Only a crazy person would seriously suggest that we abolish prisons. So, naturally, Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez did just that in a tweet on Monday.
The New York Democrat said, “Mass incarceration is our American reality. It is a system whose logic evolved from the same lineage as Jim Crow, American apartheid, & slavery.” She continued, “That means we need to have a real conversation about decarceration & prison abolition in this country.”
Mass incarceration is our American reality. It is a system whose logic evolved from the same lineage as Jim Crow, American apartheid, & slavery.
To end it, we have to change.
That means we need to have a real conversation about decarceration & prison abolition in this country. https://t.co/9E9NTAmBNi
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 7, 2019
Despite facing backlash for such an outlandish proposal, Ocasio-Cortez has only doubled down on her stance. In follow-up tweets, she wrote “I know the term ‘prison abolition’ is breaking some people’s brains. The right is already freaking out.” And the congresswoman proceeded to dismiss conservative concerns at shutting down the prison system, suggesting without evidence that “We have more than enough room to close many of our prisons and explore just alternatives to incarceration.”
I know the term “prison abolition” is breaking some people’s brains. The right is already freaking out.
Yet the US incarcerates more than anywhere in the world.
We have more than enough room to close many of our prisons and explore just alternatives to incarceration.
/1
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 7, 2019
But only one person’s brain seems broken here.
Ocasio-Cortez is actually half-right on many issues of criminal justice reform. We do have a serious over incarceration problem in this country. But when she conflates legitimate conversations about criminal justice reform with abolishing prisons and letting violent criminals run loose, she does the entire movement a disservice and discredits its less kooky activists unfairly.
Let’s be clear about the “prison abolition” crowd: They have no viable alternative to imprisoning violent and career criminals.
When Ocasio-Cortez was pressed about “what do you do with all the violent people?” she, like most prison abolition activists, just resorted to buzzwords and pointing at shiny objects. The congresswoman replied, “Our lawmaking process means we come to solutions together, & either way we should work to an end where our prison system is dramatically smaller than it is today.”
Our prison system could use a serious downsizing, especially for the millions we imprison for nonviolent and victimless crimes. But there will always be violent criminals, rapists, and murderers, whom we need to remove from society. That means prisons aren’t going anywhere. Ever.
Thankfully, reform is winning in spite of such idiocy. President Trump recently signed the landmark criminal justice reform legislation, the First Step Act, into law, for instance, and bipartisan support is growing for additional reforms to reorient our criminal justice system away from punishment and more toward rehabilitation for those who commit minor non-violent crimes. But when Ocasio-Cortez and her liberal cohorts tie the criminal justice reform cause to radical causes like “prison abolition,” they discredit reform in the minds of sensible people everywhere.
