Penal Philosophy and the Policy of State Violence Punishment: What Really Stands in the Way of Prison Abolition?

• In Event: Roundtable: Penal Abolition Research and the Politics of “Crime” and Justice

Abstract

This paper explores these dynamics of pain as punishment by first providing examples that illustrate that the pain of others is most often ignored and allowances are made for state and pseudo-state apparatus to inflict harm as punishment in its many forms. A brief survey of inhumane capital punishments, the arbitrary inflictions of punishment by pseudo-agents of the justice system during American slavery, lynching, brutal lengthy incarcerations in dungeon-like fortresses, solitary confinement in dank dungeons, three-strike laws, and mandatory minimums for non-violent drug violations is provided. The paper then explores the collective hierarchical need to socially control by implementing harm through punishment and the interplay of individual pathology and apathy, which is often shaped by hierarchical forces, but inherently is vulnerable to be influenced.

Author

• William Calathes, New Jersey City University