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abolition

91 posts in ‘abolition’

interventions

A Secret Stash of Power

Now more than ever, we need a clear understanding of the role of violence, trauma, and survivorship in our harm reduction practice.

Shira Hassan

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Reflections

Goodnight Jail

Based on 'Goodnight Moon', the 1947 bedtime classic by Margaret Wise Brown.

El Jones

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democracy & power

Culture Wars and Criminalization

Absent a sustained politics of solidarity, culture wars will continue to erode civil rights while criminalizing, surveilling, and punishing those who claim them

Kay Whitlock

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In Depth

Hidden Transcripts

The Reagan administration’s entrenchment of a retaliatory immigration detention regime sowed seeds of resistance that persist to this day.

Kristina Shull

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A closer look

Growing Justice

Why understanding restorative and transformative justice on their own terms, and at their best and worst, will help us build more of both.

Cameron Rasmussen & Sonya Shah

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Beyond Reform

Reclaiming Safety

In our imaginations, we need to break the equation of policing and public safety.

Mariame Kaba & Andrea J. Ritchie

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Crimmigration

Court-Assisted Expulsions

Immigrants fighting their deportations need lawyers. That doesn’t mean federally funding their defense should be a movement goal.

Angélica Cházaro

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Beyond Reform

No More Courts

The legal institutions, processes, procedures, and actors implicated in the progression of criminal cases are simply beyond reform.

Zohra Ahmed & Rachel Foran

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voices

Caring Collectively

Looking back on 25 years of abolitionist feminism and organizing in California.

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Reflections

Inquest: Year One

A reflection from the founding editors of Inquest on the occasion of the one-year anniversary of the publication.

Andrew Crespo, Premal Dharia & Cristian Farias

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Reflections

Juneteenth and Black Liberation

Our government's history of oppression compels us to free those Black revolutionaries aging in our prisons.

Nebil Husayn

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democracy & power

Changing Everything

Beyond electing progressive prosecutors, decarceration requires an ambitious, multifaceted struggle at all levels of governance.

Dan Berger

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Institutions

End Carceral Social Work

To stay true to their professed values, social workers must wholly disavow and remove themselves from systems of harm.

Alan Dettlaff

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Surveillance

Deconfiguring the Security State

The roots of e-carceration run deep, and we need to articulate digital abolition as the solution.

James Kilgore & Malkia Devich Cyril

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prison closures

A Punishment Profiteer

A rare instance of state prisoners, state prison administrators, and the governor of California all publicly agreeing that a particular prison ought to be closed.

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In Depth

A Pound of Flesh

Fines and fees have a devastating effect on Black women and their communities. Abolishing them is the only option.

Alexes Harris, Natasha Hicks & Cortney Sanders

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excerpt

The Problem With Innocence

Human sacrifice, and nothing else, is the central problem that organizes the carceral geographies of the prison-industrial complex.

Ruth Wilson Gilmore

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In Depth

A Future for Susanville

The prison town of Susanville, in California, is about to lose its livelihood. Its economic survival presents a test for abolition.

Piper French

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A closer look

Cops and Counselors

Mental health professionals call the police, work with the police, and act like the police. But even in our ranks, an abolitionist future is possible.

Jessi Lee Jackson

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Institutions

A Veneer of Benevolence

For many years, I believed that the child welfare system could be reformed, but no more. It needs to be abolished.

Dorothy Roberts

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public health

Unwell in a Cell

Co-opting the language of mental health and treatment, jail expansion is taking root in several cities and localities. But these are cages all the same.

Mon Mohapatra

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Essay

Beyond Private Prisons

Simply targeting the corporations caging migrants and other people for profit won’t create a future without mass incarceration.

Silky Shah

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interventions

Abolition Is Public Health

The largest public health professional organization in the U.S. took a stand against carceral systems as fundamentally antithetical to public health. Here’s why that matters.

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In Depth

Cages in the Coalfields

A growing carceral state has slowly replaced the coal industry in large swaths of Central Appalachia. But even here, a different future is possible.

Judah Schept

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In Depth

The Invisible Violence of Carceral Food

There's no such thing as a 'humane' eating environment in a penal system that inherently produces illness and death.

Kanav Kathuria

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excerpt

Copaganda

How pop culture helped turn police officers into rock stars — and Black folks into criminals.

Mark Anthony Neal

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abolition

Divide and Conquer

For those of us on the inside who believe in prison abolition by any means necessary, prison closures really mean prison closures. The state and some of my fellow prisoners…

Felix Sitthivong

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Life Inside

‘We Are Men’

On the 50th anniversary of a flashpoint of the American penal system, the cries of Attica still resonate today.

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Reflections

A Disruptive Innovation

Dismantling the machine that is mass incarceration requires all of us to think outside the box.

Marlon Peterson

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Beyond Reform

Unraveling Carceral Reach

The work of addressing harm without more prisons, police, and punitiveness is daunting. But it can be done. And it’s happening now.

Kay Whitlock & Nancy A. Heitzeg

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