Pacifism and Prisons

by Tena Thau

What do prisons have to do with pacifism?

This question was recently posed to me by the editors of a pacifist philosophy publication, after I submitted a paper on mass incarceration. So I thought I’d write up some short reflections in response, laying out the case for why ending mass incarceration should be a pacifist priority. [1]

To be clear, I will not be arguing that opposition to mass incarceration presupposes any commitment to pacifism. Indeed, I think it is a virtue of contemporary criminal justice reform efforts that they can appeal to people with a broad range of political views. But in this paper, it is those already committed to an ethic of non-violence, my fellow pacifists, who I hope to persuade.

For the purposes of this paper, I define ‘pacifism’ broadly; I hope my arguments can be persuasive to a larger group than just deontological absolutists. Besides those who endorse a deontological constraint against violence, I also count as pacifists those who eschew violence (not necessarily without exception) on consequentialist grounds [2], as well as those who are committed to non-violence, but who may not have a precisely-defined or certain philosophical stance.

Incarceration is objectionable for the same core reason that violence is objectionable: because it inflicts immense suffering on people and upends their lives. (This suffering is borne not only by prisoners, but also by their families and loved ones – the collateral victims of the carceral state.) Just as we should be repelled by the suffering and death wrought by physical violence, so too should we feel sadness at the suffering and death [3] that the carceral system causes. And while incarceration, in limited instances, may be a necessary evil (see McLeod’s 2015 discussion of “the Dangerous Few”), the mass caging of millions is an ineffective [4] and morally unacceptable crime-reduction approach. Pacifists should campaign for a dramatic reduction of prison populations, and promote non-carceral approaches to public safety (for an overview of these alternatives, see Davis 2003 and Srinivasan 2021). [5]

Alongside our decarceration efforts, we should also seek the abolition of (involuntary) solitary confinement. [6] Solitary confinement is widely regarded as a form of torture [7] – and it is prolific inside US prisons. Tens of thousands of incarcerated people are held in solitary confinement at any given time – sometimes for months or years on end (Wykstra 2019). Many of those subjected to this torture are there because of trivial prison-rules infractions; Chelsea Manning, for instance, was held in solitary confinement for possessing expired toothpaste and a copy of Vanity Fair magazine (Merelli 2015).

Manning’s incarceration also highlights another aspect of the carceral system that pacifists should be deeply concerned about: the use of incarceration to punish those who speak out against state violence. In recent years, the government has aggressively prosecuted whistle-blowers who have brought US war crimes to public light. As I write this, Daniel Hale was just sentenced to 45 months in prison for his leaks regarding the US drone program – revelations which even the judge acknowledged were motivated by moral conscience (Gerstein 2021). Prosecutors had sought an even harsher sentence. And Manning – whose leaks helped turn the tide of public opinion against the Iraq War – would have spent 35 years in prison had Obama not decided, at the end of his presidency, to commute her term.

The misery wrought by our prison system doesn’t come cheap. American taxpayers pay a staggering $80 billion per year [8] to fund our sprawling network of cages. (For about the same amount of money, all public colleges and universities could be made tuition-free; Deming 2019.) The various corporations and special interests that profit off all of this do their best to ensure mass incarceration’s perpetuation, resulting in a “prison-industrial complex” that parallels the military one (Davis 1998).

But there is reason for hope. People across the political spectrum are coming to recognise the need for change. The cruelty and excess of the present system is just too glaring not to see. Last November, voters in California passed a measure restoring voting rights to 50,000 people on parole. Several states voted to legalise recreational marijuana. And across the country, ‘progressive prosecutors’ were elected with resounding support (Morrison 2020).

How can we, as philosophers, carry forward these efforts?

Probably the most impactful way for us to contribute is not through philosophy at all, but through political action. As Amia Srinivasan recently remarked, what social causes usually need is not “better philosophical concepts” but simply “more political power” (Maier 2021). [9]

So it may be that voting [10] (if we’re eligible), campaigning and protesting [11] are the most helpful things we can do. And if we have money to spare, we can do a lot of good by donating it to bail funds (Wykstra 2018) and to groups working on more systemic change (see Matthews 2021 for recommendations).

But maybe philosophy has something to offer too. When I was a student, I remember being taught that the best philosophy consists in deriving radical conclusions from obvious premises [12] – and for a while, I tried to emulate something like that approach. But a radicalism without purpose gets us nowhere: the philosopher is then just a provocateur. But, as Angela Davis’ writing on prison abolitionism exemplifies, a willingness to radically interrogate our common practices and assumptions, coupled together with moral purpose [13], can be a powerful force, awakening us to the injustices around us, and inspiring us to imagine and build a more loving world.

opp invites you to respond to this blog post. write to the blog coordinator with your pitch at val@oxfordpublicphilosophy.com

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

For very helpful comments, Tena Thau thanks Liam Kofi Bright.

