For one thing, abolishing prisons is not what they really want to do. In fact, they are reformists. "Abolish prisons!" just sounds sexier, and lets you link yourself with the abolitionist movement (which was actually trying to abolish something).
--- On Fri, 5/22/09, Itamar Shtull-Trauring <itamar at itamarst.org> wrote:
>
> A random article I read by Parenti certainly convinced me
> of that. Beyond
> the horrendous conditions and abuse, the *really* scary
> stuff was the
> explanations of how the local economy has come to rely on
> the prison, e.g.
> local juries that rule on felonies for existing prisoners
> in the prison
> for minor infractions. Which means longer-staying
> prisoners, and therefore
> more jobs for locals as prison guards.
>
> But I still don't think "abolish the prisons" is a good
> slogan for an
> attempt to fix the system.
>
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