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Police and Prison Abolition Thread

The case for capping all prison sentences at 20 years

I thought this was a good read, and makes a compelling case, touching on a lot of the issues that have been brought up earlier in this thread. Obviously doesn't solve the problem, but seems like it could be a reasonable step as part of a meaningful reform plan.
 
Whereas I might want to set a lower cap on most crimes than twenty years, but there are horrific crimes that deserve far more than twenty.
 
If people are interested in learning more about abolition, I’d recommend this podcast. Kaba is a leading activist and educator on abolition.

 
One problem prison abolitionists need to find a solution for is people like John Allen Muhammad and Lee Boyd Malvo. They were the "DC snipers" who randomly shot people in the Washington, DC metropolitan area in 2002. They would go to public areas, like parking lots, gas stations etc. set up their sniper site, shoot (and usually kill) a random person, leave and repeat the operation a few days later. Millions of people lived in fear and changed habits for the months the snipers were at work.

If not prison, what is the appropriate strategy for civil society to handle people like that?
 
Whereas I might want to set a lower cap on most crimes than twenty years, but there are horrific crimes that deserve far more than twenty.

Deserve for what purpose?

Rehab, retribution, incapacitation or deterrence? Or some mixture of these?
 
Growing similarities between prisons and public education as well as K-12 educates majority minority students also for the enrichment of rich white people.
 
On the origins of policing:

https://theconversation.com/the-racist-roots-of-american-policing-from-slave-patrols-to-traffic-stops-112816

There are two historical narratives about the origins of American law enforcement.

Policing in southern slave-holding states had roots in slave patrols, squadrons made up of white volunteers empowered to use vigilante tactics to enforce laws related to slavery. They located and returned enslaved people who had escaped, crushed uprisings led by enslaved people and punished enslaved workers found or believed to have violated plantation rules.

The first slave patrols arose in South Carolina in the early 1700s. As University of Georgia social work professor Michael A. Robinson has written, by the time John Adams became the second U.S. president, every state that had not yet abolished slavery had them.

Members of slave patrols could forcefully enter anyone’s home, regardless of their race or ethnicity, based on suspicions that they were sheltering people who had escaped bondage.

The more commonly known precursors to modern law enforcement were centralized municipal police departments that began to form in the early 19th century, beginning in Boston and soon cropping up in New York City, Albany, Chicago, Philadelphia and elsewhere.

The first police forces were overwhelmingly white, male and more focused on responding to disorder than crime.

As Eastern Kentucky University criminologist Gary Potter explains, officers were expected to control a “dangerous underclass” that included African Americans, immigrants and the poor. Through the early 20th century, there were few standards for hiring or training officers.

Police corruption and violence – particularly against vulnerable people – were commonplace during the early 1900s. Additionally, the few African Americans who joined police forces were often assigned to black neighborhoods and faced discrimination on the job. In my opinion, these factors – controlling disorder, lack of adequate police training, lack of nonwhite officers and slave patrol origins – are among the forerunners of modern-day police brutality against African Americans.
 
Deserve for what purpose?

Rehab, retribution, incapacitation or deterrence? Or some mixture of these?

For the DC snipers, some combination of incapacitation and deterrence for Muhammad. He had planned and plotted the stalking and sniper shootings for many years.

For Lee Boyd Malvo, add some possibility of rehab. He was a teenager when he did the killings. He was thoroughly controlled by Muhammad. Some time away from Muhammad and psychological counseling might make it safe for him to be in the community again.
 
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