You are warmly welcomed to join the Wellington Anarchist Black Cross and the Aotearoa Workers Solidarity Movement for a discussion about abolishing prisons. We invite you to bring along your ideas and experience to share...
We live in one of the most incarcerated countries in the Western world. New Zealand is second behind only the United States in imprisoning its population, and primarily imprisons its indigenous population. Incarceration for Maori men is 6x that for the rest of the population and for Maori women, closer to 8x higher.
The very nature of prisons is being fundamentally changed. Under new 'private' prisons, incarcerated people will be commodities sold to the lowest bidder. Meanwhile, the Department of Corrections estimates that 4 new prisons will need to be built to accommodate all the people who are being turned into prisoners by the extension of draconian laws and sentencing policies.
Prisons exist to punish and control the poor / working class, not to stop crime or rehabilitate people. Resistance to the prison-industrial complex and the achievement of real justice is possible. It will take organisation and the recognition that prison 'reform' is not genuinely possible under capitalism.
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