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It's interesting to be reading Chanel Miller's Know My Name (the memoir the victim wrote about the Brock Turner sexual assault case) at this particular moment in history. We're in the middle of a national conversation about police and prison reform, and I am conflicted. /1
I just finished the chapter where the judge sentenced Turner to 6 months (which was only 3 months), and the injustice is palpable. "He should have gotten more time!" we scream, blood boiling. And yet. I firmly believe that prison is not the right way to hold people accountable./2
On a systemic level, we have decided that prison & sex offender lists seem to be the best consequences when someone harms another by breaking the law, like sexually assaulting someone. But we also know that a lot of innocent people end up in prison. /3
We know that BIPOC are disproportionately incarcerated for petty crimes (that shouldn't even be crimes) or given longer sentences than white folks. The system is unjust, a cruel way to separate "criminals" from society and get cheap labor. It is a reincarnation of slavery. /4
Prison is also ineffective. Sure, it may make some people reflect on the harm they did, but I'm not convinced it will work for everyone. But letting people roam free without facing consequences for their actions is not the answer either. What about accountability? /5
Accountability is tricky because we resist it, hoping to believe we are not monsters. There isn't a clear cut way to hold other people accountable. It may be that taking something precious from someone, like your friendship or their good name, will do it. But you can't be sure./6
This is where I don't have answers because I am not a policy expert. But I will use this moment of cognitive dissonance to expand my imagination. To imagine a world where people are held accountable for their actions but not in a punitive, unjust, cruel way. /7
A world where harm is acknowledged, internally digested, and truly apologized for. A world where communities that have been harmed receive the justice and dignity they seek. A world where wrongdoers are restored and given the resources they need to not perpetuate harm anymore. /8
I don't know how exactly we will create that world, but I do know that our current system of policing & incarceration is not it. I know people are doing serious scholarship on this topic. And I know we must hope for this world. Because if we have hope, then we keep fighting. /fin
