Prison Abolition Movement

The prison abolition movement seeks to abolish prisons and the prison system. The movement advocates for the abolition of prisons and the prison system on the basis of it being ineffective. Prison abolitionists present a broad critique of the modern criminal justice system, which they believe to be racist, sexist, and classist. They also see prisons and the prison system as an ineffectual way to reform criminals, decrease crime, and reconcile the victims of crime. For the prison abolition movement, the goal is not to improve the system or offer reforms, but to actually shrink the system into non-existence.

Read more about Prison Abolition Movement:  Advocates For Prison Abolition, Prison Reforms and Alternatives, Arguments Made For Prison Abolition, Women and Prison, Illicit Drugs and Prison, Mental Illness and Prison

Famous quotes containing the words prison, abolition and/or movement:

    “If I were asked to chose between execution and life in prison I would, of course, chose the latter. It’s better to live somehow than not at all.”
    —Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860–1904)

    “I have no concern with any economic criticisms of the communist system; I cannot enquire into whether the abolition of private property is expedient or advantageous. But I am able to recognize that the psychological premises on which the system is based are an untenable illusion. In abolishing private property we deprive the human love of aggression of one of its instruments ... but we have in no way altered the differences in power and influence which are misused by aggressiveness.”
    —Sigmund Freud (1856–1939)

    “What stunned me was the regular assertion that feminists were “anti-family.” . . . It was motherhood that got me into the movement in the first place. I became an activist after recognizing how excruciatingly personal the political was to me and my sons. It was the women’s movement that put self-esteem back into “just a housewife,” rescuing our intelligence from the junk pile of “instinct” and making it human, deliberate, powerful.”
    —Mary Kay Blakely (20th century)