Abolish Prisons?
Angela Davis calls for the abolition of an institution

FORUM l Political activist Angela Davis wants to get rid of prison.

Calling it an “obsolete institution,” she told a Forum crowd that short of war, “mass incarceration has been the most thoroughly implemented social program of our time. Today, prisons are seen as sites into which undesirables are deposited.”

A mother from one of Boston’s poorer neighborhoods asked what should be done with men selling crack outside her home if prisons are abolished.

Davis said she understood her frustration, but “We can’t think there is nowhere else besides prison for these men. Prison has become the default. This institution serves as a place to deposit people we don’t know what to do with.”

The result is that incarceration relieves us from engaging in the real problems of society, like poverty and educational disparity, she said. In 1970, Davis was charged with kidnapping and murder in connection with the Soledad Brothers case and spent 16 months behind bars before being acquitted.