The Case for Prison Abolition: Ruth Wilson Gilmore on COVID-19, Racial Capitalism & Decarceration
ฝัง
- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 พ.ค. 2020
- #DemocracyNow
Democracy Now! is an independent global news hour that airs on nearly 1,400 TV and radio stations Monday through Friday. Watch our livestream 8-9AM ET: democracynow.org
Please consider supporting independent media by making a donation to Democracy Now! today: democracynow.org/donate
FOLLOW DEMOCRACY NOW! ONLINE:
TH-cam: / democracynow
Facebook: / democracynow
Twitter: / democracynow
Instagram: / democracynow
SoundCloud: / democracynow
iTunes: itunes.apple.com/podcast/demo...
Daily Email Digest: democracynow.org/subscribe
Thank you for having Ruth Wilson Gilmore on the show. I have been introduced to so many voices for justice and tikun olam that I otherwise would not have through this show.
DN! Thanks so much for bringing this scholar to light. Ruth Wilson Gilmore: my new hero!
What a brilliant scholar!!!
Goodness. A voice of reason on the level of Dr. Cornell West
It is a narrative we've grown to believe to be set in stone with regard to criminals and prisons, and that's actually a mental prison in itself. It's a brilliant and long over due step forward to change our perspective, to open up to new ways for thinking and acting, because plainly, the present way isn't working out that well and never has.
I'd never thought of it that way but your mental prison analogy works so brilliantly at ultimately describing what it takes to be on board with abolitionism. It's a huge mental hurdle to overcome believing in the efficacy of the prison and criminal narrative.
I'd discovered Professor Gilmore this time last year from a nytimes piece 'are prisons necessary'. The wonderful thing about a lot of what she says is that I never get the feeling I'm being lectured by some lofty academic with pie in the sky ideas.
To most, the general premise of her stance that prisons shouldn't exist and don't work; is for some so radical that it's not even thought about before it's laughed at.
At the core of the central message of abolitionism is an activism protecting the rights and dignity of people and the environment.
I'm in my early 20s now but I think in my lifetime this will grow into an unavoidable movement decades from now, although... I think we could handle it now 😉
@@BlakJetTek Yes, I think one fine day this has to take root. It's a slow business it seems, changing people's ways of looking at things, but it's surprising how much world events such as this virus are doing that. Changing the minds of governments is another matter entirely, so long as they're swayed by business interests above almost everything else it is anyway. "It'll change, whatever it is." Saying of Mohamed.
Don't abolish prisons. Some people do belong there. What should be banned is prisons for profit and encalceration of the poor, and dessavantaged.
People punishing innocent people also deserve something in return for their irresponsibility managing the construction and the rule of law.
There are really bad people out there who are dangerous to society as a whole. They should be hold accountable.
There are those with severe and permanent mental and personality disorders that make them a consistent threat to others, and they must be detained in a way that keeps them safe from their capacity to inflict their disorder on others. To that end, you are correct.
What is lost in that absolute and narrow stance, is that, (A) their imprisonment in no way treats or seeks to understand their conditions. (B) People who are not of those severe pathological conditions are treated in that same insufficient manor.
We do not seek to rehabilitate any of them with our policy, we do not seek to better understand the neurological and psychological influences with out policy, we do not seek to prepare them or integrate them into society with our policy. Even the institution and system to give them a fair defense depends more on economic factors, motive and disposition of justice systems with no oversight and blatant cronyism, and the positive feedback loop of incentive from privatized prison industry and elected officials to see increase in incarceration.
Thanks, DN!
We need a law that supersedes all existing law. One that does not fill up whole libraries and is so complicated that even experts on the law can not understand or know it all. I call it the MIND YOUR OWN BUSINESS LAW. If what a person or business is not harming you, others or the environment then it is none of your business. Indeed the only way to achieve real freedom is to have this law. Most of our laws are designed to create the right to control others.
I agree, however, the issue now comes in the form of determining what is causing harm to self, others or environment, here the biases and subjectivity will flow freely. Harm is also difficult to quantify as effects can be tangible or intangible. We can certainly do better than we are now though.
@@thomas0086 You muddied the water by introducing the clause "causing harm to self." This opens up a can of worms that can be used to justify Orwellian government activity like the drug war. The police and courts should focus on protecting people from the harmful acts of others instead of "protecting people from causing harm to self" -- i.e., getting high on a particular substance not approved by the police state.
This is a voice America needs to hear from
My husband has committed a violent crime but that doesn't mean that he is violent. Uh actually it does mean that he is violent.
