Incarceration doesn’t keep us safe, and yet the U.S. wastes over $80 billion each year to keep more than 2 million people behind bars. The movements to defund the police and abolish prisons have challenged many people to think about justice in new ways – including those who are understandably concerned about reducing violence and holding people who commit violent acts accountable. 

With contributions from Center on Conscience & War

In 1917, the Selective Service Act created a system that authorized a draft and required all men of a certain age to register through the Selective Service System. AFSC was founded that same year to give conscientious objectors an alternative to military service as they faced the realities of a draft in World War I.