Towards an Alternative Justice: Transformative and Restorative instead of Punitive
A recurring theme in most of the articles written during the intense Black Lives Matter (BLM) movement that happened in USA and was felt throughout the world, was one of imagination. Several Black authors wrote how even Harriet Tubman did not know the kind of world she was stepping into — the kind of future she was building. The future where slavery did not exist was simply a figment of imagination — easy to think about but extremely difficult to think of as a part of our own reality.
A century and more down the line, Black people are now imagining a different kind of reality for themselves and rest of the society. Slavery has been abolished but the police system that was built on the backs of the slave control and policing system still remains strong and grows larger. Prison-Industrial Complex in the United States of America is a thriving focal point where the interests of politicians and businessmen meet and interlock.
The new demand in USA made by the BLM is of the absolute abolition of the police. What was merely suggested by legendary activists like Angela Davis has found more currency than ever in the present context and has found resonance with the marginalized communities and the minorities. It is no surprise that these communities do not feel “safe” or “protected” by the police because more often than not, the police exist to threaten and police them back into the margin every time they dare to step over the invisible boundary and enter the world governed by cis-gender, heterosexual, patriarchal White majority.
Structural Marxist philosopher Athusser had called the military and by extension — the police force, as a part of the Repressive State Apparatus. When the state can no longer maintain its control and legitimacy through ideological hegemony, it resorts to using brute force to constrict the wayward thoughts which seek to overthrow those in power. The police naturally, become the agents who exercise the force. A debate which could rise here would be to think if it is “one bad apple” as in, just one racist or bad policeman, or is it the entire force? Surely, there are wonderful police offers as well who give up their lives in the line of duty.
The people who call for absolute defunding of the police and abolition of the force do not get into these debates as these arguments are still within the same carceral structure of a policed society. They look beyond the police for a society which does not need “policing” for the sake of justice. This is why the concept of an alternative mode of justice becomes extremely significant as it does not feel the need for an external agent (the police, in status quo) to apprehend criminals and punish them. Rather than a punitive and retributive form of justice that believes in inflicting violent punishment on the criminal, the new-age abolitionists look towards a communitarian form of justice that is restorative and transformative.
Most crimes and criminals have a context and origin that can be understood if the economic and social backgrounds of said criminals are looked into. The very concept of a “criminal” is redefined and redrawn as more often than not, it is not an innocent tag put on a person based on their actions but heavy racial profiling that leads to such tags. Such profiling leads to further discrimination and harassment by law enforcement along with the rest of the society that produces and reproduces racist stereotypes.
Hence, one of the demands of the BLM was to defund the police and instead spend those resources into community-based centers which would help people in tangible ways in turn. The US government as it spends an immense amount of money into maintaining and even building more prisons and more high-tech devices for its police departments to apprehend criminals. Comparisons came up on how the hospitals in US were lacking enough PPE but the police had high-grade vests to deal with non-violent, peaceful protests. People also delved into the history of US military and police department and from where they procure their surveillance machinery as well as arms and ammunitions. These are the same surveillance gadgets which are used by the US army in its neoliberal aspirations in developing countries of the world.
Therefore, rather than pushing people to crime due to desperation, there should be more rehabilitation centers, more educational and co-curricular centers, more employment opportunities, more cash or kind benefits that reaches the people directly. The goal becomes, quite simply, to make the community self-sufficient. The society becomes equipped to deal with injustice through community-based healing, therapy and ultimately, transformation and restoration. A very simple comparison would be that of the USA’s all-out war on drugs and how Portugal decriminalized drugs in their country. Rather than a blanket ban, decriminalization of such “offences” could have an immense positive impact on the society whereby addiction is destigmatized and the community is better educated and prepared to deal with offenders. This also becomes important in the context of USA as most non-violent offenders who are in jail are Black men who were charged for merely possession of drugs. The violently racist judicial system also ensures that these men serve time and become felons rather than the opportunity to pay bail (still an expensive escape) or engage in community service. Giving many Black adults a criminal record also ensures in the long run that they are barred from voting for their own community and rights — ensuring that their voices are not heard and represented politically either.
A common question that is often put up as a counter-argument is one of sexual violence. Who apprehends the molester, abuser, harasser? Who gives them a “fitting punishment”? A common answer from almost every woman has been one of derision and frustration. It has been seen time and again that police are not the best equipped — socially, mentally, emotionally and physically to handle cases of sexual violence. Whether it is a case of blatant disregard for trauma and distress on the survivor’s part or misogyny — many women simply do not look at the police as their protector.
Even in India, “encounter killings” of rapists by the police is becoming increasingly accepted and even celebrated by the common people. This form of vengeful justice violates every fundamental human right granted by the constitution and also robs the accused to have a fair trial. It also subtly and indirectly acknowledges and validates extra-judicial activities of the police which can now be used for any purpose with the public’s assent. Politicians and Police chiefs also agree to such measures, however violent and illegal they are, because it assuages the common mass’s thirst for revenge in a spectacular manner and takes away any onus from them. Such activities take away our focus from the custodial torture, custodial rapes and custodial deaths that happens in Indian jails and prisons, done by the police themselves. Such “quick justice” is not even justice in its true sense as it merely takes the life of a few people instead of working towards changing the entire structure that enables sexual violence in the first place. Rather, activists fear that such encounter killings would now encourage the rapists to murder their victims to reduce their chances of getting caught — essentially backfiring, much less creating fear and a sense of negative reinforcement among “potential criminals”.
Politicians and elected representatives have for the longest time depended on high incarceration rates as a proof of their work and service to the community. While higher number of people absolutely does not correlate to lower crime-rate, the sheer statistical value makes people feel assured and ensured that their representative is quite successful in battling crime. This serves in the interest of business people and contractors who end up building more prisons to fit the ever growing numbers. In case more prisons cannot be built, then there is heavy congestion and overcrowding in these prisons — something which is always one minor step away from tremendous human rights violation (something that was seen in the recent Supreme Court judgement that asked for decongestion of prisons in India due to the threat of fast spreading of Covid-19 among the inmates).
Once again, it is extremely difficult to imagine a society without police. Without the men in blue, or khaki or some equally dark uniform roaming down the streets on their regular patrol. It is even more difficult to imagine a society without prisons — not because it was removed arbitrarily but because it did not require them anymore. It can be argued that constant policing, surveillance and reliance on a punitive and retributive mode of justice is a colonial invention and a colonial legacy. The onus falls on the current societies to look at status quo, try and unlearn the knowledge systems which are often considered as “given” and to work towards their imagined future however impossible it might seem.
