Why we need to abolish and replace the Criminal Justice System
Talk at the Chaostrawler panel of the Remote Chaos Experience #rc3 28.12.2020, 17h30
Audio of the talk is now online here: https://media.ccc.de/v/rc3-9-you_can_t_reform_that_shit
EPILOGUE: I couldn’t access the streaming chat in order to answer your questions. If you want you can contact me via my contact form (in EN, DE or FR) or check out the media list I have uploaded in the above post.
Ich freue mich, dieses Jahr auf dem Kongress des Chaos Computer Club zu sprechen! Der Vortrag ist auf Englisch. Mehr zum Kongress hier: https://rc3.world/
To many people, especially those living in a soyciety influenced by Western culture, punishment seems the normal reaction to wrongdoing and harm. We think that wrongdoers „deserve“ to be punished, and that punishment makes our society safe and keeps the peace. But does it? We also believe that „it has always been like that.“ But has it?
Today, movements like Black Lives Matter and Indigenous struggles for self determination remind us of the inherent brutality of the prison, the police and the concept of punishment itself. Movements call for the abolition of the Criminal Justice System, proposing restorative alternatives based on practices as old as humankind.
The question we need to ask is: What really makes us safe? Punishment, says French abolitionist Catherine Baker, is „useless and dangerous“. Marshall Rosenberg, founder of Nonviolent Communication, even calls it „the root of violence on our planet.“
So how can we hack this society to do better?
