I am a Doctor now

[grue]

foucault's big problem with abolitionism was exactly that it proposed abolishing prisons while not adressing punishment, which in his mind meant extending prison mechanisms to the community

and I'd add that there's a big problem with abolition which is that of prison as detainment - prison is punishment but sometimes it's also protecting the victim from the agressor (d.v. or sexual assault cases for example). detainment is a very murky area because perceived risk is wildly speculative and subject to political nuance (black people may be seen as a risk to the community so arresting them is not punishment but detainment/containment). there's this abolitionist stance which says that yeah, do prevention if you want actual solutions (which I think is correct) but ironically this tends to overshadow "proactive" detention (incarceration to protect victims), focusing only on "reactive" detention (incarceration as punishment)

I say ironically because abolition should also be against proactive detention but then the whole thing falls apart because the issue is so absurdly complex

I hate prisons, they're a monster, and I vibe with the abolitionist sentiment, and honestly you could cut prison population in about 3/4 of its size without real harm coming to society. it's just that the theory often doesn't add up, which is nobody's fault, the whole thing is ineffable and I'm glad there are people adressing it in the first place