an argument people make a lot against prison abolition is, "but what will we do with the murderers and rapists?"

well, I've been raped, so maybe I can answer that. tw this entire thread for rape and abuse.

firstly, fewer than 1% of rapists ever see a day in prison. in fact, according to RAINN, only 4.6 out of 1000 rapists are ever incarcerated. obviously, the prison system isn't locking up a ton of rapists.

but even if 100% of rapists saw jail time, I'd still be an abolitionist.

prison sentences increase recidivism. one of the biggest indicators of whether a criminal will reoffend is whether they're sent to prison. prison is not an effective way of getting rapists to stop raping; if anything, prison time makes them more likely to violently reoffend.

the washington state institute of public policy reviewed multiple studies about the effects of prison terms on recidivism and found that in almost every study they reviewed, recidivism was higher in people sent to prison rather than put on probation.

this goes for all crimes, not just rape, but since we're focusing on that, let's ask the next question: do prison sentences for rapists reduce the incidence of rape in the general population?

the short answer is no. the slightly longer answer is nope.

prison is not an effective deterrent for rapists, more than 99% of whom will never see a day in prison anyway. the threat of incarceration is not an effective one. if it were, harsh prison sentences for violent offences would reduce crime rates. they don't.

but does incarcerating rapists serve the purposes of justice?

also no. I can't speak for everyone who has ever been raped, but my rapist going to prison would not undo what they did to me. I would not be less traumatised. I wouldn't feel safer - why would I?

if that doesn't make sense to you, consider: yes, one person raped me, but locking up that one person wouldn't keep me safe from the threat of rape generally, would it? there are other rapists, after all, and they often don't show themselves until the act. do we lock up everyone?

some people want to see their rapists punished. I understand that, but it's not what I want. I don't think punishment is *useful* as a method of changing behaviour. what I want is accountability.

prison is not accountability.

in my ideal world, I would want my rapist to come to terms with what they did, to feel genuine remorse, and then to do the work of becoming a better and safer person. it wouldn't undo what happened, but it would make the world a better place going forward, and that's important.

what is the *goal* of our justice system? is it to punish people, or is it to deliver justice? because those aren't the same thing. justice doesn't look like perpetuating cycles of violence. justice looks like making the world a better place going forward.

most importantly, justice isn't about retribution. it's natural to *want* retribution, to cause harm in exchange for harm done. but it doesn't actually fix things. it's an emotional release, but it doesn't create fewer rapists. it doesn't change the world.

so how do we change the world? how do we make it so that there are no more rapists?

we teach and internalise accountability for our actions. we teach people in positions of power not to abuse that power, or we tear power structures down completely so they can't be abused.

we teach consent culture in every school and we start from the moment kids are old enough to say the words "yes" and "no" and we model informed and enthusiastic consent in our own lives, even and especially around people who cannot consent for themselves.

you cannot fix a cycle of violence by perpetuating the cycle of violence. by replicating the abuses of the carceral state, we reify the idea that it's okay to harm people if someone has decided they deserve it. but who decides?

rape is a conscious decision to do harm. you can't eliminate it by doing more harm. you can't fix it by threatening to hurt people if they hurt people. all that teaches is that hurting people is sometimes acceptable.

nobody deserves to be harmed. striving for anything less than that is just a continuation of a vicious cycle. you do something wrong, someone decides you deserve to be harmed for it. what lesson do you take from that? that harm is okay depending on who inflicts it.

who decides?

you might say, well, good people get to decide. but how do you pick out the good people? most people think they're good people, and many of those people harm others, sometimes intentionally. which good people are good enough to decide who gets hurt and who doesn't?

do I have the right to decide that my rapist should be harmed? if I do, how am I different from the rapist who decided I should be harmed? if I think some people deserve to be punished, what distinguishes me from people who think I deserve to be punished?

my rapist thought they had the right to do what they did. most people who commit violent acts don't think they don't have the right to do them.

so who has the right and who doesn't?

if you have the right, who are you to say others don't? because you're doing it for good reasons? plenty of rapists think "I want to do this" is a good reason. most people think they're acting for good reasons.

either nobody deserves to be harmed, or some people do, and if some people do, than anyone can be, because there will always be someone who, for whatever reason, thinks you deserve to be harmed.

does the fact that they think they have good reason make you feel safer?

rape is a societal ill. it cannot be treated with violence. it must be treated with compassion and humanity. we have to decide that *everyone* deserves to be treated humanely and then practice that every day in every situation.

people aren't perfect. there will always be those who delight in hurting others. some of them might be convinced to stop and others might not. either way, prison does not convince anyone of anything except that violence is an acceptable thing to do to people you don't like.

how do we stop rapists? by creating a society in which rape is unacceptable and rapists are *held accountable* - not just to their victims, but to their loved ones and their communities. we have to create a society where violence is simply not an option.

we are not there yet - far from it - but it's not unattainable. restorative justice works. community-based justice works. studies around accountability-based justice systems show that they reduce recidivism and promote healing and growth.

here's a source (paywalled): https://www.jstor.org/stable/23639090?seq=1

here's another: https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=v8Y8cZk8-g4C&oi=fnd&pg=PA108&dq=info:bSfqZDpOgvYJ:scholar.google.com/&ots=mwY8XwGMLw&sig=Oq1-9ldiy4RbqI8zQwHr73-qSck#v=onepage&q&f=false

I wish I had never been raped, but I can't make that happen. what I can do is help make the world a better place going forward, so that rapists are held accountable. that starts with breaking the cycles of violence that create rape culture. that includes abolishing prisons.

thank you for reading. you can support your friendly neighbourhood abolitionist here:

ko-fi: http://ko-fi.com/jaythenerdkid 
patreon: http://patreon.com/jaythenerdkid 
paypal: http://paypal.me/jaythenerdkid 

this thread is already crashing my notifications so I'm gonna have to mute it, but I really appreciate the people who've reached out to me via DM with their own stories and experiences. I'm always glad when something I write resonates with people.

I learnt a lot of what I know about the necessity of prison abolition from @prisonculture, who is not only a wonderful person but also incredibly insightful, so if you liked this thread, support her as well!