Thinking Beyond Abolition: Taking Seriously Prisons’ Limitations

• In Event: Imagining Abolitionist Futures

Abstract

As prison scholars, we are often asked “How do we design better prisons?” and “If not with the prison, how should we punish criminals?” These questions, as well as proffered answers, have become especially common in the wake of mass incarceration’s increased visibility and controversy, alongside calls for defunding or abolition the police or general criticism of something called the “carceral state.” Popular answers include copying the Scandinavians, developing some high-tech form of supervision, sending more people to prison, or abolishing the prison altogether. I argue that, in light of prison history, none of these suggestions is particularly persuasive. Instead, I argue we need to collectively lower our expectations for what the prison is capable of before moving forward with yet a new model of prison or other penal reform. (I will be presenting the conclusion chapter to my book manuscript on U.S. prison history from the colonial era to the present.)

Author

• Ashley T. Rubin, University of Hawaiʻi at Mānoa