NOTES

[1] This essay is also, in part, a response to the keynote speech from a recent pacifist philosophy conference I attended, in which the speaker repeatedly emphasised the importance of locking people up (CPP 2021). (Apparently, the problem with a country that incarcerates 2.3 million of its own people is that not enough people are in cages.) [2] For instance, see Mozi on “Condemning Offensive Warfare” (Johnston 2010). [3] According to a recent study, solitary confinement increases the risk of suicide even after one’s release from prison (Brinkley-Rubinstein, Sivaraman & Rosen 2019; a number of covariates were controlled for). [4] According to a review of the evidence on the impact of incarceration on crime by the Open Philanthropy Project, “the best estimate of the impact of additional incarceration on crime in the United States today is zero” and “there is as much reason overall to believe that incarceration increases crime as decreases it” (Roodman 2017, 7). [5] The absolutist-deontological-pacifist might go even further, and conclude that incarceration is never permissible. This would follow from the (not uncontroversial) premises that (a) the use of violence is never permissible, and (b) incarceration is analogous in all morally relevant respects to violence. [6] Solitary confinement does not appear to reduce violence in prison, according to the best available evidence (Gawande 2009). And while people are sometimes placed in solitary confinement for their own protection, organisations that advocate for prisoners’ rights have recommended alternative strategies for keeping vulnerable prisoners safe (ACLU 2014; Hastings, Browne, Kall & diZerega 2015). [7] According to the United Nations’ Special Rapporteur on torture, solitary confinement can amount to torture, and there should be a prohibition on holding a person in solitary confinement beyond 15 days (UN News 2011). For further discussion of the horrors of solitary confinement, see McLeod (2015, 1174-1180); Guenther (2013); Panetta & Waters (2016); and Gawande (2009). [8] And this is surely an underestimate, because it doesn’t account for the “myriad hidden costs that are often borne by prisoners and their loved ones” (Lewis & Lockwood 2019). [9] See also Dotson and Sertler (2021) on how intellectual analysis tends to “[leave] untouched the actual social arrangements” that we seek to change. [10] Though under certain conditions, conscientious non-voting may do more good than voting (see Halle & Chomsky 2015). [11] For instance, the organisation Jailhouse Lawyers Speak is calling on non-incarcerated people to participate in nationwide demonstrations in August and September (Jawanza 2021). See also Cockburn (2018) on the importance of mass mobilisation for decarceration. [12] Bertrand Russell (1918) has articulated this view: “The point of philosophy is to start with something so simple as to seem not worth stating, and to end with something so paradoxical that no one will believe it." [13] And an appropriate dose of epistemic humility! See Christensen (2009) and Bostrom, Douglas & Sandberg (2016).

REFERENCES

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Bostrom, N., Douglas, T., Sandberg, A. (2016). ‘The Unilateralist’s Curse and the Case for a Principle of Conformity’. Social Epistemology.

Brinkley-Rubinstein, L., Sivaraman, J., Rosen, D. (2019). ‘Association of Restrictive Housing During Incarceration With Mortality After Release’. JAMA Network Open.

Christensen, D. (2009). ‘Disagreement as Evidence: The Epistemology of Controversy’. Philosophy Compass.

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CPP. (2021). Concerned Philosophers for Peace: Keynote Address. Available at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3bIbFQsHYtU

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Morrison, C. (2020). Progressive prosecutors scored big wins in 2020 elections, boosting a nationwide trend. The Conversation. https://theconversation.com/progressive-prosecutors-scored-big-wins-in-2020-elections-boosting-a-nationwide-trend-149322

Panetta, F. & Waters, D. (2016). ‘You start seeing figures in the paint chips’: recollections of life in solitary confinement. The Guardian. https://www.theguardian.com/world/ng-interactive/2016/apr/27/you-start-seeing-figures-in-the-paint-chips-recollections-of-life-in-solitary-confinement

Roodman, D. (2017). ‘The impacts of incarceration on crime’. Open Philanthropy Project.

Russell, B. (1918). ‘The Philosophy of Logical Atomism’. The Monist. 

Srinivasan, A. (2021). ‘Sex, Carceralism, Capitalism’ in The Right to Sex. London: Bloomsbury.

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Wykstra, S. (2018). ‘A Case for Giving Locally’. Stanford Social Innovation Review.
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Tena Thau is a Fellow in Philosophy at LSE, working on topics in applied ethics and social and political philosophy. She recently completed her DPhil in Philosophy at Oxford.