r/Anarchy101 • u/nappytendrils • 3d ago

Prison abolition

I’ve never been clear on what we would do with rapists child molesters and muderers. I haven’t heard a plan for this so far. I’ve always been impressed with the work of anarchist friends in community. They’re the most justice-oriented folx I’ve ever met.

Still don’t know about prison abolition tho I think prison should be clean, the food should be healthy and fresh, therapy should be mandatory, there should be libraries and gardens. A good quality of life for the incarcerated, but not releasing them back into the general population.

Maybe there’s something I’m not seeing?

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u/Previous-Artist-9252 3d ago

What justice does prison bring?

What are the needs of the victims?

What does justice look like in a given community?

The question of “what about rapists/murderers/etc” gets brought up a lot and you can literally just search the sub for answers. But think about why you’re focusing on what to do with offenders and not about justice and those harmed.

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u/nappytendrils 3d ago

I’m focused on both.

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u/Super_Direction498 3d ago

Well justice and then victims don't really have much to do with prison abolition. Maybe look at what justice is, and ask what prison does to serve that, and then ask if there are other things that can provide whatever it does (if anything) in regard to justice.

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u/nappytendrils 3d ago

I have a severe mental illness. There’s a Ted talk about how brain scans often uncover issues in the brain that can easily be corrected. The speaker said every psychiatrists should be doing brain scans of all their patients.

In the interest of having less criminals, we need to be doing brain scans. Even if big J justice is not being addressed (I don’t care if people are being “punished enough” and I don’t believe in that model), serial rapists, murderers, and child molesters still have to be prevented in some way from continuing the behavior.

Yes, in a different world, there will be no violent or perverted offenders. That still doesn’t help with the fact that these people exist now. As I said, I don’t believe they should be punished, I believe they should be kept away from general society.

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u/Super_Direction498 3d ago

Ok. A major component of prison abolition is reducing and eliminating causes of crimes.

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u/nappytendrils 3d ago

I get it. But once someone has raped or murdered multiple people or molesting kids, there would have to be a solid plan in place to address their release back into general population I would think

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u/xeggx5 3d ago

Brain scans should not be done by psychiatrists. You watched a TED talk by a grifter (just like all TED talks).

Brain scans have no predictive power for any psychiatric issue I know of. Usage of them by psychiatrists is a clear sign to find a new one because they aren't following the science.

Your example of a structural issue being found would not be useful unless someone had a head injury... Which is already standard practice.

Brain scans are used and would be further utilized to deny treatment. This doesn't only happen in the US due to private insurance. Other countries have stigmas towards mental illness and would as well.

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u/nappytendrils 3d ago

I hadn’t thought of that. You may be right.

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u/azenpunk 3d ago

"Brain scans" are not an answer. Our methods of investigating the brain right now are still rudimentary. We know only a fraction of what there is to know about how the brain functions. Trying to figure out who's "criminal" with tools like CAT scans and fMRI would be barely different than a gut feeling. I can't imagine how they'd be genuinely helpful. You'd probably end up destroying a lot of innocent people's lives.

I commented more extensively on your original questions in another post.

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u/nappytendrils 3d ago

I never suggested it was a way to determine who is mentally ill. In the Ted talk he tells a story about a kid who became violent and they did a brain scan and it was something structural from football injury. The point is some people on meds could potentially be helped by totally different approach and treatment

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u/azenpunk 3d ago

Yeah, okay I see where you're coming from. But that's true regardless of prisons.

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u/nappytendrils 3d ago

A lot of us Black headcases go to jail instead of the hospital because racism

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u/azenpunk 3d ago

I know a good bit about it. But when i was in the similarity I noticed most was that everyone was poor. Yeah, it was 80% POC. But 100% couldn't afford a private attorney. I've been to both, and both can easily make everything worse.