No More Cages: An Abolutionist Approach - Georgia Executed Troy Davis
source: http://iheartar.com/2011/09/22/no-more-cages-an-abolitionist-approach/
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http://iheartar.com/2011/09/22/no-more-cages-an-abolitionist-approach/
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No More Cages: An Abolitionist Approach
In Animal/Human Rights, Denial of Rights on September 22, 2011 at 5:20 pm
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The state of Georgia executed Troy Davis last night.
Despite the substantial amount of doubt about Davis’ guilt — including 7 out of the 9 witnesses who recanted or backed away from their testimony (some saying they were coerced by police), three jurors who convicted Davis who later asked that his life be spared, and support for clemency from far-ranging people like former FBI director William Sessions, Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop of Atlanta Wilton Gregory, former President Jimmy Carter, and former U.S. Congressman and one-time presidential candidate Bob Barr (a Republican who supports the death penalty) — Georgia’s parole board decided he should die. And so last night at 11:08 Eastern Time, he was killed by lethal injection.
Troy’s case has brought international attention to deep, long-existing flaws in the U.S. criminal justice system. And unfortunately, there will be another Troy Davis in the future, and another, and so on, until we address the issue in a substantial and meaningful way.
Even as animal rights activists, we still have a responsibility to bear in resisting the oppression of human beings, being that humans are animals as well who share the same traits with non-human animals in their desire to live in freedom. As activists who work to get the inherent rights of animals recognized, we strive not to merely improve their welfare, but to abolish a system that confines and kills animals, and for the animal rights activists that identify themselves as “abolitionists,” the Troy Davis case is great entry point to a crucial critique of the prison industrial complex — we need to work on abolishing the prison system that cages and kills people, as well as abolishing the consumer-driven system that confines and kills animals. The punitive nature of the prison system is linked to poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, able-ism, and more — it is an expression of dominance and oppression, no different than the drive for dominance and oppression against animals for profit.
Since the invention of the prison as punishment in Western society during the late 1700s, criminal justice systems have so thoroughly depended on imprisonment that we have lost the ability to imagine other ways to solve the problem of “crime.” The current system is based on revenge and punitive measures that does nothing to address the wrongs committed and doesn’t rehabilitate the offender to a more positive member of society, caring little about the criminal’s need or the victims loss. We must rethink our basic assumption that punishment must be a necessary response to all violations of the law, or at the very least, have other paradigms of punishment.
Reconciliatory or restorative justice is an approach that has proved successful in non-Western societies — Native American societies, for example. The underlying idea is that in many cases, the reconciliation of offender and victim (including monetary compensation to the victim) is a much more progressive vision of justice than the social exile of the offender. There are other methods such as supervised release, probation, community work, and the use of community-controlled courts, councils, or assemblies to control the problem of social crime. We cannot be free to imagine other ways of addressing crime as long as we see imprisonment as a way for dealing with violations of the law. The abolitionist response seeks to restore both the victim and the criminal to their full humanity, to allow them to live in dignity and integrity within the community. Abolitionists advocate the minimum amount of intervention and coercion in an individual’s life and the maximum amount of care and services to all people in the society.
The role of criminal law needs to be drastically reduced, as criminal sanctions are not an effective way of dealing with social problems. There are far too many laws on the books, which is prohibitively expensive to enforce, resulting in unjust and arbitrary law enforcement. Powerless persons are incarcerated while more powerful persons go free. People of color and those suffering from poverty bear the brunt of unequal and unfair law enforcement. The current system of corrections does nothing to address the underlying issues of what causes crime. There would be fewer criminals if society treated people with respect and equality, regardless of gender, color, ethnic background, sexual preference, education, etc. Those with mental pathologies can be rehabilitated, or with a more comprehensive system of mental health care, be detected, monitored and treated before before criminal acts are committed.
