Abolition of What?

This Article defends a structural theory of the brutality of the carceral state. We argue that American penal systems are destined to be inhumane, barring sweeping changes to the social and economic order of the United States; and that prison and police abolition are neither sufficient nor necessary to bring these kinds of changes about. This theory stands on two premises. First, we defend The Principle of Less Eligibility, which holds that it is politically infeasible for capitalist democracies to permit the incentives to defy the law to exceed those to obey it.

As we show, the Principle of Less Eligibility implies that the brutality of the American carceral state is a symptom of the clustered and concentrated disadvantage that define the American ghetto. Second, we show that social policy is bedeviled by what we call The Efficiency-Feasibility Paradox. Hyper-targeted social programs are a more efficient way to improve the lives of the least well-off than universal social policy. But it is politically infeasible for governments to fund hyper-targeted programs at the scale necessary to eliminate the American ghetto.

Abolishing the American ghetto will require appealing to the interests of a broad majority.