Prison Abolition and Prison Reform and the Efforts to Abolish Punitive Structures

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Undoing Border Imperialism: Abolishing Borders and Walls, Building Bridges
What is prison abolition? What is the difference made between prison abolition and prison reform?
Prison abolition is the struggle to eliminate prisons and the prison systems and create long-term alternatives to incarceration, such as rehabilitation that do not focus on punishment. Abolitionists have argued that authorities should not use prisons as a form of oppression but as a correctional facilities. They believe that incarceration harms society more than it helps. As Angela Davis argues, prisons are obsolete because they induce intense harm to society rather than fixing them (Davis 10). Prison reform, on the other hand, is the attempt to change the prison’s existing conditions and practices to improve the system. While prison abolition focuses on dismantling the prison system entirely, prison reform looks into new ways of improving it. Reformers challenge how the prison is administered. In contrast, abolitionists oppose the prison’s existence.
What challenges are presented in efforts to abolish punitive structures such as prisons and detention centers?
One of the challenges presented in efforts to abolish prisons and detention centers is injustice. Abolitionists find it hard to explain how abolition would deliver justice to the victims. They frequently point to restorative justice that calls upon the victims and offenders to figure out how to address their problem. This approach sounds good, theoretically. In reality, some offenders have committed serious violent crimes, like murder. If the government suddenly decides to free these people, it will deny the victims justice. Some released offenders would also resume their crime spree because it is difficult to transform a person overnight. Suppose abolitionists are concerned mainly with the injustice inflicted on the defendants by a brutal prison system but pay little attention to the injustice imposed on the victims by violent c...