>However, nobody who advocates "abolishing prisons" seems to come up
>with a good answer to what to do with the truly violent predatory
>personalities that do indeed exist out there.
I think that's because they consider this a false dilemma.
Angela Davis and Christian Parenti are two of the best and most knowledgeable critics of what's going on with prisons in the U.S. They both say what we need is to focus on better and more just ways to deal with the millions, or many thousands if you want to quibble, who are caught up in the criminal justice system and who are not violent and predatory.
The simple answer to what to do with violent predatory personalities is keep them locked up. In fact, if we did what Davis and Parenti suggest, then more investigative and preventive resources could be focused on them.
Here's something from Angela Davis I posted last time we talked about this:
>The work that I've been doing, along with many other people over the
>last I don't know 10-15 years, really focuses on the demand for the
>abolition of the prison. Prison abolition. So many people refer to
>me as being involved in prison reform and I say no, I'm not. I don't
>want to reform the prison; I don't want to make better prisons.
>Although I do want to make conditions better for the 2.2 million
>people in this country who are behind bars. And of course for the
>many people who are in prisons controlled by the US, particularly
>military prisons all around the world. I do want to make conditions
>better for them but I don't want to build better institutions, I
>want us to think about the possibility of getting rid of the prison
>as the major institution of social control in this society.
<http://blackademics.org/interview-archive/november-2006-interview-angela-davis/>http://blackademics.org/interview-archive/november-2006-interview-angela-davis/