must there be a title

more people would be for prison abolition if they just tried to send mail to an inmate even once

for almost a year now i've been trying to send a copy of the literary magazine i edit to an inmate who requested one. his prison prohibits any written materials that so much as mention drugs, weapons, criminal activity, or malicious violence of any sort. i've been poring over what's available of the 95 volumes my magazine has printed over the years, and of those found 3 that might pass inspection. the first two were sent back undelivered two months after i sent them because one had a short story that alluded to a playground fight, and the other a poem that used the word "fist" in a nonviolent context. The third was returned for the stated reason that its contents depicted the use of firearms. i reread the entire issue, there's not a single gun mentioned in all its 120 pages.

while going back and forth with this guy trying to figure out how to get a copy of the magazine in his hands, two of my letters bounced back for unspecified reasons. i learned that inmates are not given their correspondents' original letters, but scanned copies, often poorly reproduced and sometimes illegible. these people aren't even granted the ink their loved ones used to pen their messages, or to hold in their hands the paper their loved ones held, if they're able to receive their words at all.

In the ages I have worked at bookstores I have sent piles of books and magazines to prisons and I can add that each prison has their own rules for how and what can be sent AND they will change those rules without notice so something that was fine one time will be sent back another.

I am certain this is not a security issue, it is strictly to make it harder to get information to those who are incarcerated.  

You know if i could read about the USA prison system without having extremely bad effects on my mental state, I would post a lot more stuff about prison abolition, because it feels like any rational person who knew about it would conclude that we live under a monstrous authoritarian regime, and the fact that so few people discuss it feels like some kind of surreal nightmare.

Throughout my life, but especially since starting this blog, I've been a very conscientious chronicler of my own learning process. I put little flags in my head next to insights that unlocked a new realm of ideas, I closely observe my cognitive and perceptual biases when I notice them. I leave 'notes' for myself: This presumption CANNOT be left unacknowledged—you spent years trying to scale this boulder, remember?

I am studying the cognitive biases that I've found to be deeply wrapped up in being an American, some of which are still attached to my brain.

It is good practice to be cautious and wary of ideological extremes, and so we are trying to move forward as if driving a car on an icy road through thick, driving snow. There are threats hurtling through the blizzard, out of our sight: fascism, communism, dictatorship, totalitarianism, civil collapse, anarchy. But all we can see is through the window of an outdated and misleading high-school history textbook, the allegation of a friend who was lucky enough to have been to Europe, a voice we trust because its vowels are accented like the ones heard at home.

And even as the snow clears, through thankless and independent study of library books and articles and internet research dives, the instinct toward moderation is so strong, hitting cautious thinkers hardest: if the conclusion I have come to sounds extreme and radical in relation to the world I know, isn't it likely that I've missed something? This conclusion feels so certain, so obvious; why am I the only one disturbed this deeply?

It is so deeply ingrained into us that the USA is the best country on earth, that there is no better or more free place to live, that the atrocities are safely in the distant past—and even if this idea crumbles, a part of the brain still absolutely refuses to see the USA as a power of evil in the way other countries can be.

The politics of this country are shrouded in the fugue characteristic of a cult or an abusive relationship. We are certain that something is wrong, but an open confrontation of it is so destructive to our whole world and everything we know that we don't trust our own sense of reason and justice. The malice of our system is so blatant and extreme that we are vulnerable to the most flimsy, pathetic justification for it.

If the facts are just as they appear, why do we put up with it? Why does it feel so normal? If there really is no economic complication or thorny reality that explains the naked cruelty, then why would we have let it go on so long?

It's the spasming jerk of denial that comes in response to the truth when the truth is horrible—when the truth is: You've been swallowed by the thing you thought you could recognize. You're in love with someone who threatens to kill you.

America wouldn't do that, America is flawed but means well, America has changed, America makes mistakes sometimes, America didn't exactly, America isn't really, America responded understandably, America is good deep down, we must have done something to deserve it, we have to try to be good so America won't do it anymore...

Enough.

You are worth more than this.

We deserve better than this.

You are not naive or entitled to expect a fair, just, and compassionate world. We can rescue each other from this horrible machine. We have to.

Stop being thankful for the violence you were spared and treasuring the narrow ledge of security you have "earned."

Start getting pissed on behalf of the less lucky, and if you can't manage that, remember that good behavior will not save you forever. You can do everything right and still end up sick, homeless, disabled, addicted, incarcerated, and America will drop the 'nice' facade like it never loved you.

@i-speak-graffiti

As promised, I will address this. This response will discuss some very triggering things, including rape and abuse of minors, so tread carefully.

This response will also not be including any specific citations because I did not write down the books and articles (from my college library etc) that I read to reach my conclusions, and...honest to god this is a disturbing topic for me that requires the right mental place to dive into researching extensively and I am very sorry.

If you are able, I encourage you to research these things for yourself, preferably using an academic library or something like Jstor. Look the specific and personal accounts, look for info about prison riots and protests, and look for legal cases involving prisoners' rights (Wikipedia is pretty extensive in its treatment of USA supreme court cases).

Become curious. Resist the evil. Okay that's all.

So, imagine a Bad Person.

One of the sort you mention—someone that just wants to hurt people.

Now put this person in a situation where their basic needs are not being met and they are physically unsafe.

Isolate them from support systems, from adequate mental health services, from educational resources and from meaningful interaction with other humans and the natural world.

