The Life Inside: Abolishing the Prison

Abstract

There are real and obvious differences between the lives of those in prison and the lives of those outside the prison. Yet the injuries caused by the prison are shared by all. No one is an outsider; we are all doing time. From a Buddhist perspective, we realize that what is done within the prison to anyone is done to everyone outside the prison. Various writings from within the prison, especially the writings of Henry David Thoreau and Martin Luther King, Jr., as well as the writings of sociologists and criminologists who have served time in prison, portray the inhumanity of imprisonment, and inspire us with calls for justice and the abolition of the prison. But prisons will exist as long as we are in the bondage of all that keeps us enslaved. Abolition of the prison is an integral and seamless part of enlightenment and human liberation.

Keywords:

• Prison
• Abolition of the Prison
• Buddhism
• Transformation
• Images of Suffering
• Punishment