Very good reporting👍
What a fantastic piece. I've tried to join transformative justice in different ways over the years. It's hard to find. I survived an on-campus gun shot and tried to use transformative justice circle in 80's. The shooter and gun owner came but they couldn't admit to it or be at risk of criminal charges. So the school expelled them. The shooter was killed a year later. Now, more states allow admittance of guilt during transformative justice circles so victims can resolve the trauma with the perpetrator. This is good. We are healing deep systemic cruelty by the abolition of the industrial prison complex.
Hard to believe that there are people this naive in the world.
I love what you are doing!
Thanks Amy for this episode
some people has more HUMAN RIGHT than others!
There are no human rights in America only corporate rights
Some people have rights to live and others not so much.
If it wasn't for prison there wouldn't be any place that would be able to protect the criminals from society.
@@lowhydrogen7018a1 we should execute the executors
That is such a good point I never use.....a lot of those people would have been revenge murdered already. You get a like for that point.
1 thing that really blows my mind every time an issue with our society pops up, is that when u look into causal or contributing factors, there are factors to the factors & so on, degrading in relevance as per division or separation. the complexity of the situation & the interaction of outcomes stemming from different actions (conflicting & co-operating) looks to make some situations unworkable
Work release and no felony after 5 years of no more crimes
First offence.
All have a chance to rebuild their lives.
@@poppyflower7873 yes...true..
Sometimes not always so easy to do ...
Shalom
And what when a person murders others? Just give them probation?
@@ebayguy38 in NYS many given parole after 25 years.
Sad but what people voted in. Death penalty abolished in 1986...after many innocent men killed in error by state.
Not easy answer.
Thank you professor Gilmore. My husband is in Az prison for 52.5 years for no violence charges.
That's insanity. I'm sorry...so sorry to hear that.
I would like to hear details
@@davidhutchinson5233 why are you sorry you don't know what he did he could have been selling heroin to grade schoolers is it violent no. Is it evil I would think so. If someone is going to write a statement like that maybe we should get a little more context before being apologetic. People normally don't get 50 plus years for being a stand up guy
non-violent crimes can be punished in ways that benefit society. prison is essentially a grad school for non-violent prisoners to be radicalized into hardcore criminals.
2plus years in Joliet state prison early 90s trust me most of us deserve to be locked up can't just let people out most plead guilty to lesser crime who knows what they really did to get there
I know two older men that were in prison when they were in their 20s. Both if them told me. "I was a bad man" One said prison saved his life.
I am no fan of the drug wars putting people in prison though. And this lady agree with everything she says or not, is quite brilliant
So prison is not the right response to crime? Even violent crime? Agreed, we need to reduce criminogenic conditions, but what is the alternative to prison for violent criminals?
Hi security mental hospitals.
as a IROQUOIS we didn't have any things like these prisons. We taught,counselled, and most of all important.......sharing...you people don't share enough.....consensus, no money
Agreed
And yet when someone murders, your system would fail.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore is a asset to the community. One great communicator.
ow yah , not sure if this is worth bringing up, but u could use a drill & rubber interface to put the lids on the bottles, with a little tweak in product conveying) might speed up production & lower risk of RSI
Obviously, hardcore violent offenders would be processed accordingly and firmly separated out from the population.
Seems obvious but should always be stated I think to make that clear.
So we letting out Dylann Roof, and James Fields too?
9:34 just because my husband has been convicted of a violent crime doesn’t mean he’s a violent person.....BWA HA HA HA HA !!!!!
It could never have prison abolition yes human rights is good but that will be more trouble than you can bargain for.....! that is insane! yes protection for prisoners is good they are humans....but you cannot let them into a community to create havoc....
Then abolish private prison..which uses prisoners for Slave Labors...amend the 13th amendment to truly abolish Slavery...no one is talking about letting true criminals run free...but we're here in the US putting people in jail for decades for non violent crimes..and we the tax payers are paying hundreds of thousands of dollars to house them...while private prisons can also use the states if their prisons aren't kept 97% full...😞😞😞...but I digress I guess it's ok as long as it's the poor and uncared for people in society in prisons...😞😞😞
Private prisons can SUE the states..is what I was saying...if there not kept 97% full...no other country houses prisoners that long no matter what the crime and their countries have no where near the crime rates we supposedly have...think about that if long term prison sentences worked we'd have no crime now would we....but I digress cause our justice system is sooooooooooooo fair and just right?😞😞😞
Jodie Benjamin You clearly weren’t paying attention to what was said.
Paused the video at 9:23...didn't understand why they brought this lady on
Is punishment ever justified according to the prison abolitionist sure doesn’t sound like it
I'm all for prism form, but what in the world does this really mean? What is abolishing prisons?
Wow, what an incredible intellect Ruth has. And not only that, she has the superior communications skills necessary to express her ideas to a broad audience.
