legal authority to eercise goernmental*ower. 1n corrections, it refers to the goernment which has legal authority oer an inmate Estate orfederalF. Prisoners under a gien state>s urisdiction may be housed in another state or localcorrectional facility.&urisdiction count1ncludes *risoners under legal authority of state or federal correctional authorities who are housed in*rison facilities Ee.g., *risons, *enitentiaries and correctional institutions2 boot cam*s2 *rison farms2

rece*tion, diagnostic, and classi;cation centers2 release centers, halfway houses, and road cam*s2forestry and conseration cam*s2 ocational training facilities2 *rison hos*itals2 and drug and alcoholtreatment facilities for *risonersF, regardless of which state they are *hysically held in. %his numberalso includes *risoners who are tem*orarily absent Eless than 4" daysF, out to court, or on worrelease2 housed in local ails, *riate facilities, and other states> or federal facilities2 sering a sentencefor two urisdictions at the same time. %his count ecludes *risoners held in a state or federal facilityfor another state or the Dederal :ureau of Prisons. Howeer, *risoners housed in another state andunder the legal authority of the goerning state are included.Moement1n corrections, a moement refers to an admission or a release from a status such as *risoner, *arolee,or *robationer. Unless s*eci;cally noted, a transfer between facilities does not count as a moement.O*erational ca*acity%he number of inmates that can be accommodated based on a facility>s sta0, eisting *rograms, andserices.ParoleParole refers to criminal o0enders who are conditionally released from *rison to sere the remaining*ortion of their sentence in the community. Prisoners may be released to *arole by a *arole boarddecision Ediscretionary release+discretionary *aroleF, according to *roisions of a statute Emandatoryrelease+mandatory *aroleF, through other ty*es of *ost-custody conditional su*erision, or as theresult of a sentence to a term of su*erised release. 1n the federal system, a term of su*erisedrelease is a sentence to a ;ed *eriod of su*erision in the community that follows a sentence to a*eriod of incarceration in federal *rison, both of which are ordered at the time of sentencing by afederal udge. Parolees can hae a number of di0erent su*erision statuses including actiesu*erision, which means they are reuired to regularly re*ort to a *arole authority in *erson, by mail,or by tele*hone. Some *arolees may be on an inactie status which means they are ecluded fromregularly re*orting, and that could be due to a number of reasons. Dor instance, some may receie areduction in su*erision, *ossibly due to com*liance or meeting all reuired conditions before the*arole sentence terminates, and therefore may be moed from an actie to inactie status. Othersu*erision statues include *arolees who only hae ;nancial conditions remaining, hae absconded, or

who hae actie warrants. Parolees are also ty*ically reuired to ful;ll certain conditions and adhere tos*eci;c rules of conduct while in the community. Dailure to com*ly with any of the conditions can resultin a return to incarceration.Prison'om*ared to ail facilities,*risons are longer-term facilities owned by a state or by theDederal Toernment. Prisons ty*ically hold felons and *ersons with sentences of more than ayear2 howeer, the sentence length may ary by state. Si states E'onnecticut, Bhode 1sland, Cermont,=elaware, Alasa, and HawaiiF hae an integrated correctional system that combines ails and *risons.%here are a small number of *riate *risons, facilities that are run by *riate *rison cor*orations whoseserices and beds are contracted out by state or federal goernments.PrisonersPrisoners are inmates con;ned in long-term facilities run by the state or federalgoernment or *riate agencies. %hey are ty*ically felons who hae receied a sentence ofincarceration of # year or more. ESentence length may ary by state because a few states hae one

integrated *rison system in which both *rison and ail inmates are con;ned in the same ty*es offacilities.F


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P+ - AFF


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Plan :O6

+he time is :O6& Obama is already speaking about the issue ofprisons

Angela .avis& 1B, leading adocate for *rison abolition, a *rofessor emerita atUniersity of 'alifornia, Santa 'ru/, and the subect of the recent documentary,6Dree Angela and All Political Prisoners,6 4++#9 $Angela =ais on Prison Abolition,the Nar on =rugs and Nhy Social Moements ShouldnRt Nait on Obama),htt*(++www.democracynow.org+!"#9+4++angeladaison*risonabolitionthe

A


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Plan Popular

/ipartisan support for decarceration& !epublicans have beengetting on board )ith the .ems

Oetta 6iggins& J-1I& re*orter for the Nashington Post, +#3+#5, $HowBe*ublicans are e*erimenting with criminal ustice reform),htt*(++www.washington*ost.com+local+md-*olitics+how-re*ublicans-are-e*erimenting-with-criminal-ustice-reform+!"#5+"+#3+a!e"9fa-#!ab-##e5-85#3-f8e"a3858f4!story.html

