Comrade Haikki! Would you tell us that [EMAIL PROTECTED] isn't on Kominform? For Communism, Milan
----- Original Message ----- From: j t <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Wednesday, January 02, 2002 15:19 Subject: DOWN WITH PRISON ! > The common belief that prisons are full of dangerously anti-social people > from whom the rest of us must be protected is a lie. It is a lie so > popular that even to question it is deemed to be an act of the wildest > utopianism. We are taught to regard the imprisonment of the few as some > kind of guarantee of the security of the many. But the many feel far from > secure. And the imprisoned are mainly harmless, or harmful only to the > extent that they are treated as they are. > > As a child I remember a cop coming to the school-cum-prison in which I was > being educated-cum-indoctrinated-cum-incarcerated to tell us all about > what would happen if we broke the law. He carried the authority of a man > born only a little too late for a career in the Gestapo and he terrorised > little children with fears of the dire consequences of their wrongdoing. > > Boys with stolen sweets in their sticky pockets almost wet themselves. The > cop painted images of dark dungeons presided over by men with the > tolerance of Old Testament gods. We all agreed that this was no place to > end up in. Next time our class went shoplifting the look-out arrangements > were especially vigilant. > > Years of being conditioned to fear the awfulness of prison hardships and > indignities has done much to strengthen the unhealthy respect for property > which so pervades the working class. Most people are afraid to take any of > what they themselves produce, not because they believe it really 'should' > belong to the property-owning minority (the real thieves) but because they > dare not break the thieves' laws. They are scared. The prospect of prison > is supposed to make us scared. > > As a means of teaching people to respect private property prisons are > remarkably unsuccessful. Most inmates come out with more knowledge about > how to get away with breaking the law than they had when they entered. > There is no evidence at all that prisons do anything very much except > scare people who are not in them and brutalise those who are. > > The tragedy is that most of those in there have been quite well enough > brutalised by the deprivations and degradation of being propertyless in a > property society without needing a prison regime to roughen their edges. > > The vast majority of the prison population is locked away for one reason: > they have violated the sanctity of property - taken what does not belong > to them. Why have they done this? > > Aside from the odd cases (not infrequently fictitious) of millionaires' > wives roaming around department stores and stealing for attention, the > main reason for stealing, whether from shops or cars or houses or > workplaces is lack of money and lack of the hope of making a mark in > society without gaining things which cost more than can be paid for. > > Stealing is a consequence of poverty and of powerlessness. Take away these > factors and who need steal? (Take away money and property and who 'could' > steal?) > > Millions of prisoners are incarcerated across the world simply for > disagreeing with the government. From the tortured wretches in the > hell-holes of Turkey, Saudi Arabia and Iran (apparent international > enemies, but all at one when it comes to the Dictatorship of Property) to > those in Britain who refused to become conscripted killers in time of war > (the "crime" which sent so many socialists to prison) or pay their poll > tax, what are these but prisoners of conscience? > > It doesn't pay to stand by your principles under capitalism. In China > there are approximately ten million political prisoners locked away in > camps. Don't hold your breath waiting for the trade boycott. > > And yes, there are the few - a small minority even within the minority of > the prison population - who are so damaged, so ruined by their upbringing > and circumstances, and so driven to brutality that they have murdered, > raped and committed unspeakable acts of cruelty and inhumanity. Is the > humane response to brutalise them further by locking them in cells and > punishing them for what society has made them? > > It has become a commonplace of mean-minded conservative sneering to deride > those of us who counsel compassion and understanding for those whose deeds > the tabloid press choose to call evil. (Their evil-spotting becomes > remarkably myopic when it comes to nuclear buttons and bombs dropped from > legalised terrorists in the name of international order.) > > Well, call me a "do-gooder" (which is preferable to being a do-badder) or > a softy, but the truth is that only spite can justify taking an inadequate > person and making them less adequate by throwing them into the hopeless > despair of imprisonment. These places are an affront to a society which > declares itself with haughty arrogance to be civilised. > > They are monuments to the barbarity of a system which cannot afford > compassion and support for the damaged and so buries itself in the futile > and spiteful torments of punishment. > > Jt > > www.worldsocialism.org > > > __________________________________________________ > Do You Yahoo!? > Everything you'll ever need on one web page > from News and Sport to Email and Music Charts > http://uk.my.yahoo.com >
