class: middle, left, title-slide # Prison Abolition: <br> An Outsider’s View<br><br><br><br> ### Danilo Freire, Brown University ### <font size="6">28th of November, 2020</font><br><br><br> <i class="fas fa-link "></i> <a href="http://danilofreire.github.io" target="_blank"><font size="5" color="white">danilofreire.github.io</font></a><br> <i class="fas fa-envelope "></i> <a href="mailto:danilofreire@brown.edu" target="_blank"><font size="5" color="white">danilofreire@brown.edu</font></a></br> <i class="fab fa-github "></i> <a href="http://github.com/danilofreire/prison-abolition" target="_blank"><font size="5" color="white">github.com/danilofreire/prison-abolition</font></a> --- # Why I'm an outsider * I'm not from the USA, Scandinavia, or the UK, where the prison abolition movement is more well-known * I've never been a prisoner or worked in the criminal justice system * I'm an empiricist and a quantitative methodologist * I'm a bit sceptical of some claims prison abolitionists have made (more on this later) * I'm a strong supporter of prison reform, but new to the prison abolition literature ??? Testando as notas --- # However... * I love to meet people who have bold and original ideas * I think we do need more "moonshot projects" * I truly believe that honest, open debates with those who disagree with you are necessary * I'm open to change my mind when presented with compelling evidence or normative arguments * I'm really thankful for the invitation and I hope to learn from you all today! --- # Outline * The case for prison abolition: Brief overview * Three sceptical takes on prison abolition - Can prison gangs and mob violence teach us something about incarceration? * How to move the discussion forward? * Q&A --- class: center, middle, inverse # The case for prison abolition --- # Brief overview * Contemporary discussions to abolish prisons started in the 1970s in Scandinavia ([Mathiesen, 1974](https://www.amazon.com/Politics-Abolition-Revisited-Thomas-Mathiesen/dp/1138021253)) and the USA ([Knopps, 1976](https://www.amazon.com/Instead-Prisons-Abolitionists-Honey-Knopp/dp/B000OO9KP8)) * Most scholars advocating for prison abolition currently take the American prison system as an example (e.g., [The Marshall Project](https://www.themarshallproject.org/)) * Five main points: - The prison-industrial complex is the modern equivalent of slavery - Imprisonment oppresses minorities and strengthen the capitalist regime - Resources used to maintain prisons should be spent in welfare, where they are more effective - Local communities can and should be responsible for public safety - Criminalisation does not address the needs of the interested parties --- # Abolitionism is attracting interest the mainstream * Articles discussing prison abolitionism have appeared in [Vanity Fair](https://www.vanityfair.com/culture/2020/08/the-abolition-movement), [GQ](https://www.gq.com/story/what-is-prison-abolition), [NYT](https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html), [The Nation](https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/what-is-prison-abolition/), [NPR](https://www.npr.org/2020/08/18/903546893/the-movement-to-abolish-prisons-and-the-police), and [Teen Vogue](https://www.teenvogue.com/story/what-is-prison-abolition-movement) * Growing academic literature on the topic - ~3,000 articles with "prison abolition" in the title ([Google Scholar](https://scholar.google.com/scholar?hl=en&as_sdt=0%2C5&q="prison+abolition"&btnG=)) * In the wake of recent episodes of racial violence in the US, there has been a surge in social media posts about prison abolition, too ([#prisonabolition](https://twitter.com/hashtag/prisonabolition?src=hashtag_click)) --- class: center, middle, inverse # Three sceptical takes on prison abolition --- # Three sceptical takes * **First take**: There are "crimes" and *crimes* * **Second take**: There is a supply of harsh punishment because there is a strong demand for it, and the demand should be taken seriously * **Third take**: There is little empirical evidence in the academic literature on prison abolitionism, whereas other public policies that reduce incarceration, such as deterrence, show reliable results --- # How to test prison abolitionism empirically? * The discussion on abolitionism has thus far only focused on theoretical and normative arguments * However, the public and policy-makers may require more evidence in that regard * Randomised experiments are unethical, illegal, and impopular * How could we approximate how a world without prisons could be? -- * One way of doing so is to look at communities in which incarceration is infeasible --- # How to test prison abolitionism empirically? * In many places, the state is either unable or unwilling to act * Two relevant cases: *prison gangs* and *vigilante groups* * Prison gangs, paradoxically, are one of such cases: they are created to regulate inmate affairs that are beyond the scope of the state * Most developing countries have areas in which the state has only imperfect monopoly on the use of force, so vigilante groups themselves punish criminals * In both cases, incarcerating individuals is not an option, either because they are _already_ in prison, or because there are no prisons available --- background-image: url(img/gangs.jpg) background-size: cover --- background-image: url(img/vigilantes.jpg) background-size: cover --- # "Crimes" and *crimes* * The literature sometimes mention "crimes" in inverted commas to question the validity of the accusations * They have a point: Many would agree that drug possession or traffic infractions should not be punished with incarceration * However, how would prison abolitionists deal with *crimes*, the ones which society largely believes are strongly immoral? - Gang rape, child pornography, cannibalism, torture, serial killings -- * How do societies without the possibility of incarceration deal with serious crimes? --- # Prison gangs * Prison gangs have strict codes of behaviour, often in the form of written constitutions * Punishment for serious crimes, such as torture or rape, is generally death * Some prison gangs, like Brazil's _Primeiro Comando_, also have "crime courts", where the accused can defend themselves * Their punishment is still much more violent than that of the