Sen. Band Paul Ey.F rattled o0 numbers for the mostly white, mostly older crowd of Maryland Be*ublicans,e*laining how blacs are arrested for mariuana o0enses in :altimore at a higher rate than whites.$1f you dosureys, the statistics are *retty close between blac and white mariuana use,) the Be*ublican *residential ho*efulsaid at a state *arty fundraiser last wee. $1Rm not saying itRs racism. Many of the oIcials Jin :altimore are blac.So itRs not racism. :ut something is wrong with the war on drugs when we decide to loc *eo*le u* for ;e, #", #5

years for maing mistaes.)%he crowd broe into a**lause.As the crime rate falls and the numberof high-*ro;le cases in which *olice oIcers are accused of racial bias escalates,Be*ublicans increasingly are oining what had long been a =emocratic conersation(how to reduce the si/e of the *rison *o*ulation and hel* e-o0enders turn theirlies around.1n Maryland, To. Larry Hogan this year became the latest Be*ublican state leader tobac bills intended to reduce recidiism and hel* e-o0enders ;nd obs. And whileHogan also etoed a bill that would hae e*anded felon oting rights, adocatessay he and other Be*ublicans hae shown a willingness to rethin long-held theoriesabout how to reduce crime.$%hereRs a change in climate in criminal ustice reform,)said Marc Mauer, eecutie director of the Sentencing Proect, a national adocacy grou* that has wored to change

the way Americans iew crime and *unishment.%he shift by Be*ublicans is largely motiated bycosts, =emocrats say. Discally conseratie Be*ublicans see *rison e*enses as adrain on strained budgets and are starting to wor with =emocrats to ;nd lesscostly a**roaches.%he declining crime rate, Mauer said, has made the debate $less emotional and less*olitical) for lawmaers.

+he stars are alignedD -- the time for reducing incarcerationrates is :O6 -- bipartisan support for prison reformBussel /erman& -1#& a senior associate editor at %he Atlantic, where hecoers *olitical news. He was *reiously a congressional re*orter for%he Hill and aNashington corres*ondent for %he


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oerhaul of the nationRs criminal-ustice system. $NeRe seen some reallyinteresting leadershi* from some unliely Be*ublican legislators ery sincerelyconcerned about maing *rogress there,) the *resident obsered.HeRs right. %hebi*artisan coalition *ushing to reduce incarceration rates in the worldRs mostcrowded *rison system has been building for years, bringing together ardent foeslie the och :rothers and the A'LU, and Band Paul and 'ory :ooer, among others.Carious *ro*osals to eliminate mandatory minimum sentences for certain drug crimes, and to ee* young,noniolent o0enders from receiing long, cri**ling *rison sentences hae circulated for a while without goinganywhere. Xet that moement is cresting now, *roiding what lawmaers and adocates say is a genuine

o**ortunity to enact legislation before the end of the year. $1 am ery o*timistic that we will getsomething done. 1f you had told me a cou*le years ago, 1 would not hae belieedit,) said Be*resentatie liah 'ummings, a Maryland =emocrat who is not nown asa congressional Pollyanna.As usual, howeer, 'ummingsRs rosy iew comes with aey caeat re*eated by other adocates 1 interiewed( the looming *residentialelection. $1 thin the stars hae aligned,) 'ummings said. $1 do beliee, howeer,that if we donRt get it done now, 1 donRt now that the stars will align lie this again.)Obama taled u* the *ros*ect of criminal-ustice reform ust a few days afterlawmaers in the House uneiled the most ambitious and com*rehensie *ro*osalto moderni/e the system to date.Oer the weeend,%he


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!eform Popular

Federal prison reform popular& oro)it$s statement is enoughto s)ay opposition to reform

Andrew Cohen& 1B& commentary editor of the Marshall Proect, the legal analystfor " Minutes and ':S Badio


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4egislation 5ey

Prisons are becoming increasingly e"pensive due to thegro)ing population& and programs to decrease the e"pense

are not e>ective- continued legislative reforms keyAndrew Cohen& 1B& commentary editor of the Marshall Proect, the legal analystfor " Minutes and ':S Badio


