basically if youre in the place to educate yourself on these topics and you arent
- a prison abolitionist,
- a harm reductionist,
- for decriminilization,
- and giving the land back
i really do not think your assertions of “ACAB” or “be gay do crimes” or “revolution” hold much weight
davidlieberman
this is getting a lot of questions that could be solved with a google search into any of these topics, so i just want to respond with my own that isn’t: if you advocate for abolishing the police force but don’t support prison abolition for [x] reason—what happens to prisons in a post-police society?
davidlieberman
you might come up with several answers here.
- shit, i don’t know. we need prisons as prisons are to A) withhold certain people from harming their communities, B) punish certain people, C) kill certain people.
- uh, i guess i can kind of answer this. the criminal justice system still exists. why don’t we just leave those people in charge? they’re not cops! and we should definitely let people who have committed non-violent offenses go. drug charges are stupid.
- ok, i feel a little more confident answering this. we need to change the prison model for the better and follow the example of countries with restorative justice practices. incarcerated people need better access to healthcare and education, as well as access to opportunifies post-prison so that they are less likely to face reincarceration.
- wait. if we’re abolishing the police for upholding white supremacy and terrorizing marginalized communities, we need to abolish a lot of shit. restorative justice sounds cool, i agree with that guy above. but shouldn’t these efforts be run by the communities affected? wasn’t the problem a white supremacist state? wasn’t the goal community terrorism? wasn’t the power taken out of our hands, especially the hands of people being systematically criminalized? i think i have things to read about.
anyway, whatever your conclusion: here are some things to read about.
- darkness matters: on the surveillance of blackness by simone brown
- are prisons obsolete? by angela davis
- the law is a white dog by colin dayan
- gendering the carceral state: african american women, history, and the criminal justice system by kali n gross and cheryl d hicks
- “indigenous space and decolonizing prison abolition” from the final straw radio podcast (this is an episode of a podcast featuring ni frontiers ni prison, an indigenous prison abolitionist group)
- migra! a history of the us border control by kelly lyle hernandez
- disability incarcerated by liat ben-moshe and allison c carey
- queer (in)justice by joey l mogul, andrea j ritchie, and kay whitlock
- crazy in america: the hidden tragedy of our criminalized mentally ill by mary beth pfeiffer
- inventing the savage: the social construction of native american criminality by luana ross
- criminal justice facts posted by the sentencing project
- is prison necessary? an article featuring ruth wilson gilmore & explaining prison abolition to children who were very good at asking “but what about [x]?” questions
- and here’s an FAQ about prison abolition by people against prisons aotearoa
- and then another collection of links by the marshall project.
if you have trouble getting ahold of any reading materials i can usually find you a pdf if you DM me. if you need epub i can’t guarantee i can get one for you, but i can try.