Ocasio-Cortez Demands ‘Prison Abolition’: Incarceration Evolved From ‘Apartheid & Slavery’
Alicia Powe
Posted On October 8, 2019
Freshman Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) has notoriously called for the abolition of U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement. The New York Democrat has gone on tirades complaining about the detainment of illegal immigrants, warning detention centers along the southern border are “concentration camps.”
Now the socialist lawmaker is demanding prisons be abolished, arguing that incarceration of criminals is racist.
The United States needs to start a “conversation about whether to abolish prisons in the country” to reestablish itself from a history of “American apartheid,” Ocasio-Cortez claimed Monday.
“Mass incarceration is our American reality. It is a system whose logic evolved from the same lineage as Jim Crow, American apartheid, & slavery,” the New York congresswoman tweeted. “To end it, we have to change. That means we need to have a real conversation about decarceration & prison abolition in this country.”
“I know the term ‘prison abolition’ is breaking some people’s brains. The right is already freaking out,” she said. “People tend to say ‘what do you do with all the violent people?’ as a defense for incarcerating millions. Our lawmaking process means we come to solutions together, &either way we should work to an end where our prison system is dramatically smaller than it is today.”
The Democrat lawmaker recounted a conversation she had with a woman who was “thrown into Rikers [Island] as teenager” and “put in solitary confinement for months,” as she insisted humans don’t belong in “cages.”
“The conditions were so bad, she too had drank out of toilets,” Ocasio-Cortez tweeted. “A cage is a cage is a cage. And humans don’t belong in them.”
Ocasio-Cortez ignited backlash in July after claiming illegal aliens in a detention center she visited were also forced to drink out of toilets.
“Officers were keeping women in cells w/no water & had told them to drink out of the toilets. This was them on their GOOD behavior in front of members of Congress,” she tweeted. “Now I’ve seen the inside of these facilities. It’s not just the kids. It’s everyone. People drinking out of toilets, officers laughing in front of members of Congress.”
Border patrol agents in Arizona immediately shot back against Ocasio-Cortez’s assertions, posting a video showcasing fully-stocked supply closets that contain clothing, medical supplies, and personal hygiene supplies. Chief Patrol Agent Roy Villareal of Tucson is seen in the footage drinking water from the holding cell in the video, disproving the New York Democrat’s claim that water in the detention facilities is inadequate to drink.
While the self-described “Squad” member repeatedly insists President Donald Trump is a racist and should be impeached, under the president’s First Step Act, thousands have been released from prison. Under the new criminal justice reform bill, 3,100 people were released from federal prison.
In just the first four months since the First Step Act of 2018 was signed into law by Trump in December, 1,051 requests for a reduced sentence were granted, according to a report released Tuesday by the U.S. Sentencing Commission. The majority, 91.3 percent, of those granted a cut in prison time were African American and virtually all, 98 percent, were men.
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