So Mr. Bitcoin President of El Salvador has deployed a massive wave of incarcerating violent gang members to combat endemic violence in the country, but also at the cost of civil liberties and also not addressing the root causes of the gang violence in the first place.
Of course, El Salvador has been among the most violent countries in the world in terms of murder rates and violent crimes so something had to be done, but I'm not convinced that this crackdown will do anything but kick the can down the road.
Thoughts? Also, apologies for the Guardian link it was the first summary to come up when I searched it :ohnoes:
Theres just not a carceral view of justice that doesnt seem to end in pogroms and institutionalized slavery. If you dont wanna call it fascist, fine, but its a view of "justice" exported from colonial states that always has disastrous results that look a lot like fascist microcosms.
Most prison systems are definitely bad, but I'm not sure where you draw the line on what is carceral vs rehabilitative justice. Even the most rehabilitative systems that have been actually implemented involve coercion, separation of prisoners from the mainstream of society, and other carceral measures. I would draw the distinction more between punitive vs rehabilitative justice than carceralism. Looking at the strength of reaction and the pervasiveness of interpersonal violence, I think some level of carceralism is probably necessary before full communism. At least enough to where I'm hesitant to write off policy made under trying circumstances by AES as fascist-colonial microcosms.
This El Salvador stuff will probably be more bad than good because it is a bourgeois dictatorship implementing this.