state * Prison gangs also use "communicative violence", where the type of punishment itself is used to send a signal to other members --- # Vigilante groups * Vary greatly in size and scope * In developing countries such as Mexico and Brazil, lynchings are a common form of vigilante punishment * From 2011 to 2015, Brazil registered about 2,500 lynching episodes, and in 2015 alone 173 people were killed by angry mobs, an average of one execution every two days * Victims are generally accused of petty theft, and many are beaten to death for stealing mobile phones, cooking utensils, or pairs of sandals * Lynching perpetrators are often young men, but they also include female teenagers, elderly women, and even members of local police forces --- # Supply and demand for punishment * Lynchings happen more often where the police is unreliable, prisons unavailable, or people distrust the criminal justice system for being too lenient with criminals * In my research in Mexico, more democratisation leads to _higher support for lynchings_ * Citizens are not afraid of police abuse, but fear that criminals will be out for a long time before their cases are closed * Citizens in Mexico and in Brazil do not show interest in restorative justice, as suggested the prison abolitionists * Police Colonel Fernandes, in São Paulo (Brazil): "_we try to find the criminals before the people do. The strongest law in poor communities is the_ lex talionis: _an eye for an eye_" --- # Supply and demand for punishment * Psychology experiments also suggest that proximity and knowledge are poor substitutes for the desire of revenge * Dictator games consistently show that players prefer to make zero profits than allowing others to take most of the gains unilaterally. The effect is larger for players from less industrialised countries (see [Tisserand et al (2015)](https://motamem.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/05/ultimatum-meta-analysis-1.pdf) for a meta analysis) * Social punishment often goes beyond the severity of the crime: it serves a symbolic purpose * [Gambetta (2011)](https://www.amazon.com/Codes-Underworld-How-Criminals-Communicate/dp/0691152470) shows that criminals use mutilations to send signals to third parties; [Martins (2015)](https://www.amazon.com/Linchamentos-Justia-Popular-no-Brasil/dp/8572448918) argues that lynchings have the main purpose of dehumanising the victim, not to punish the crime per se --- # Reducing incarceration with deterrence policies * If prison abolition is difficult at the moment, other policies may help reduce the number of inmates in many countries * The most widely-known is to decriminalise minor offenses - Drug use, illegal gambling, traffic violations * However, deterrence policies also seem to work even for serious crimes * Deterrence policies are those that discourage criminal activities * They are based on the _threat_ of sanctions rather than punishments themselves --- # Reducing incarceration with deterrence policies * [Gary Becker (1968)](https://www.jstor.org/stable/1830482) formulated the modern version of the theory * [Braga et al (2018)](https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9133.12353), in a recent systematic review, "demonstrate that focused deterrence strategies are associated with an overall statistically significant, moderate crime reduction effect" * The effect is particularly large for variants that try to dissuade groups to engage in violence ([RAND 2020](https://www.rand.org/pubs/tools/TL261/better-policing-toolkit/all-strategies/focused-deterrence/in-depth.html)) * Deterrence policies do not argue to abolish prisons, but their effect leads to a reduction of incarceration rates --- # Reducing incarceration with deterrence policies * They work even in situations where the state is not present and in countries which had suffered civil wars (see [Blattman et al (2017)](https://www.aeaweb.org/articles?id=10.1257/aer.20150503)) * While deterrence seems to fall short of the expectations of prison abolitionists, it may serve as a good start to bring the discussion to a wider public --- class: center, middle, inverse # Humble suggestions to move the prison abolition discussion forward --- # Wrapping up * Prison abolition is a noble goal, but it may not be feasible * Serious crimes remain an issue for prison abolition * Current evidence indicates that societies without prisons are more violent that those which use incarceration methods * The demand for punishment is real and may not be supplemented by restorative justice * Other policies may reduce incarceration rates more rapidly --- # A few ideas for further discussion * Maybe prison abolition should be understood as an "unfinished" movement, and "_thus conceive of struggles as being unending, without finality_" ([Carrier and Piché 2015](https://doi.org/10.4000/champpenal.9162)) * While this approach is probably unsatisfying for some, it can equate prison abolitionists' demands with the hard questions the movement still faces * Historical examples where prisons were abolished or non-existent can also benefit the arguments prison abolitionists make * Abolitionists can also look for "low-hanging fruits" in criminology, sociology, and economics: Many policies that have strong evidence in their favour may not pass into law because of lack of public mobilisation --- # A few ideas for further discussion * Tackling the demand for punishment is hard, and sometimes a top-down approach is more effective - The abolition of the death penalty was "_a countermajoritarian reform, imposed with limited popular support and usually in direct contravention of majority public opinion_" [(Garland, 2010)](https://www.amazon.com/Peculiar-Institution-Americas-Penalty-Abolition/dp/0674066103) * Activists have found support from groups across the political spectrum, specially right-wing libertarians, yet mass public support for abolishing prisons from serious crimes will be difficult -- * These challenges are not small, but we need to face them if we want to move beyond return --- class: center, middle, inverse # Thank you very much! :) --- # Let's keep in touch! * Danilo Freire: - [danilofreire@gmail.com](mailto:danilofreire@gmail.com) - <http://danilofreire.github.io> - <http://github.com/danilofreire/prison-abolition>