Zohran Mamdani appears to indicate prisons may be obsolete in resurfaced clip

New York City’s leading mayoral candidate, Zohran Mamdani, a self-proclaimed socialist, is raising eyebrows once again for appearing to suggest prisons are not important in a recently resurfaced video.

Mamdani, a New York state assemblyman and the Democratic nominee for mayor, made the comments in a 2020 interview while running for state office.

Asked whether he thought prisons were obsolete, Mamdani responded, “I think that frankly – I mean – what purpose do they serve? I think that we have to ask ourselves that.”

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The Democratic mayoral candidate added, “I think a lot of people who defend the carceral state, they defend the idea of it and the way it makes them feel. They’re not defending the reality of it and the practices that are part and parcel of it.

“Because if you actually break it down and ask people how many people come out of the prison system better than they went into the prison system, how much harm is actually being prevented versus created, I think when you ask these kinds of questions, people don’t always have clear answers.”

Mamdani added that, when discussing the prison system, “What they always want to pivot to is, ‘What are you going to do about murderers? What are you going to do about rapists?’

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New York City mayoral candidate Zohran Mamdani attends the 2025 New York City Pride March June 29, 2025, in New York City. (Noam Galai/Getty Images)

“Sometimes you have to ask them, ‘What are you doing about them right now?’” he added. “We need a system of justice that will repair the harm that has been caused and address it in a serious way because right now we don’t have it, and it makes everyone more unsafe.”

Mamdani also claimed “the power of the executive is almost limitless here in New York State” and criticized then-New York Democratic Gov. Andrew Cuomo for refusing to “let people out and letting people go home.”

Mamdani, who has promised to overhaul New York City and launch massive new government programs, has been endorsed by progressive politicians like Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, D-N.Y., and Sen. Bernie Sanders, I-Vt. 

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