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Crime .A AFF


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Becidiism high now

Prisoners are locked into a cycle of marginality that causes

them to almost al)ays be arrested after their release fromprisonMichelle Ale"ander 1#, Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State Uniersity,!"#", $%he new &im 'row( Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness.),htt*(++www.ro*f*olisci.com+racial.ustice.aleander.*dfs eile status is treated lie a crime. 1fyou fail, after being released from *rison with a criminal record7your *ersonal badge of inferiority7to remain drugfree, or if you fail to get a ob against all the odds, or if you get de*ressed and miss an a**ointment with your*arole oIcer Eor if you cannot a0ord the bus fare to tae you thereF, you can be sent right bac to *rison7where

society a**arently thins millions of Americans belong. +his disturbing phenomenon of people

cycling in and out of prison& trapped by their secondclass status& has been

described by Loic Nacuant as a 2closed circuit of perpetual marginality .68Hundreds of thousands of *eo*le are released from *rison eery year, only to ;ndthemseles loced out of the mainstream society and economy. Most ultimately

return to *rison, sometimes for the rest of their lies. Others are released again,only to ;nd themseles in *recisely the circumstances they occu*ied before, unableto co*e with the stigma of the *rison label and their *ermanent *ariah status.


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Only a massive overhaul in prison policy can end the cycle ofsu>ering that a life behind bars introducesMichelle Ale"ander 1#, Associate Professor of Law at Ohio State Uniersity,!"#", $%he new &im 'row( Mass incarceration in the age of colorblindness.),htt*(++www.ro*f*olisci.com+racial.ustice.aleander.*df

Beducing the amount of time *eo*le s*end behind bars7by eliminating harsh mandatoryminimums7will alleiate some of the unnecessary su0ering caused by this system, butit will not disturb the closed circuit. +hose labeled felons )ill continue to cyclein and out of prison& sub;ect to perpetual surveillance by the police& and

unable to integrate into the mainstream society and economy . Unless thenumber of *eo*le who are labeled felons is dramatically reduced ,- and unless thelaws and *olicies that ee* e-o0enders marginali/ed from the mainstream societyand economy are eliminated, the system will continue to create and maintain anenormous undercaste.

Lmpirics prove---the P%C only increases rates of recidivism---

releasing prisoners early has been found to decrease thereoccurrence of crimeMar 3orris& J& editor of $1nstead of Prisons( A Handboo for Abolitionists), *artof the Prison Besearch ducation Action Proect, #8?, $1nstead of Prisons( AHandboo for Abolitionsists),htt*(++www.*rison*olicy.org+scans+insteadof*risons+cha*ter!.shtml

One commonly cited occurrence which illustrates the dubious nature of the*rotection theory followed a U.S. Su*reme 'ourt ruling in #84 nown as Tideon .Nainwright, which aIrmed the right of indigent felony defendants to counsel. %hoseconicted without counsel and sent to *rison were ordered released.As a result, the Stateof Dlorida released #,!5! indigent felons before their sentences were com*leted .

%here was fear that such a mass eodus from *rison might result in an increase incrime. Howeer, after !3 months, the Dlorida =e*artment of 'orrections found thatthe recidiism rate for these e-*risoners was only #4. *ercent, com*ared to !5*ercent for those released after com*leting their full sentence s.An American :arAssociation committee commenting on the case obsered(:aldly stated, . . . if we, today, turned looseall of the inmates of our *risons without regard to the length of their sentences, and with some ece*tions, without regard to their *reious o0enses, we might reduce therecidiism rate oer what it would be if we e*t each *risoner incarcerated until hissentence e*ired. JDor more than a century, statisticians hae demonstratedthat regardless of im*risonment, the crime rate remains constant . Bemoing somefew *eo*le from society sim*ly means an una**rehended maority continue incriminal actiity. 1f that one to three *ercent who end u* in *rison were released, they would not signi;cantlyincrease the lawbreaing *o*ulation.

L"-Prisoners are cast out of society---they have signi8cantlyless chances of getting a ;ob& getting married& or receivegovernmental bene8ts& )hich results increased rates ofrecidivism:ecy Pettit and :ruce 6estern #B, Pettit Professor of Sociology atUniersity of Nashington, Nestern Professor of Sociology at Princeton Uniersity,


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!""9, $Mass 1 1m*risonment a and t the L Life ' 'ourse( Bace a and ' 'lass 11neuality i in U U.S. 1 1ncarceration), AMB1'A< SO'1OLOT1'AL BC1N, ! !""9,COL. 8 EA*ril( #5##8Fdited for gendered language.1m*risonment signi;cantly alters the life course. 1n most cases, men Jand womenentering *rison will already be $o0-time.) %ime inuenile incarceration and ail and

wea connections to wor and family diert many *rison inmates from the usual*ath followed by young adults. S*ells of im*risonment7thirty to forty months on aerage7further delay entry into the conentional adult roles of worer, s*ouse and *arent.More commonly military serice, not im*risonment, is identi;ed as the ey institutional e*erience that redirectslife traectories EHogan #83#2 lder #832 ie #88!F. lder E#83?(594F describes military serice as a $legitimatetimeout) that o0ered disadantaged sericemen in Norld Nar %wo an esca*e from family hardshi*. Similarly,im*risonment can *roide a chance to re-ealuate lifeRs direction ESam*son and Laub #884, !!42 din,


