Prison Abolition & Police Abolition
The prison abolition and police abolition movements are two separate, but connected movements seeking radical change. In general, they can be seen as contrasting with movements for reform in the criminal justice system, prisons, mass incarceration, and policing. The resources below will hopefully shed some light on these movements and explain their aims & the motives behind them.
Resources from Saint Mary's University Libraries
The Abolition of Prison by
The Abolition of Prison provides a reflection from a longtime prison abolitionist on the ideas, actions, and writings of anti-prison activism over the last fifty years. This book powerfully makes the case for the end of prisons, punishment, and guilt and, instead, suggests we work towards social change, care, collectivity, and ending regimes of repression and violence.
Call Number: ebook, access using linkISBN: 1849354219Publication Date: 2021
Abolition Democracy: Beyond Empire, Prisons, and Torture by
Angela Davis, one of America's most remarkable political figures, gave a series of interviews to discuss resistance and law, institutional sexual coercion, politics and prison. Davis talks about her own incarceration, as well as her experiences as "enemy of the state," and about having been put on the FBI's "most wanted" list. Throughout these interviews, Davis returns to her critique of a democracy that has been compromised by its racist origins and institutions. Discussing the most recent disclosures about the disavowed "chain of command," and the formal reports by the Red Cross and Human Rights Watch denouncing U.S. violation of human rights and the laws of war in Guantanamo, Afghanistan and Iraq, Davis focuses on the underpinnings of prison regimes in the United States.
Call Number: Winona Campus Library General Collection - Lower Level ; 323.0973 D26ISBN: 9781583226957Publication Date: 2005
A World Without Police: How Strong Communities Make Cops Obsolete by
If police are the problem, what's the solution? Tens of millions of people poured onto the streets for Black Lives Matter, bringing with them a wholly new idea of public safety, common security, and the delivery of justice, communicating that vision in the fiery vernacular of riot, rebellion, and protest. A World Without Police transcribes these new ideas--written in slogans and chants, over occupied bridges and hastily assembled barricades--into a compelling, must-read manifesto for police abolition. Compellingly argued and lyrically charged, A World Without Police offers concrete strategies for confronting and breaking police power, as a first step toward building community alternatives that make the police obsolete. A World Without Police argues that abolition is not a distant dream or an unreachable horizon but an attainable reality. In communities around the world, we are beginning to glimpse a real, lasting justice in which we keep us safe.
Call Number: Winona Campus Library General Collection - Lower Level ; 363.2 C56ISBN: 9781839760051Publication Date: 2021
No More Police: A Case for Abolition by
In this powerful call to action, New York Times bestselling author Mariame Kaba and attorney and organizer Andrea J. Ritchie detail why policing doesn't stop violence, instead perpetuating widespread harm; outline the many failures of contemporary police reforms; and explore demands to defund police, divest from policing, and invest in community resources to create greater safety through a Black feminist lens. Part handbook, part road map, No More Police calls on us to turn away from systems that perpetrate violence in the name of ending it toward a world where violence is the exception, and safe, well-resourced and thriving communities are the rule.
Call Number: Winona Campus Library General Collection - Lower Level ; 363.2 K11ISBN: 9781620977323Publication Date: 2022
Becoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom by
In Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell draws from her experiences as a lawyer, writer, and organizer initially skeptical about police abolition. Purnell details how multi-racial social movements rooted in rebellion, risk-taking, and revolutionary love pushed her and a generation of activists toward abolition. The book travels across geography and time, and offers lessons that activists have learned from Ferguson to South Africa, from Reconstruction to contemporary protests against police shootings. Here, Purnell argues that police can not be reformed and invites readers to envision new systems that work to address the root causes of violence. Becoming Abolitionists shows that abolition is not solely about getting rid of police, but a commitment to create and support different answers to the problem of harm in society, and, most excitingly, an opportunity to reduce and eliminate harm in the first place.
Call Number: Winona Campus Library General Collection - Lower Level ; 363.23 P98ISBN: 9781662600517Publication Date: 2021
Online Resources
Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police - (Opinion) New York Times
By Mariame Kaba
Opinion piece by the activist and organizer Mariama Kaba, who has been a leading voice on police and prison abolition for years. This piece argues that policing cannot be reformed and must be dismantled, to make way for a new approach to public safety. From the piece, "When people, especially white people, consider a world without the police, they envision a society as violent as our current one, merely without law enforcement -- and they shudder. As a society, we have been so indoctrinated with the idea that we solve problems by policing and caging people that many cannot imagine anything other than prisons and the police as solutions to violence and harm. People like me who want to abolish prisons and police, however, have a vision of a different society, built on cooperation instead of individualism, on mutual aid instead of self-preservation."
Intended to serve as a "resource from people to build from and incorporate abolitionist demands into local organizing efforts," #8toAbolish was originally written as a direct response to the reform plan #8CantWait. "The end goal of these reforms is not to create better, friendlier, or more community-oriented police or prisons. Instead, we hope to build toward a society without police or prisons, where communities are equipped to provide for their safety and wellbeing."
Interview with Angela Davis, activist, scholar, and leading voice on abolition, on Democracy Now on the abolition movement. Excerpt: "Abolition is not primarily a negative strategy. It's not primarily about dismantling, getting rid of — but it's about re-envisioning, building anew. And I would argue abolition is a feminist strategy, and one sees in these abolitionist demands that are emerging the pivotal feminist theories and practices."
How Defund and Disband Became the Demands - New York Review of Books
By Amna A. Akbar
Excerpt: "Although calls for defunding and dissolution, rather than reform, may feel new to many, abolitionist organizing against the “prison industrial complex”—which includes prisons, police, and surveillance—goes back more than two decades. There is no delusion among abolitionists that we will ever live in a world without conflict or interpersonal violence. Right now our go-to response to all manner of social, political, and economic conflict—whether it is homelessness, domestic violence, migration—is prisons and police. The abolitionist invitation is to investigate these problems with care and particularity, and collectively craft responses that do not rely on violence and punishment."
The “abolish the police” movement, explained by 7 scholars and activists - Vox
The slogan "abolish the police" has emerged as a popular one, despite some disagreement over what, exactly, is meant by this and how it could be accomplished. Compiles interviews with seven scholars and activists explaining what they mean by "abolish the police."