95 lines
5.5 KiB
Plaintext
95 lines
5.5 KiB
Plaintext
Abolish all Prisons !
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BAD Broadside #2
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The federal, state and local governments in the US are in the
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business of locking up huge numbers of people. There are over 48,000
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persons in federal prisons, twice the number in 1980, and 577,000 in
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state prisons. There are 235 prisoners for every 100,000 US citizens,
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with the prison population growing 15 times faster than the general
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population. Authorities all over the country are building more prisons
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and planning to lock up more and more people, with a projection of a
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federal prison population of 147,000 within 12 years. Despite this,
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violent crime, especially murders of young black and hispanic men in
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large cities, is increasing daily, with an accompanying increase in
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police harassment and violence. additionally, large numbers of
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prisoners (49% in Massachusetts) end up back in jail after they serve
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their time because they return to their prior activities. Locking
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people up does not prevent or deter crime, and does not keep those
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locked up from repeating their offenses.
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Punishment, not rehabilitation, is clearly the mission of prisons.
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In prison, besides being deprived of their freedom to move about as
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they please, people are abused and harassed by both guards and other
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prisoners. They are treated as children are usually treated in outside
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society, and then expected to behave like responsible adults at the
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end of their sentences. Prisoners are forced to work for no or minimal
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pay and are often coerced into working in especially dangerous, and
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sometimes fatal work, like fighting fires and cleaning up oil spills.
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Beating, raping, intimidating, enslaving and infantilizing people
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produces not caring, non-violent people, but angry, hostile, often
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violence-prone ones. Besides being ineffective in preventing crime,
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abusing people who commit crimes is unjust. When escaped prisoners are
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found years later living crime-free lives under new names,
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demonstrating that they have reformed, they are usually returned to
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prison to finish their sentences, and even have years added on as
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punishment for escaping. This is nothing but vengefulness on the part
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of cops and courts, not an attempt to protect others from criminals.
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Whatever offenses people have committed, it is inhuman and vicious to
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turn around and abuse them in turn. There are other, more just and
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less cruel ways to deal with people who are now locked up.
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Most people in prison are there for committing offenses not
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involving violence, and many of these are there for activities that
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harm no one, or least no one other than themselves, in any way, and
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should not be of any concern to the government or any one else. Many
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people are in jail for selling, using, or transporting illegal drugs,
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engaging in or soliciting for sex in exchange for money, or having
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consensual sex with people younger than themselves, of the same sex as
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themselves, or in ways of which the state disapproves. These
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activities are non-coercive and non-violent and should not be the
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business of anyone but the participants. Violence is sometimes
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associated with some of these activities, but that is because the
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government has illegalized them and driven them underground.
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Decriminalizing these voluntary activities would solve that problem.
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As for those offenses involving harm to a person, but not violence,
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like robbery, some sort of restitution makes more sense than
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imprisonment.
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Even for those who have committed violence against other people,
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prison is clearly not the solution. It does not deter murder, rape,
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battery, etc, and may in fact promote their repetition. The only way
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to prevent violent crime is to enable people to defend themselves
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against it. One way to accomplish this is to eliminate anti-gun laws
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so that people can defend themselves against others who may attack
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them. Relying on police has been shown to be ineffective in preventing
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violence against people, and the existence of these police forces has
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been used as a justification for disarming individuals, especially
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poor and/or black people. Besides this, police themselves are
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responsible for much of the violence against people that occurs.
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Handgun possession, especially by women, has been shown to be an
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effective deterrent to violent crime. When Orlando, Florida conducted
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a program where 6000 women learned to use and carried handguns and the
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program was widely publicized, the incidence of rape there dropped 90%
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at a time when rape was dramatically increasing elsewhere.
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Like most statist institutions, prisons are both ineffective and
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unjust. the only humane way to deal with the problem of prisons is to
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abolish them, and allow people, as individuals or in groups, according
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to their own preference, to organize their own self-defense against
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violence and theft.
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NO COPYRIGHT
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Please send two copies of any review or reprint
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of all or part of this to:
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Boston Anarchist Drinking Brigade
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(BAD Brigade)
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PO Box 1323
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Cambridge, MA 02238
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Internet: bbrigade@world.std.com
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March, 1990
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