Now imagine this person re-entering society after ten years.

If the purpose of prison, or even A purpose of prison, was to protect people from violence and abuse, people would not go to prison for drugs or for stealing property.

With that out of the way:

Most criticism of the American prison system I have seen centers on the unfairness of the prison system—the fact that minorities are disproportionately sentenced and receive longer sentences—and prisons being run for profit.

What is falling through the cracks is that conditions and policies in American prisons are wall-to-wall just, monstrous violations of basic human rights.

[I am going to be discussing the sexual abuse of a minor here. This is your warning.]

Food does not meet nutritional and safety standards. Outbreaks of infectious disease are common due to overcrowding and filth. Health services are insufficient, mental health services in particular are poor to nonexistent. Prisoners aren't given enough menstrual products.

Long term solitary confinement is very common, and it is internationally considered to be torture.

The rates of reported rape are estimated variously, but incredibly high. By many reckonings, more sexual abuse and assault is perpetrated by prison guards than by other prisoners. It is a ridiculously abusive, traumatic, unsafe environment.

The information that scarred me for life was reading about a legal case involving young teenage girl (13-14) being admitted to a juvenile detention center, where staff literally held her legs open to forcibly "search" her vagina. This was ruled to be legal.

Forced body cavity searches still happen, even to minors, and it is not illegal. It is sometimes done in front of other prisoners and/or in unsanitary conditions. Forced strip searches still happen and are common place.

That girl I just told you about? She was raped. In a very real, literal way, the prison itself raped her.

Now, I have not read any theory, or anyone specifically writing about prison abolition. I don't know the first thing about anarchism or associated political ideologies. But here is what I think.

Our "criminal justice" system as a whole puts us all in danger by existing in its present form. How can a thing that regularly commits rape and murder with few legal consequences, be protecting us from rapists and murderers? If the state can take away all your human rights when it wants to, you never had them in the first place.

[Image: two replies from the notes by @i-speak-graffiti. They read, "But I believe there are specific instances where people who want to hurt others, not because of a mental illness or environmental issues, should be put in prison for the sake of the community. We don't need a for-profit prison system for these people. But we do need something so predators don't abuse our most vulnerable.

I've long shed the teachings of American Exemptionalism, but I still never was fully on board with abolishing prisons entirely. I believe in having places where people can do drugs safely under medical supervision. I believe in free food and water for everyone. I believe in community programs and funding social services so there's less of a need for police. I believe in free housing for all." End description.]

*taps the glass* hey, y'all know that what you might want isn't necessarily what's best to legislate?

Explanation:

- You cannot be judge, jury and executioner because the division of powers was created for a reason; to remain impartial and try to keep corruption to a minimum.

- Every single living person has human rights. Including the most evil people you could ever meet. Those people have a right to live, to get healthcare, to eat and to have a job. YES, even evil people.

I've seen a lot of people talk about abolishing prison, because it's the cool, new hip thing that everyone is talking about. And instead of understand what it means, they think it's the liberation of wrongfully imprisoned minorities - which it is. But also:

Prison abolition means setting up a system of psychological and physical help for the people whom are deemed dangerous to society. Yes, that includes Evil Fucking People. Recovery and rehabilitation should be the goal, not incarceration. THAT is abolishing prison.

Of course I want that abusive piece of shit father who abused his children to die. I want him dead! DEAD. But it does not mean that that's what I want as an official law, because as much as I'd love to see him dead, the betterment of society and the rehabilitation and development of a human fucking being is important.

The benefits to prison abolition are ENDLESS. But it is also a struggle, and y'all can't keep going through life with a 5 year old's justice mentality. I swear, fandom has rotted your fucking brains off, because we NEED ACTIVISTS. We NEED TO KNOW WHY WE WANT WHAT WE WANT, AND WHAT IT ENTAILS.

You believe in something? Look up the activists who are doing work there. Read up on it. Look up videos. Follow them on their social media. Work in your communities, if you've the opportunity.

And stop being so fucking stupid about abolishing human rights. You're doing the work for the far right when you call on all pedophiles to be executed on sight. Not even twenty years ago, gay people were mostly thought of as PEDOPHILES.

You see how this shit goes? Yeah?

Then figure yourself the fuck out.

“I really want that fucker to suffer, but I don’t want a society run by my worst impulses” is a really important moral principle that more people need to learn.

If mob rule based on kneejerk desires for justice and revenge was in any way a good system, if punitive measures based on righteous fury made a decent world, we wouldn’t have invented law. We would have just stuck with that. Systems of law and justice exist to protect us from our worst impulses.

The point of getting rid of the death penalty isn’t that there are some innocent people on it. The point of prison abolition isn’t that there are some innocent people in prison.

The point is that the state shouldn’t have the power to kill people. The point is that the prison system commits systemic abuses of human rights, doesn’t reduce crime, is deeply racist, and doesn’t take the desires of the victims into account. To argue about whether one individual on death row or with a life sentence is innocent or guilty is just a distraction from the central issues, which is that these institutions are unjust and should not exist

Someday we're going to turn the prisons into parks. Someday our grandbabies will play there while we sit on the rubble and feed the birds like a bunch of old fogies. And they'll ask us what this place used to be, and we'll sigh and say, "Listen: Let me tell you a very long story. It's a sad story, but it has a happy ending"

We'll repurpose the prison walls we tear down into statues of Angela Davis and other abolitionists