Abolish prisons? Ooooh I want to see the chaos from that....lets do it
Of course she wants to let people out of prison because she won’t have to live around any of the lovely people they let out of the prisons. Sorry honey, no thanks. Not all of us can Jetset off to Portugal whenever we want to.
Or, she lives in Portugal because they are more in line with a just society, and lives around the lovely people they let out of prisons.
They got to free up beds. Too many ppl on the streets.
Letting bad people out of prison will not be a good thing.
Where exactly is the part, where they suggested, releasing BAD people out of prisons?
Nobody is good. All sins and need to repent.🙏
end capitalism
@Some Guy435 capitalists will sell us the rope we will hang them with
If abolition of the prison system is working outside of the United States so well why not stay in those wonderful countries rather than migrate to the US and then criticize?
What these people are arguing redefines fringe
@Paul B Good one.
L.A.W.S.
Legal Arm of White Supremacy
We just need to stop creating new problems and deal with the ones we have.
As I recall, totalitarian societies simply execute criminals which keeps the prison population marvelously low. Britain used to hang thieves or ship them to the US or Australia. In primitive societies, the victim or victim's family is permitted to exact revenge or, if the crime is against the entire community, the criminal is sent into exile. But no rational government turns convicted criminals loose on a law-abiding public. No doubt we could do more to rehabilitate criminals, but as with alcoholics, rehabilitation presumes a willing and motivated offender, which is seldom the case. In any event, "decarceration" is psychobabble, not a solution.
Respect to Ms. Gilmore for her advocacy. The corporate structure in Amerikkka prevents real reform because financial pressure privileges short term gain over things like mental healthcare, of which prisons are our largest provider.
Be healthy 🌿
What a stupid thing to say
Dictionary
Search for a word
neglect
/nɪˈɡlɛkt/
Learn to pronounce
verb
fail to care for properly.
"the old churchyard has been sadly neglected"
Similar:
fail to look after
fail to care for
fail to provide for
leave alone
abandon
forsake
uncared for
mistreated
abandoned
lol no
I'm sorry but the first woman wasn't making any kinda sense at all.
Sp There were several women who spoke throughout this video. Also, you used the plural form of “woman” when discussing a single woman. This might be a clue as to your ability to comprehend basic concepts.
serendipidus1 So your claiming that it is profitable to fight crime? How? To whom? If anything its a liability in terms of cost. And you have to be more specific in terms of what kinda issues you claim the government should solve that would make a particular “outcome” like you claim, vanish as a criminal problem.
I mean Trump will not lift a finger for brown and black workers
Sure that's going to make women feel much safer out at night!
🙏😷🌍
This woman is crazy!
9:40 --> selective release & cherry-picking of data. 1 of the many banes of my existence
Oh yes, I believe that every murderer, serial killer, child rapist, police officer who was killed a black person, should be released from prison to commit more crimes. This is such a great idea.
no one who's killed a cop should be in jail, true
Maddness---serial killers free...WOW!!!
This woman is naive. Some of her ideas are good but the simple truth is that some people cannot just be let go. We cannot simply abolish prisons. It's childish and foolish to think that's fair or plausible. The goal of prison is partly for punishment and not just rehabilitation.
9:24 "My husband has been convicted of a violent offense. That doesn't mean that he's a violent person." Uh, actually it does. At least by the official standard and by what most people would think.
That caveman cop in the NY cap without a mask needs to be removed for abusing his position pf power! And seek anger/ego management counseling.
Hibristofilia...wikipedia.
10:22 the use of the word “inmate” vs an incarcerated person..... BWA HA HA HA HA HA!!!!!’
HAHAHA HAHAHA
Free all Prisoners, JESUS says time SERVED.....
The primary reason for the reduction in CA's prison pop in recent years is the legalization of marijuana. That's made a big difference, especially in poorer communities, since it can no longer be used by police as probably cause for searches and hassling. That would have happened a lot sooner if it wasn't for self-righteous old ladies like Gilmore who think that men shouldn't be allowed to do drugs and drink and smoke and such. Most of the nonviolent prisoners are there because of the War on Drugs, and the War on Drugs was created by self-righteous liberal women and black community leaders.
Got it- So the war on drugs was down to liberal women and black people! 👍And there was not a single white man who had a hand in its creation and benefitted from this war?
Haaaaa! They keep giving. Abolish the Police but, like er, you know, we'll have another force like, er , the Police , but , like not the Police....Then we'll catch the criminals who broke our laws and , like put then in, like you know, not prison but a building with walls and bars and guards but, like,er, it won't be actual prison in the old oppressive sense...like er......you know....HAAAAAAAAAAAAA! If it were not so fucking comical it would be ....er, like...even more comical!!!!
lmao yeah set them all free and lock up people that go to parks with their kids!
Trump is a great man and president
Lmao. You here trolling.