Are Prisons Obsolete?

The main opposition to abolitionist projects is people’s inability to imagine alternatives to the current prison system because of the dependence on it. Many activists who contemplate abolition seek one alternative to replace the entire prison system, but Davis believes that more progress is possible by looking into smaller alternatives for the many relationships in the system. As the prison industrial complex is so far reaching, Davis sees many potential areas for minor change that could destabilize dependence on the prison. Ideally, alternatives will create a society of equality and empathy that doesn’t push people toward lawbreaking. Davis invites people to imagine various scenarios of a society without corporatization, racial bias, or punitive justice as alternatives to our current system.

Davis proposes that an abolitionist’s main goal is to remove prisons “from the social and ideological landscapes of our society” (107) through a program of decarceration and social welfare. Many societal institutions—like schools and healthcare—work as “conduits to prison” (108) for low-income communities and minority communities when they should offer care and safety to all people. For Davis, a key form of decarceration is to decriminalize drug use and sex work, whereby institutions offer free help instead of punishing people for these behaviors.