Why does mainstream feminism support the prison system?

Notable Quotes:

• “We need to ask: what actions would actually improve their living conditions? What will give these women food, status, education, a home to live in? When you have economic stability, when you don’t have to worry about how to send your kids to school or whether the state will deport you, you have the privilege of caring solely about vindication. You can live in a world of ideology and moral principles. But many women don’t have this privilege. Sure, sending an abusive husband to jail may make us feel like good just people, but what if it breaks up the woman’s family?”

• “We need to always ask ourselves: are we actually making these women better off or are we just satisfying our own desire to feel vindicated?”

• “Restorative and transformative justice is about removing privilege, seeking accountability, and hoping that lives can be changed rather than destroyed.

Other notes

• We often see SA stories of the “perfect victim”; white women. We never see stories of homeless women and their frequent SA.

• Landlords can evict people for calling 911

• “Both & Model” Men can cause violence AND need healing

  • Opposed to “either/or”

• Restorative Justice

  • A model of justice that aims to repair harm by engaging community members rather than having a single removed judge dictate a decision for everyone.

• Transformative Justice

  • seeks to address not only this specific situation of harm, but to transform the conditions and social forces that made such harm possible.