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and The Handala Coalition.
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MECHANISMS of coercive confinement: Prisons Jails Electronic tethering Involuntary psych holds Probation Parole INDIVIDUALS HARM EACH OTHER WHEN THEY: Are disconnected from community Experience trauma Have unmet needs IDEOLOGIES underlying carcerality: Punishment Manufactured scarcity Coercive control Concentrated power Surveillance
COMPONENTS OF THE CARCERAL STATE STATE?
WHAT IS THE CARCERAL
The carceral state includes all mechanisms of coercive confinement and state surveillance; along with the ideologies, practices, and structures that justify and maintain these systems. The carceral state emphasizes control, criminalization, coercion, and punishment as responses to social problems.
CYCLES OF CARCERAL HARM
not interupt
Disconnect communities Are violent and traumatizing Restrict access to resources
CARCERAL RESPONSES:
Carceral punishement does cycles of trauma and harm. It perpetuates them.
Carceral abolition challenges us to examine our ideas about the relationship between criminalization and harm. Not all actions that are against the law (crimes) are harmful, and not all things that are harmful are against the law. Carceral systems are designed to respond to unlawful actions, but often lack mechanisms to address harm. Abolition prioritizes addressing harm through prevention and compassionate response. Things that are Things that are HARMFUL CRIMINALIZED
CARCERAL FOCUS Administration of punishment
Carceral abolition is the removal of the carceral state. This breaks the cycles of harm caused and aggravated by criminalization. An abolitionist future creates structures that truly keep us safe and hold us accountable to each other.
Unaddressed
HARM VS. CRIME
WHAT IS CARCERAL ABOLITION?
Abolitionist responses to harm center the healing needs of survivors and communities. Because of this responsive structure, the support, resources, and outcomes provided will be unique to each situation. Two concepts of justice ground these responses:
ABOLITIONIST
RESPONSES TO HARM
ABOLITIONIST
RESTORATION. Direct actions taken to heal survivors, relationships, and communities that were harmed. TRANSFORMATION. Community-wide actions that address the underlying material conditions that produced or perpetuated the harm.
Things that are HARMFUL Survivor-centered restoration and healing Prevention based on underlying causes FOCUS Things that are CRIMINALIZED Immediate decriminalization
In order for deterrence to work, three conditions must be met. Deterrence requires:
RATIONALITY requires s a cost-benefit analysis before an action is taken. This
ABOLITIONIST CONVERSATIONS: DETERRENCE
AVOIDABILITY requires availability of an option that is within the boundaries of the law. This excludes any An expectation of CULPABILITY occurs at a 30% resolution rate. This crimes of poverty or identity. excludes arson, larceny-theft, burglary, and vehicle theft. excludes situations when emotions are intense, or when the subject is intoxi cated.
SHELTERS help people leave unsafe situations be fore they become violent.
SOCIAL PROGRAMS reduce the impact of poverty.
TRAFFIC CALMING can prevent drivers from engag ing in unsafe behaviors.
There are many ways to promote safety in our communities. It’s time to start investing in them!
COMMUNITY
Community policing was designed to increase public trust of the police by expanding the type and number of interactions the public has with the police. This assumes the problem is how the public sees the police, not how the police impact the public. In practice, policing does significant harm to the public.
ABOLITIONIST CONVERSATIONS: POLICING
Enforcement of minor traffic violations punishes poverty.
Police use of force is the sixth leading cause of death of young Black men
50% of people murdered by police are disabled.
Reducing police presence reduces the harm created by policing. Defunding the police frees up resources for real community programs; making our communities safer, stronger, and more connected.
It is not the public’s responsibility to become “known” to officers in order to protect themselves against officer abuse of power.
Officers must be held accountable to treat everyone with dignity and respect, regardless of their relationship or familiarity.
Adapted from Mariam Kaba, Prison Culture REJECT PROPOSED REFORMS THAT:
POLICE “REFORMS” YOU SHOULD ALWAYS OPPOSE
Allocate more money to the police, and/or expand police and policing (under euphemistic terms like “community policing” run out of regular police districts). Are primarily technology focused. These mean more money to police, and the technology is more likely to be turned against the public than against cops. Focus on individual dialogues with individual cops. These types of dialogues reinforce the “bad apples” theory, rather than placing blame where it belongs: a corrupt and oppressive policing system build on controlling and managing the marginalized while protect ing property.
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Decrease and redirect policing and prison funds to other social goods. Establish independent civilian police accountability boards with power to investigate, discipline, fire police officers and administrators
Promote data transparency (stops, arrests, budgeting, weapons, etc.)
Disarm the police. Dissolve existing police departments.
SUPPORT (INTERIM) REFORMS THAT: Offer reparations to victims of police violence and their families. Require police officers to carry personal liability in surance to cover costs of brutality or death claims.
Circumstances that cause my fear are created by: If we abolish police, prisons, and involuntary psychiatric confinement, I am afraid that:
To prevent harm, we must prevent circumstances that deprive, traumatize, and disconnect us. We must cre- ate structures that nurture, support, and connect us.
Structures that can prevent these circumstances are:
An abolitionist future challenges us to imagine new ways to prevent harm, this means understanding the conditions that produce harm.
REFLECTION EXERCISE
Because so many aspects of our lives are connected to the carceral state, abolition may cause fear or un certainty. Working through these concerns can help generate non-carceral solutions that promote community building.
Healing looks like: Restoration looks like: Responsibility looks like: Accountability looks like: If the thing I fear happened to me, I would need … to feel safe.
To address harm, we must find ways to support the harmed person to heal.
To respond to harm, we must create space for the individual who cause harm to take accountability for their actions and take responsibility for restoring harm to allow the harmed individual to heal.
READ MORE TO LEARN MORE
Abolition is a movement that has existed for longer than the United States. The intellectual tradition of anti-racist abolition is deeply rooted in theory and lived experience. The following books can provide perspectives on the history, present, and future of the abolitionist movement; and provide a framework to make abolitionist changes to your life and in your community: The Autobiography of Malcolm X, X & Haley, 1965 Assata, Shakur, 1987 Are Prisons Obsolete?, Davis, 2003
The New Jim Crow, Alexander, 2010 Captive Genders, Stanley & Smith eds., 2011 Freedom is a Constant Struggle, Davis, 2015 The End of Policing, Vitale, 2017 When They Call You a Terrorist, Khan-Cullors & Bandele, 2018 We Keep Us Safe, Norris, 2020 An Abolitionist’s Handbook, Cullors, 2021 Becoming Abolitionists, Purnell, 2021 We Do This ‘Til We Free Us, Kaba, 2021 Abolition. Feminism. Now., Ritchie, 2022