pris•on ab•o•li•tion

noun

1. The dismantling of the prison system; the end of coerced confinement as punishment
2. The construction of alternatives to prison and of a world that disincentivizes violence

"While there is a lower class I am in it, and while there is a criminal element, I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free." —Socialist Eugene V. Debs, in a statement to the court after being convicted of sedition in 1918.

Don't Prisons Keep People Safe? 

Whatever politicians might say, abolitionists argue that the current prison-industrial complex isn't designed to solve crime—after all, three-quarters of people released from prison are rearrested within five years—but rather to warehouse the poor, drug addicted and mentally ill. And there's a racial element as well: Black Americans are around five times more likely than whites to find themselves behind bars, often for minor offenses, while many who pose a bigger threat to society get Oscars, golden parachutes and seats in Congress.