The United States leads the world in the number of people incarcerated in prisons or jails. There are currently more than 2 million people in U.S. federal and state correctional facilities. According to a June 2006 U.S. prison study by the bipartisan Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, “Confronting Confinement,” 67% of former prisoners are rearrested and 52% are re-incarcerated within three years of their release, a recidivism rate that calls into question the effectiveness of America’s criminal justice and corrections system. Violence, overcrowding, poor medical and mental health care, and numerous other failings plague America’s 5,000 prisons and jails. Prisons are also used as a “default asylum” for many individuals with mental illness. About 30 to 40 % of mentally ill individuals incarcerated have had no criminal charges placed.
In addition to inequity and equality, death is an integral part of the criminal justice system. The death penalty here in the U.S. is a deadly tool of revenge–it does not act as a deterrent to crime, and it does nothing for the families and other loved ones of victims. Indeed, many families of victims who were murdered advocate against the death penalty. On the same day that Troy Davis was executed, Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed for the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas, despite Byrd’s family opposing the execution. Conditions in prisons and jails contribute to numerous suicides, as well as the death of people like Timothy Cole resulting from a lack of proper medical treatment. Include the many deaths while in police custody, such as the recent local case of John T. Williams being shoot to death by a police officer, and it’s evident the widespread systematic problem with the way we approach crime and establish guilt and innocence has fatal consequences.
So with the failings of the current criminal justice system, we must envision a different outlook entirely. It is simply not enough to work to improve the conditions of prisons, to work for more “humane” ways to kill offenders, and to regulate the way the prison system handles prisoners. We must work towards the abolishment of the current prison system and replace it with a community-based approach. More cages is not the answer. Bigger cages is not the answer. Abolitionists believe that it is only in a caring community that redemption can take place. The current culture of dominance is more in need of “correction” than the prisoner. The caring communities have yet to be built. If it takes the death of Troy Davis to galvanize a movement for change, then let his death not be in vain.
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http://iheartar.com/2011/09/22/no-more-cages-an-abolitionist-approach/
.
No More Cages: An Abolitionist Approach
In Animal/Human Rights, Denial of Rights on September 22, 2011 at 5:20 pm
.
The state of Georgia executed Troy Davis last night.
Despite the substantial amount of doubt about Davis’ guilt — including 7 out of the 9 witnesses who recanted or backed away from their testimony (some saying they were coerced by police), three jurors who convicted Davis who later asked that his life be spared, and support for clemency from far-ranging people like former FBI director William Sessions, Pope Benedict XVI, Archbishop of Atlanta Wilton Gregory, former President Jimmy Carter, and former U.S. Congressman and one-time presidential candidate Bob Barr (a Republican who supports the death penalty) — Georgia’s parole board decided he should die. And so last night at 11:08 Eastern Time, he was killed by lethal injection.
Troy’s case has brought international attention to deep, long-existing flaws in the U.S. criminal justice system. And unfortunately, there will be another Troy Davis in the future, and another, and so on, until we address the issue in a substantial and meaningful way.
Even as animal rights activists, we still have a responsibility to bear in resisting the oppression of human beings, being that humans are animals as well who share the same traits with non-human animals in their desire to live in freedom. As activists who work to get the inherent rights of animals recognized, we strive not to merely improve their welfare, but to abolish a system that confines and kills animals, and for the animal rights activists that identify themselves as “abolitionists,” the Troy Davis case is great entry point to a crucial critique of the prison industrial complex — we need to work on abolishing the prison system that cages and kills people, as well as abolishing the consumer-driven system that confines and kills animals. The punitive nature of the prison system is linked to poverty, racism, sexism, homophobia, able-ism, and more — it is an expression of dominance and oppression, no different than the drive for dominance and oppression against animals for profit.
