As Eric says, why should a left movement, a movement which at its core wants the edn to capitalism, not even explore the possibility that rather large numbers of people, even millions, can if they are brought to look at it, become enraged over the horror of the prison system in the u.s. And the very system is a Horror, nto just a bad thing or a misused thing. It is an unreformable Horror. And as I said in a post a couple weeks ago, a left that won't fight that horror doesn't have the guts or the perception to fight anything.
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I have spoken to very few people who are enraged over the prison system in the U.S.
Few know what a minority of people are in jail for violent offenses; even fewer know or care that the prison system is the new implementation of Jim Crow.
And even if people understand that the prison system is a horror, "abolishing prisons" to them means to release of millions of people who, innocent or not, have been criminalized and traumatized and are therefore, upon release, either dangerous or useless.
So unless "abolishing prisons" is explained within the context of social justice and of a significant investment in rehabilitation, it is too scary a thing to contemplate.
So, I don't know....
Joanna