Legal Commentary

A World Without Prisons?

By TChris

Julia Sudbury envisions a utopian world in which imprisonment is not only unnecessary, but evokes the same revulsion as slavery. Until we find a more humane way to protect society from those cannot restrain their violent impulses, however, prisons will remain a necessary evil.

That reality does not diminish Sudbury's larger point: prisons are unnecessarily inhumane, and ever-growing prison populations are not the most effective response to crime. Rather than devoting a larger share of our shrinking resources to incarceration, society's dollars would be better spent on crime prevention. Reducing poverty and providing meaningful opportunities for a sound education, affordable housing, and well-paying jobs would help combat the despair and hopelessness that breeds crime. Helping parents learn to raise children in homes that are free from violence would also have a beneficial impact on crime rates. These are not easy or inexpensive solutions to implement, but they are more worthy of investment than supermax prisons.

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Reserving incarceration for offenders who pose a true threat would also reduce the harm that imprisonment fosters. Punishment of nonviolent offenders should focus on restitution, rehabilitation, and community supervision, not on deprivation of liberty. We need to stop using the criminal justice system to battle social problems like drug abuse and prostitution and public drunkenness. Locking people up is a simple-minded response that doesn't solve the underlying problem, and until the focus of society's response is on the cause rather than the behavior, recidivism is almost inevitable. If anything, prisons only exacerbate lawlessness by assuring that new offenders are surrounded by veteran criminals who pass along their knowledge of ways to beat society's rules.

Finally, to the extent that society needs to incarcerate the incorrigible to protect itself from harm, it has no right to dehumanize the confined. If we expect others to be respectful of our rights, we should show them the respect to which all people are entitled. Prisons should protect offenders from rape and intimidation. Prisons should provide decent health care, should screen for and treat mental illness. Prisons should not be warehouses. Prisons should provide opportunities for improvement so that offenders, upon release, will have the tools to change their lives.

We may never realize Sudbury's vision of "a world without prisons," but we should try. In the meantime, we should build a world that uses humane imprisonment as a last resort to protect society from harm.

Full post as published by TalkLeft on July 26, 2008 (boomark / email).