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Felony Charges +urn

Felony charges are more likely to keep people in the system

and increase crimeMichelle Ale"ander 1#, associate *rofessor of law at Stanford Law School, ciilrights lawyer, adocate and legal scholar, The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration inthe Age of Colorblindness, !"#", *. 38-8"Once conicted of felony drug charges, oneRs chances of being released from thesystem in short order are slim, at best.%he elimination of udicial discretion through mandatorysentencing laws has forced udges to im*ose sentences for drug crimes that are often longer than those iolentcriminals receie. Nhen udges hae discretion, they may consider a defendantRs bacground and im*ose a lighter*enalty if the defendantRs *ersonal circumstances7 etreme *oerty or e*erience of abuse, for eam*le7warrantit. %his Qeibility7which is im*ortant in all criminal cases7is es*ecially im*ortant in drug cases, as studies hae

indicated that many drug defendants are using or selling to su**ort an addiction.?5 Beferring a defendantto treatment, rather than sending him or her to *rison, may well be the most*rudent choice7saing goernment resources and *otentially saing the defendant

from a lifetime of addiction. Liewise, im*osing a short *rison sentence Eor none at allF may increase thechances that the defendant will e*erience successful re-entry. A lengthy *rison term may increasethe odds that reentry will be etremely diIcult, leading to rela*se, and re-im*risonment. Mandatory drug sentencing laws stri* udges of their traditional roleof considering all releant circumstances in an e0ort to do ustice in the indiidualcase.


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Crime 4ink +urns

Lmpirics prove---the P%C only increases rates of recidivism---releasing prisoners early has been found to decrease the

reoccurrence of crimeMar 3orris& J& editor of $1nstead of Prisons( A Handboo for Abolitionists), *artof the Prison Besearch ducation Action Proect, #8?, $1nstead of Prisons( AHandboo for Abolitionsists),htt*(++www.*rison*olicy.org+scans+insteadof*risons+cha*ter!.shtml

One commonly cited occurrence which illustrates the dubious nature of the*rotection theory followed a U.S. Su*reme 'ourt ruling in #84 nown as Tideon .Nainwright, which aIrmed the right of indigent felony defendants to counsel. %hoseconicted without counsel and sent to *rison were ordered released. As a result, theState of Dlorida released #,!5! indigent felons before their sentences werecom*leted . %here was fear that such a mass eodus from *rison might result in an

increase in crime. Howeer, after !3 months, the Dlorida =e*artment of 'orrectionsfound that the recidiism rate for these e-*risoners was only #4. *ercent,com*ared to !5 *ercent for those released after com*leting their full sentence s. AnAmerican :ar Association committee commenting on the case obsered( :aldlystated, . . . if we, today, turned loose all of the inmates of our *risons without regardto the length of their sentences, and with some ece*tions, without regard to their*reious o0enses, we might reduce the recidiism rate oer what it would be if wee*t each *risoner incarcerated until his sentence e*ired. J Dor more than acentury, statisticians hae demonstrated that regardless of im*risonment, the crimerate remains constant . Bemoing some few *eo*le from society sim*ly means anuna**rehended maority continue in criminal actiity. 1f that one to three *ercentwho end u* in *rison were released, they would not signi;cantly increase the

lawbreaing *o*ulation.


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A+H Prisons prevent crime

+he idea that prisons keep people safe is a total 3Q+-inreality they do little to protect society& they only function to

control certain segments of societyMar 3orris& J& editor of $1nstead of Prisons( A Handboo for Abolitionists), *artof the Prison Besearch ducation Action Proect, #8?, $1nstead of Prisons( AHandboo for Abolitionsists),htt*(++www.*rison*olicy.org+scans+insteadof*risons+cha*ter!.shtml

Myth( Prisons *rotect society from 6criminals.6 Beality( Prisons fail to *rotectsociety from 6criminals,6 ece*t for a ery small *ercentage and onlytem*orarily.Prisons 6*rotect6 the *ublic only from those few who get caughtand conicted, thereby sering the *rimary function of control oer certainsegments of society. According to


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study, out of #"" maor crimes EfeloniesF( 5" were re*orted to the *olice2 sus*ectswere arrested in #! of the cases2 si *ersons were conicted2 one or two went to*rison. J#%hose who ;nd themseles entra**ed in the criminal EinFusticesystems most often are a select grou*, usually stereoty*e 6criminals 6-athreat in some way to those in *ower( the *oor, minori

Ban Prisons Affirmative and Negative - Northwestern 2015.docx

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