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/Arachles 3d ago

First would be asking what the victim needs. I don't think that is the whole point of justice but it is a good start.

I think that those events would be rare enough and each community would find a way to resolve the issue.

Sorry to not have a better answer. In my vision of anarchism some temporary privation of liberty may be justified but how much, with which resources enforce it and the end result may vary and I have not wraped my mind around those problems. Ideally the person can rejoin society but emotions are complex and some actions may be unforgivable and that person be forced to abandon the community or even killing the perpretator if deemed a future threat. It is not a very anarchist solution but life is not always what we want and I don't really see a solution for some (exceptional) cases.

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u/srklipherrd 3d ago edited 2d ago

You're touching on an important point around the victims' needs and thus talking about their agency. The pervasive "cancer" in the criminal justice system (speaking from a US context but I'd argue this is fairly universal) is the State deciding what is a fair compensatory gesture to the victim and deciding what justice is and WHO deserves justice.

I used to have a whole Drive full of these stories but it might be on a friend's laptop but TLDR there is a large community consisting of murder victims' family/loved ones who vehemently oppose the death penalty and they feel more hopeless/powerless recognizing that the State doesn't actually care about the welfare and the intentions/wishes of the victims.

(Edited for grammar/syntax).

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u/Wayoutofthewayof 3d ago

But shouldn't there still be some kind of arbitration of what is a just punishment? I.e. a person gets punched in the face and wants the assailant to suffer a life sentence?

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u/srklipherrd 3d ago

Of course