The elision here, I think, is the result of the ambiguity of the discussion as it exists in this list, some of the participants in which are talking about abolishing the prison system as it exists in the US today (and replacing it with, presumably, a kinder, gentler, much less crowded prison system), and others of whom are talking about getting rid of incarceration categorically.
--- On Wed, 4/8/09, Alan Rudy <alan.rudy at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> There it is. Your response collapses all the
> differentiations made during
> the conversation about the number of not-dangerous
> criminals put away for
> eons under torturous conditions who would not be put away
> in other places,
> it elides the whole discussion of how there's basically no
> prisons in the US
> that aren't a torturous (remember, many folks on the list
> have suggested
> that losing your freedom, living with criminals far "worse"
> then you, and
> experiencing constant indignities is torturous - even if
> its not
> electroshock, rape or waterboarding) or violent experience
> (remember, many
> folks have [properly] expanded the definition of violence
> to verbal
> threats) that basically ensure recidivism and it
> misses the clearly
> retributive nature of a number of Doug's (and maybe some
> others' - I'd have
> to check) posts.
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