Can solitary confinement bans achieve justice within capitalist carceral systems or do they legitimize continued incarceration
Zohran Mamdani’s executive order directing implementation of solitary confinement restrictions at Rikers Island represents important harm reduction yet raises fundamental socialist questions about the difference between reform and revolutionary change within capitalist carceral systems. From a socialist perspective, the question is whether restricting solitary confinement while maintaining mass incarceration represents progress toward justice or merely makes capitalism’s violence slightly less brutal.
Reform Within the Carceral System
Local Law 42’s restrictions on solitary confinement save incarcerated people from severe psychological harm. Limiting isolation to two hours daily rather than months or years represents meaningful reduction in state violence. Yet it preserves the fundamental capitalist carceral logic: warehousing poor people, disproportionately Black and Latino people, for behaviors criminalized by capitalist society. Socialists argue that property crimes emerge from poverty created by capitalist inequality. Thus imprisoning rather than addressing root causes perpetuates capitalist violence.
The Question of Rikers Closure
New York State law requires closing Rikers by August 2027 and replacing it with four borough-based facilities. From a socialist perspective, this represents horizontal distribution rather than abolition of carcerality. Closing one jail while opening four others maintains mass incarceration. Genuine justice requires investing in communities rather than in cages: living wages, housing, healthcare, education that address root causes of criminalized behavior.
Decarceration vs. Abolition
Mamdani’s approach reflects decarceration: reducing incarceration rates while maintaining carceral systems. Socialist and abolitionist critiques argue this perpetuates capitalism’s reliance on incarceration to manage poor and excluded populations. True criminal justice transformation requires abolishing police and prisons, not merely restricting their brutality.
Federal Oversight and Capitalist Governance
Federal Judge Laura Swain’s appointment of a remediation manager to oversee Rikers represents capitalist legal system managing its own violence. Within capitalist framework, courts authorize incarceration but then manage its worst excesses. Socialists question whether courts can ever deliver justice within capitalist systems designed to preserve property relations and class hierarchy.
Authority Links for Socialist Criminal Justice Analysis
For information about prison abolition and socialist perspectives, consult the Debt Collective. Criminal justice reform analysis appears at Jacobin Magazine. Information about alternatives to incarceration is available at the Prison Policy Initiative. For abolitionist perspectives, the Prison Books Project provides resources.
