A Defense of (Just) Incarceration

• In Event: Poster Session: Current Studies of LGBT Politics & Normative Political Theory
  In Poster Session: Poster Session: Normative Political Theory

Abstract

Critical perspectives on the role incarceration plays in our society have become common place, with the position that the practice should be abolished altogether gaining some prominence. In this paper I aim to give serious consideration to the arguments in favor of abolition and the tests they present to our best theories of punishment. I draw on recent work by Tommie Shelby, however, I argue that his focus on a view of punishment solely justified by its ability to reduce crime means overlooking some of the most powerful objections to imprisonment raised by abolitionist thinkers. Adopting the perspective that punishment might also achieve other goods, which would provide grounds for its use, I engage with these objections. I argue that while they give us reasons to abolish existing institutions they do not speak against incarceration per se. This leads me to defend a position of “abolish but replace” with regards to prisons and our institutions of criminal justice.

Author

• Sam Boren Reast, New York University