From the Exodus, to the Rise of Abolition
A conversation between two penpals.
(This piece was originally published in our Shavuot 2022 Mailer.)
William and Jessica became penpals in Fall 2021 through Matir Asurim. In the process of getting to know each other, they discussed what abolition means to each of them, and how they root it in and relate abolition to Jewish tradition and text. Here is an excerpt of their conversation and reflection on abolition and Jewishness in this season.
William: I define abolition as a coordinated systemic and cultural effort to shrink and eliminate the use of prison and jail in order to replace systems of punishment and caging with rehabilitation and community-based solutions. Jessica, let’s see if we are on the same page with this subject. If we abolish prisons, that means we will no longer incarcerate people as a way to protect public safety. Abolition means defining safety by making sure that all people have access they need to things such as education, healthcare, and economic opportunities in order to thrive. It's been proven in other countries around the world that wehen society addresses problems with the system – such as poverty, racism and inequality – individuals respond better and cause less harm. Abolition does not mean no consequestions or accountability. When people do end up hurting or stealing from others, we use restorative justice practices instead of punishment.
That means finding out why the harm was caused and giving the person the opportunity to make it right. There still can be consequences for harm, but consequences are only put in place to maintain health and safety, and not for punishment, which is ineffective. Things such as restorative justice circles, rehabilitation, or paying restitution would be used instead of locking people up, and those can be evaluated on a case-by-case basis according to what the person who caused harm and what the person who was harmed want and need. As a Jew, shall I not see abolition similar to the exodus from Egypt? The Passover pilgrimage festival and the story of Exodus being one of my favorite regalim. The Pharaohs, the persecution, the labor for unfair wages, how and what to be taught, the constant violence. Not the same, but similar!
Jessica: In the Exodus story, we read of a system of oppression so complete and all consuming that it shaped everything around it. In many moments I learn about the Exodus story from looking around at the overwhelming scope of the prison system today. Carceral logics, the ideas that flow from and back into punishment instead of accountability, seem all encompassing. And yet we are still dreaming and working for another world. We are actively imagining abolition, and then building practices and tools like the restorative justice circles that you describe, that will get us there. When we read the Exodus story, then, we know that are ancestors were resisting slavery, loving and caring for each other, honoring each others’ uniqueness and creativity within a system that tried to erase them.
William: I am really with you on how you view abolition in connection with Spiritual practice. This is core. Spiritual Understanding is highly needed as a foundation. In order to address accountability; it’s dealing with not always placing the blame on the offender. Once the Offender takes responsibility, and is accountable for his actions. There is a word I like to use “Criminogenic.” It means to make crime and condemn people of committing the crime for profit. Does that sound familiar? (like arresting someone that’s addicted to drugs, sending them to prison, then releasing them on parole with a stipulation that they cannot leave 100 miles out of the county; with only $200 dollars gate money; but released to a drug program that’s in the middle of a high risk drug area, in order to arrest that person again for the same crime).
So, do you see the problem? Also, if you owe restitution in California, you cannot be paroled out of that state, or leave the county the crime was committed in (unless you’re married), so, if you don’t have any family members home or a wife. “They” have just created one more homeless person, released back in the same area your crime was committed. And the cycle starts all over again. And No one! ever takes accountability for the root of the situation. So it’s easy to lose track of who really is the one placing the blame, and not being responsible.
Jessica: As we head into Pesach, as we head into Counting the Omer, as we look towards Shavuot, your teaching about accountability lights the way for me to a daily practice of abolition. Your writing and questions makes me ask 10the question: how are we taking responsibility for each other, every day? It makes me think about abolition as the seemingly small, everyday practices of supporting each other. Resourcing each other, and holding each other accountable for our responsibilities to each other, before, during and after we harm each other. My prayer is that every year, the journey from Pesach to Shavuot can support us to take every day acts of liberatory care, care and compassion that frees us from fear of each other and of ourselves. Acts of responsibility for ourselves and each other, so that each person’s holy Torah can be revealed.
