Rep. Alexandria Ocasio Cortez, D-N.Y., is calling for “decarceration & prison abolition.” And despite her head-scratching comments, she appears serious.
AOC defended her call for potential “prison abolition” as part of broader restructuring of the criminal justice system, in a series of tweets Monday, Fox News reported.
“Mass incarceration is our American reality. It is a system whose logic evolved from the same lineage as Jim Crow, American apartheid, & slavery,” Ocasio-Cortez wrote in reaction to a tweet from comedian Chelsea Handler. “To end it, we have to change. That means we need to have a real conversation about decarceration & prison abolition in this country.”
The naïve congressional freshman can have all the conversations she’d like, they will not minimize evil that is present in so many depraved people who’ve rightfully earned long terms of incarceration, which not only serve as requisite punishment, but it also protects civilization from the evil deeds of those imprisoned.
AOC referred to solitary confinement as “torture.” She apparently referred to a cell as a “cage,” and “humans don’t belong in them.”
Actually, some people absolutely belong in a cell, and law enforcement officers deal with degenerate individuals who’ve earned the right to be there. Moreover, despite what AOC and others say, these are not “pot smokers.”
Later in the day, Ocasio-Cortez defended her use of the term “prison abolition,” pointing to statistics that showed the U.S. “incarcerates more than anywhere in the world.”
“I know the term ‘prison abolition’ is breaking some people’s brains. The right is already freaking out,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted to start a thread. “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.”
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
First of all, many people in jailed or in prison don’t belong there at all.
Whether it’s punitive sentencing for marijuana possession or jailing people for their poverty & letting the rich free through systems like cash bail, we wrongly incarcerate far, far too many people.
/2
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 7, 2019
Secondly, our prison & jail system is so large bc we use them as de facto mental hospitals, homeless shelters, & detox centers instead of *actually* investing in… mental health, housing, edu, & rehab.
If we invested meaningfully, what do you think would happen to crime?
/3
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 7, 2019
Lastly, people tend to say “what do you do with all the violent people?” as a defense for incarcerating millions.
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.
/4
— Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (@AOC) October 7, 2019
“First of all, many people in jailed (sic) or in prison don’t belong there at all. Whether it’s punitive sentencing for marijuana possession or jailing people for their poverty & letting the rich free through systems like cash bail, we wrongly incarcerate far, far too many people.
“Secondly, our prison & jail system is so large bc we use them as de facto mental hospitals, homeless shelters, & detox centers instead of *actually* investing in… mental health, housing, edu, & rehab. If we invested meaningfully, what do you think would happen to crime?”
She continued: “Lastly, people tend to say ‘what do you do with all the violent people?’ as a defense for incarcerating millions. 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.”
A report published in March by the Prison Policy Initiative stated almost 2.3 million people were “held by the American justice system.”
Okay readers, sound off; tell AOC what you think of her misguided (and uneducated) proposition.
(Feature image: Flickr)
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