pustluk:

“if we don’t have prisons, what do we do with violent criminals, rapists and murderers?”

idk but how about we don’t subject them to inhumane living conditions, deprive them of basic healthcare, expose them to physical and sexual abuse, or compel them into forced labor?

how about investing in an actual rehabilitative mode of justice that isn’t designed to encourage recidivism and where people have the opportunity to be taught to function safely and effectively among others, even if that process has to happen away from the bulk of society?

how about creating an adequate social safety net for survivors of physical and sexual violence to grieve and recover from trauma without having to worry about keeping a roof over their heads and food on the table?

how about fostering the strong social bonds that have been destroyed by capitalism so that people can actually have a supporting community and, like, care about each other’s wellbeing?

how about dismantling structural and institutional motivators or enablers of violence and abuse–especially a nuclear family that isolates children and exposes them to predators?

idk y’all i’m probably the wrong person to ask and smarter people than me have thought and written about this but like there are other answers here

Systems of punishment are not about justice, they are about power.

Whether in our own community or in the prison system, punishment effects only those without enough power to stop it from happening to them. It doesn’t ever make our world more just or safer.

Economic justice, consent culture and a focus on self-controlled healing does.