Anews Podcast 247 – 1.28.22

From The Anews Podcast!

Welcome to this week’s podcast. This podcast is on anarchist activity, ideas, and comments from the previous week on anarchistnews.org.

No "What's New" segment this week

A reading from theanarchistlibrary: "What the Prison-Abolition Movement Wants" by Kim Kelly (read by Octox)

TOTW: Imagine abolition, with Ariel, Tori, and Post

Sound edited by Octox

Music:
1. John Lennon, Andy Rehfeldt - Imagine (In the Minor Metal Key)
2. Common ft. PJ - Imagine
3. Flosstradamus ft. GTA & Lil Jon - Prison Riot

There are 3 Comments

towards the end of the discussion, Ariel said something along the lines of (i paraphrase)"we don't currently have the means to rehabilitate and reintegrate these prisoners back into society/their respective communities". it was in the context of considering the implications of this scenario, so i'll attribute it to that and to speaking colloquially to get the words out, so certainly not directing this critique at her, given the rest of the things she expressed in the conversation shows she really gets it.

what i will say, for those who listened and may disagree with the premise of abolishing prisons and "free them all" no matter what they did, and for those who hear "rehabilitate" and "reintegrate" and don't give it a second thought: this notion of the criminal as a sick individual, a deviant from the norm, that once made to be well, will fit-in with the norm which is a supposedly healthy society and community, is wrong. criminals are a reflection of society, not the exception nor a deviation, which is why abolitionists seek to reform this society first of all. anarchists are not expected those most concerned with conformity to society's norms and to functionalist integration within it. the notion of rehabilitation and reintegration is premised on the assumption that the incarcerated individuals are in the wrong, and society is in the right. anarchists stand alongside the imprisoned against the society that criminalized them, not as mediators between them and the society which wishes to assimilate them.

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