The Cut - Aching for Abolition

No one really asks a survivor what she wants. When a woman is raped, it becomes an assault on the state — not the person. She could decide that she would rather not pursue charges, and the state can decide to move forward anyway, without her consent. I am a survivor and have been for most of my life. I am also a prison abolitionist and have been for most of my life — years before I had the words to describe my intuition.

Often, those who stand against abolition speak on my behalf. They ask hackneyed, hoary questions about what we will do with the rapists and the murderers. I know that those questions are questions of fear and not of concern, that they have little to do with a desire to protect or comfort me. I want you to know why these questions enrage me.

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