What is Abolition?

I’ll soon start posting some quotes and eventually some screenshots as actual development gets underway, but before I do I want to clarify my perspective. The plan is to have the player experience the role of the decision-maker (mayor/governor) of a fictional state in the U.S. This is a very limited perspective and I chose it because of my limitations. I have not experience incarceration and I have limited knowledge of movements and mass-organizing to create change. I think it’s very important to highlight from the start that real change happens from the ground up, with mass movements, protests, and civil disobedience like the Civil Rights movement. And like the Civil Rights Movement, the many groups and individuals participating can have varying goals and varying methods to reach those goals as long as fundamentally they are trying to move society in the same direction. I think taking the perspective of a leader will be useful to show the player the impacts of policy changes in a concrete and simple way, rather than the messier way that organizing often occurs.

All that said, I aim to include as wide a range of perspectives on prisons and prison abolition as I can, keeping in mind that I’m just one person and there has probably been more written and said on the topic than I could ever hope to read. Before this really gets off the ground, I want to head off a debate I’ve seen play out over and over. Whenever someone mentions abolition, there is inevitably a person (or many people) who chime in with something along the lines of “I agree that prisons are bad, but abolition is just unreasonable. It would help your cause much more if you called it something else.” First off, I think debate about these topics is great! More discussion is good and I think more people should think through the implications of their position. I am not an expert, I am not the only voice, and I do not claim to speak for others, however, I would respond to the above critique in a few ways:

1. Prison reform and similar phrases are ambiguous, easily co-opted, and easily watered down. I keep coming back to this article about André Gorz’s idea of “non-reformist reforms”. For years people have been attempting prison reform and what often happens is similar to policing. Provide more funding for training, or more funding to build “state of the art” prisons, or more staff, or even ankle monitors and other forms of bringing prison home with you. All of these reforms that can be framed as a way to improve conditions for prisoners end up entrenching the system of mass incarceration. More funding means more power, means more peoples’ jobs rely on continued filling of prisons. Additionally, once the physical infrastructure is created, it will be used. In my view, an abolitionist framing must always look at intended reforms to see if they are “non-reformist” meaning they reduce the overall power that the institution has over our lives, culture, and society.
2. If, as many critics claim, they are in favor of reforming prisons, then a more productive path forward would be to work alongside abolitionists who are often the ones tirelessly pushing for the reforms they want. I have not heard of an abolitionist who thinks its feasible to demolish all prisons tomorrow and let everyone out. However, even a non-abolitionist should recognize that the U.S. is so far above any country (except possibly El Salvador now) in both the number and rate of incarceration that the quibbling over when we stop working toward abolition and start implementing more moderate reforms should likely take place 10-15 years from now.
3. I’m sure there are abolitionists who will disagree with me on this point and I’m still learning more myself, but my impression is that prisons in Finland for example are so completely different from U.S. prisons that using the same word to describe them is misleading at best, and flat-out incorrect at worst. In 10-20 years, when states and the federal government have actually implemented the reforms necessary to reduce incarceration and create a more supportive and less punitive society, I may come to agree with folks that a rehabilitative center is still necessary for certain folks who commit certain crimes. However, I don’t think that center would share much in common with what we currently call a prison in the U.S.
4. I think of abolition as a mindset and also as a very long-term goal. Without that ultimate goal in mind, it can be very difficult to set priorities and decide on a strategic plan. In fact, an abolition mindset requires massive change across many areas of society, which is why it can be hard for many people to understand it. We will likely need to reform education, healthcare, gun laws, and build more better public institutions like libraries, job centers, and more to make this possible. Most objections to abolition should be taken seriously, as they are questions we will need to answer to create a better society. However, a lot of questions have been answered already! My goal is to provide citations that support the facts and impacts of the policy decisions in this game as much as possible to allow people to explore the parts that interest them. I don’t see it as worth my time to endlessly debate folks online about the name or framing of abolition. If someone is seeking information and wishes to change their mind, I hope they do. If they seek to distract and waste time proving some pedantic point, I hope they get out and start to do some work to make change and see how messy it actually is.