The Left’s Concerning Push for Prison Abolition on College Campuses

The Left has found itself supporting a strange new movement on college campuses. Not only does the Left support socialism, open borders, and abortion up until the point of birth, but now it wants to abolish prisons. On November 8th, an anti-prison group called RailRoad held an event at Brown University entitled “Prison Abolition 101.” One presenter of this event was quoted as saying “The end goal is to not have prisons as any form of incarceration. Punishment at any stage doesn’t guarantee any kind of growth.” Another speaker noted that while abolishing prisons may seem radical, the prison system must be done away with because of racism. She stated that “Prisons were founded on the idea of punishing the poor, punishing people of color.” Leftists at Brown aren’t the only Ivy League students who have gone off the rails. A group at Princeton University named “Students for Prison Education and Reform” recently held an event where students stand in a 7×9 foot box (the size of a solitary confinement prison cell) in order to show what life is like for an inmate placed in solitary confinement. At the end of the event, the main speaker blamed “white supremacy and white privilege” as reasons for mass incarceration. Marc Lamont-Hill, the former CNN commentator who was fired for anti-Semitic comments, spoke at St. Olaf College, attacking President Trump, Fox News, conservatives, and–you guessed it–prisons. Hill was even quoted as saying that nation-states and prisons should be abolished. The viewpoints Hill expressed used to be considered fringe, but they are quickly becoming mainstream among college-aged leftists. While rehabilitation and reintegration programs are crucial for former inmates, the Left is embracing a fantasy world where individuals are not punished for their crimes. Furthermore, studies have shown that longer prison sentences may be an effective deterrent to potential criminals. Prison abolition is just the latest in a long line of nonsensical policies that leftists have foisted on the rising generation. Sadly, it’s unsurprising that the Left thinks releasing dangerous criminals back onto the street is a good idea.