Abolition of police and prisons

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Abolish is to flourish! Against the prison industrial complex and for transformative justice.

See Critical Resistance's definitions below:

The Prison Industrial Complex

The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.

Through its reach and impact, the PIC helps and maintains the authority of people who get their power through racial, economic and other privileges. There are many ways this power is collected and maintained through the PIC, including creating mass media images that keep alive stereotypes of people of color, poor people, queer people, immigrants, youth, and other oppressed communities as criminal, delinquent, or deviant. This power is also maintained by earning huge profits for private companies that deal with prisons and police forces; helping earn political gains for "tough on crime" politicians; increasing the influence of prison guard and police unions; and eliminating social and political dissent by oppressed communities that make demands for self-determination and reorganization of power in the US.

Abolition

PIC abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment.

From where we are now, sometimes we can't really imagine what abolition is going to look like. Abolition isn't just about getting rid of buildings full of cages. It's also about undoing the society we live in because the PIC both feeds on and maintains oppression and inequalities through punishment, violence, and controls millions of people. Because the PIC is not an isolated system, abolition is a broad strategy. An abolitionist vision means that we must build models today that can represent how we want to live in the future. It means developing practical strategies for taking small steps that move us toward making our dreams real and that lead us all to believe that things really could be different. It means living this vision in our daily lives.

Abolition is both a practical organizing tool and a long-term goal.

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Canadian woman settles suit over being tortured in “dry cell” solitary confinement (www.wsws.org)

submitted 3 days ago by technocrit@lemmy.dbzer0.com to c/abolition@slrpnk.net

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Held for 16 days in a “dry cell”—a solitary room with no running water or flushing toilet—Adams was kept under lighted observation by sight and security camera, with no privacy whatsoever for the entire duration. She had been segregated on suspicion of hiding drugs in her vagina at the Nova Institution for Women in Truro, Nova Scotia.

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[–] HellsBelle@sh.itjust.works 15 points 3 days ago

Two reports from federal correctional investigators, Howard Sapers in 2011-12 and Zinger in 2019-20, recommended that the practice (of dry celling) be restricted to a maximum of 72 hours. In fact, in 2020, Zinger wrote, “In my opinion, beyond 72 hours there can be no further reason or justification to detain or keep a person in such depriving conditions,” adding, “After three days, surely this procedure becomes unreasonable, if not strictly punitive.” The Correctional Service of Canada rejected the recommendation.

Ofc CSC rejects any and all restrictions on their ability to torture inmates.

Fucking assholes.