Since the invention of the prison as punishment in Western society during the late 1700s, criminal justice systems have so thoroughly depended on imprisonment that we have lost the ability to imagine other ways to solve the problem of “crime.” The current system is based on revenge and punitive measures that does nothing to address the wrongs committed and doesn’t rehabilitate the offender to a more positive member of society, caring little about the criminal’s need or the victims loss. We must rethink our basic assumption that punishment must be a necessary response to all violations of the law, or at the very least, have other paradigms of punishment.
Reconciliatory or restorative justice is an approach that has proved successful in non-Western societies — Native American societies, for example. The underlying idea is that in many cases, the reconciliation of offender and victim (including monetary compensation to the victim) is a much more progressive vision of justice than the social exile of the offender. There are other methods such as supervised release, probation, community work, and the use of community-controlled courts, councils, or assemblies to control the problem of social crime. We cannot be free to imagine other ways of addressing crime as long as we see imprisonment as a way for dealing with violations of the law. The abolitionist response seeks to restore both the victim and the criminal to their full humanity, to allow them to live in dignity and integrity within the community. Abolitionists advocate the minimum amount of intervention and coercion in an individual’s life and the maximum amount of care and services to all people in the society.
The role of criminal law needs to be drastically reduced, as criminal sanctions are not an effective way of dealing with social problems. There are far too many laws on the books, which is prohibitively expensive to enforce, resulting in unjust and arbitrary law enforcement. Powerless persons are incarcerated while more powerful persons go free. People of color and those suffering from poverty bear the brunt of unequal and unfair law enforcement. The current system of corrections does nothing to address the underlying issues of what causes crime. There would be fewer criminals if society treated people with respect and equality, regardless of gender, color, ethnic background, sexual preference, education, etc. Those with mental pathologies can be rehabilitated, or with a more comprehensive system of mental health care, be detected, monitored and treated before before criminal acts are committed.
The United States leads the world in the number of people incarcerated in prisons or jails. There are currently more than 2 million people in U.S. federal and state correctional facilities. According to a June 2006 U.S. prison study by the bipartisan Commission on Safety and Abuse in America’s Prisons, “Confronting Confinement,” 67% of former prisoners are rearrested and 52% are re-incarcerated within three years of their release, a recidivism rate that calls into question the effectiveness of America’s criminal justice and corrections system. Violence, overcrowding, poor medical and mental health care, and numerous other failings plague America’s 5,000 prisons and jails. Prisons are also used as a “default asylum” for many individuals with mental illness. About 30 to 40 % of mentally ill individuals incarcerated have had no criminal charges placed.
In addition to inequity and equality, death is an integral part of the criminal justice system. The death penalty here in the U.S. is a deadly tool of revenge–it does not act as a deterrent to crime, and it does nothing for the families and other loved ones of victims. Indeed, many families of victims who were murdered advocate against the death penalty. On the same day that Troy Davis was executed, Lawrence Russell Brewer was executed for the infamous dragging death slaying of James Byrd Jr., a black man from East Texas, despite Byrd’s family opposing the execution. Conditions in prisons and jails contribute to numerous suicides, as well as the death of people like Timothy Cole resulting from a lack of proper medical treatment. Include the many deaths while in police custody, such as the recent local case of John T. Williams being shoot to death by a police officer, and it’s evident the widespread systematic problem with the way we approach crime and establish guilt and innocence has fatal consequences.
So with the failings of the current criminal justice system, we must envision a different outlook entirely. It is simply not enough to work to improve the conditions of prisons, to work for more “humane” ways to kill offenders, and to regulate the way the prison system handles prisoners. We must work towards the abolishment of the current prison system and replace it with a community-based approach. More cages is not the answer. Bigger cages is not the answer. Abolitionists believe that it is only in a caring community that redemption can take place. The current culture of dominance is more in need of “correction” than the prisoner. The caring communities have yet to be built. If it takes the death of Troy Davis to galvanize a movement for change, then let his death not be in vain.
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- groups:
- Activism, Veganism, Animal Rights = Veganism, Animal Rights
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- tags:
- Activism, Human Rights, Animal Rights, Abolutionists
