#separation is a non-essential feature of punishment. A new system would remove the physical distance between the community and its people
— Ethnic Studies 181AC (@PIC_Abolition) May 9, 2014

Rethinking an organization as complex and ingrained as the PIC requires removing all of our present notions of the state and its role at the community level. The current system sends many prisoners hundreds of miles from the place of commission of their crime, and thus eliminates any possibility of a healthy reconciliatory relationship between that individual, the community, and the people affected.