What Christmas Villages Teach Us About a World Without Prisons
By: Jasmine L. Tyler
As the holiday season descends, miniature Christmas villages spring up in homes like mine and storefronts everywhere. Picture a quaint scene: snow-dusted rooftops glowing under soft light, bustling shops teeming with life, and streets filled with joy and community. These tiny towns with glowing streetlights and bustling shops evoke an idyllic sense of community. These villages represent our collective vision of peace, joy, and harmony — the place where we imagine ourselves thriving.
I’ve been an abolitionist all my life, and yet I never noticed that there are no jails when I see Christmas village displays. No prisons. No detention centers.
That’s because these holiday utopias don’t need cages to feel safe. Instead, they show us an alternative vision: vibrant communities filled with opportunity, connection, and care. This vision resonates deeply because it mirrors what many of us hope for — a world where everyone belongs and thrives. The streets are lined with trees, not despair. Shops are open, neighbors greet each other warmly, and everyone belongs.
This is not just an aesthetic choice. The absence of carceral institutions in our Christmas villages reflects our more profound aspirations for the kind of society we want to build — a society where harm is addressed not through punishment, but through restoration and investment.
Compare these imagined villages’ charm to our current reality. Across the United States, millions of people are locked away in prisons and jails, disproportionately from Black and Brown communities. This systemic inequity isn’t an accident but the result of decades of policies that have criminalized poverty and race, draining resources from neighborhoods that most need support. Entire neighborhoods are gutted of fathers, mothers, siblings, and friends, leaving behind cycles of trauma and poverty.
What would it take to create communities where prisons are not just absent from holiday displays but unnecessary in real life? The key is investment — not in policing and punishment, but in people and possibilities. Look again at the Christmas village: shops and services thrive because there’s economic opportunity for everyone. Homes are warm and welcoming because housing is a right, not a privilege. The streets are clean and safe because residents have pride in their neighborhoods, not because they fear police and incarceration.
We know that investing in education, health care, mental health services, and job creation reduces the conditions that lead to harm. For example, studies show that every dollar spent on early childhood education yields a $7 return in reduced crime and increased lifetime earnings. Similarly, access to mental health care has been linked to significant decreases in recidivism. We don’t need punitive systems when people have what they need to live with dignity and hope. Our current system punishes harm with more harm, creating a cycle that benefits no one except private prison companies. Imagine if we had spaces dedicated to healing and accountability instead of prisons. Imagine responding to harm by asking, “What do you need to make this right?” instead of “How long should you suffer?”
This is not a utopian dream. Communities worldwide are already practicing restorative and transformative justice models that address harm while centering healing, accountability, and prevention. According to the New Zealand Ministry of Justice, for instance, restorative justice has been integrated into their legal system, leading to lower recidivism rates and higher satisfaction among harm survivors. But we don’t have to look around the world to see these kinds of examples. The U.S. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention supports restorative justice models, helping to reshape youth justice to focus on engaging victims, offenders, and community members, and many jurisdictions are enacting new laws to address excessively long sentences. These approaches embody the values we celebrate during the holidays: forgiveness, redemption, and love.
So, as we decorate our homes and marvel at our holiday villages, let’s remember that they represent more than nostalgia — they are blueprints for the future we can build together. A future without prisons, where everyone has access to the services, support, and opportunities they need to thrive.
Let’s commit to making our Christmas village dreams a reality this holiday season. Let’s demand investments in schools, not cages. Advocating for investments that make communities healthy and strong, such as prioritizing education, health care, and housing over punishment, can pave the way for this transformation. Let’s push for policies that prioritize care over punishment. And let’s work to create a world where justice means restoration, not retribution, because there’s no place for prisons in the villages we cherish — or the communities we all deserve.
Jasmine L. Tyler is the executive director of the Justice Policy Institute
