Life Inside
Unsettled People
Prison transfers are routinely used to punish, disorient, and isolate incarcerated people, disconnecting them from family, friends, community, and all sense of place.
Carceral Geographies
Abolitionist scholar Ruth Wilson Gilmore defines carceral geography as the “study of the interrelationships across space, institutions, and political economy that shape and define modern incarceration.” In this page, you’ll find essays by people grappling with these geographies in their organizing, advocacy, scholarship, and work toward a decarceral world.
7 posts in ‘Carceral Geographies’
Crimmigration
Immobilized Immigrants
Hardened, remote detention centers shape the experience of immigration imprisonment. Yet even there, a radically different future is possible.
In the States
The Phantom Prison
Incarcerated people who work as firefighters have not escaped the prison; the prison has merely followed them outdoors.
Institutions
Building Carcerality
Architects and designers must reckon with their role in the past and future of mass incarceration.
advocacy
Back to Appalachia
They were incarcerated in Eastern Kentucky, far from home. Now they’re free and back, hoping the region won’t build a new prison there.
book review
Cages Without Borders
A new book centers prisons in the history of U.S. empire, reminding us of the need for international solidarity in the fight for freedom.
excerpt
Vulnerable Places
Entire communities are singularly exposed to punishment. Understanding how is central to combating mass incarceration.