It's always felt like such a strange argument when people respond to prison abolition with "well what about the rapists >:( what about all the rapists and serial killers, what are you gonna do when they're running loose on the streets :/"
There are already, and have always been, murderers and rapists and serial killers out in public who were never caught. A staggering number of cold cases exist. This is not a hypothetical, this is the world you live in. It's uncomfortable, but it's true.
This usually comes from thinking that Incredibly Violent Dangerous People are the majority of prisoners; this is not the case. I don't have the stats or links on hand (if anyone wants to add them it's appreciated) but most current inmates are there on drug-related charges, often pretty small ones.
Prison abolition doesn't start and end with "no more prisons." Restorative justice. Reconciliation. Community efforts. "What do we do with the people who hurt others" is a question many theorists and thinkers in this space have answered! Real ideas and solutions exists, and none of them are "just let them do whatever I guess."
Yes, people do awful things to each other. We can respond to that in ways that aren't locking them in a torture box.
