What is (Prison Industrial Complex)
abolition? Can't we just
Wasn't abolition
reform the
against slavery?
system?
Well...
What about the murderers and rapists?
It is!
B L M
A zine by Grace Jensen, November 2020
Sounds too radical to me...
Alright, let's get into it.
abolition (n): "Abolition is a practical program
I’m usually asked what I would have
of change rooted in how people
us replace them with," Mychal
sustain and improve their lives,
Denzel Smith said. "My answer is
cobbling together insights and
always full social, economic, and
strategies from disparate,
political equality, but that’s not
connected struggles," Ruth Wilson
what’s actually being asked. What
Gilmore and James Kilgore said.
people mean is “who is going to
"We know we won’t bulldoze
protect us?” Who protects us now? If
prisons and jails tomorrow, but as
you’re white and well-off, perhaps
long as they continue to be
the police protect you. The rest of us,
advanced as the solution, all of the
not so much. What use do I have for
inequalities displaced to crime and
an institution that routinely kills
punishment will persist."
people who look like me, and make it
Abolition is about more than just ending our unjust criminal justice system. It is about imagining and
so I’m afraid to walk out of my home? "My honest answer is that I don’t
working towards a future that
know what a world without police
handles the issues of crime,
looks like. I only know there will be
violence, mental health,
less dead black people. I know that a
homelessness, hunger, and poverty
world without police is a world with
humanely and equitably. The
one less institution dedicated to the
images we see on television of
maintenance of white supremacy and
anarchy and destruction do not
inequality. It’s a world worth
accurately depict the abolition
imagining."
movement. Ultimately, abolition is
Abolitionist futures can look
about creation, not destruction:
different for each of us, but the
creation of new futures, new
principle remains the same: we must
opportunities, and new ways of
dismantle harmful structural barriers
living together.
in our communities in order to build
When I say, “abolish the police,”
systems that work for all.
“Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment.� -TransformHarm.org
REFORM
V
Reform acknowledges problems with specific conditions, laws, and behaviors within the criminal justice system; asserts that once these are changed, the system will be fair for all
Reform works within the state structures and institutions to create change; while this can be effective, it does not do long-term work to challenge the punitive justice model
Reform often includes spending more taxpayer funding on police and prison systems or "positive reforms" such as expansion, new training programs, technology, and oversight in attempt to improve them
Reform calls for retribution against our oppressors (ex: prosecute the police), using the same criminal justice systems up for debate in this movement
Reform, although looking to change the ways in which it is addressed, still ultimately views the cause of crime as individual failure; criminals should be punished, but in a more humane way
can reform and abolition work together?
S. ABOLITION Abolition acknowledges problems with the entire underlying culture of punitive justice and its roots in racial and socio-economic oppression; asserts that the complex must be overhauled and redesigned
Abolition seeks to work outside of the state structure whenever possible in order to create new and healthier community networks and avoid the systemic problems rooted in our existing social structures
Abolition aims to defund and redistribute the funding for police and prison systems to other, more productive community welfare programs that can reduce the harm in society in the first place
Abolition calls for transformative justice, even with those who have hurt us the most; this entails a fundamental re-imagining of relationships and a healing process determined by the parties involved
Abolition views crime as a legal concept that does not necessarily correspond with moral wrongdoing, and resists the labeling of individuals as "criminals;" conflict damages whole communities, which should be repaired
Yes! Although reform and abolition movements are working from different theoretical perspectives, in practice, much of their work overlaps. See "non-reformist reforms."
the stats: what's the issue?
2.3 million people incarcerated in the U.S. today,
2x
Black people are twice as likely to report threats or
compared to 500,000 in 1980
use of force in their most recent encounter with police
77 million
compared to white people
Americans are living with criminal records
1 in 5
$126 billion
incarcerated people is locked up
of taxpayer funds are spent
for a nonviolent drug offense
on policing every year
Global incarceration rates, per 100,000 people
#1
incarceration rate in the world
source: Vox, International Centre for Prison Studies credit: German Lopez
Incarceration rates per 100,000 US residents, by race
40%
of the incarcerated population is Black (vs. 13% of the national population)
source: Vox, Bureau of Justice Statistics
76%
$19,185 median annual income of incarcerated people prior to their incarceration;
of people held in jails are not
this is 41% less than for non-
convicted of any crime
incarcerated people of similar ages
4.9 million
$10,000
Americans are arrested and jailed every year
median bail cost for felonies
5% of all
arrests are for serious violent offenses
source:
theguardian.com/thecounted
Brief history of Crimin
1950s:
1829: first modern prison opens in Philadelphia and pioneers the use of solitary confinement
1896: Jim Crow
Red Scare used as justification
1863-1877:
laws upheld in
Reconstruction
court and enforced
for mass
brings racial
by police
surveillance,
lynchings and
McCarthyism
KKK, ignored &
imprisonment for
encouraged by
"Un-American
police
activites"
1704: first American police system created in the Carolina colony
1865: Abolition of
1900-1940: state troops
to catch
slavery through the 13th
formed to disperse labor
runaway slaves
amendment, which
unions, using brutality to bust
makes an exception for
strikes such as the 1912
prison labor
Lawrence Textile strike
nal Justice in the U.S. 1954-68: Civil Rights Movement, nonviolence met with police brutality, 1990s: Clinton violent
2014 police murder of
jailings, COINTELPRO
crime bill, zero
Michael Brown and 2020
by the FBI targets and
tolerance policy, "3
of George Floyd spark
kills activists. 1966 court
Strikes Law," and
nationwide protests,
win establishes Miranda
Rodney King trial
defund movement
rights
2011:
1970s &
California
'80s: Start of
spearheads
"War on
criminal justice
Drugs"; 1968: President Johnson
private
2001: 9/11 starts
reforms under
begins "War on Crime";
prisons and
the "War on
pressure to
1969 Stonewall riots;
mandatory
Terror" and Patriot
1972 Chicago Police
minimums
Act; 2002 ICE is
Torture begins
begin
formed
reduce overcrowding
local focus:
Ann Arbor, Michigan history:
1871: AAPD established, 20 years after city is founded
1926: Jackson State Prison becomes largest prison in the world at the time 1976: Larry Edwards killed by AAPD while unarmed and fleeing 1979: Lesvah Pugh killed by AAPD during drug raid; also unarmed 2006: Timothy Joe Souders dies from torturous conditions at the Southern Michigan Correctional Facility; gains national attention 2014: Aura Rosser killed by AAPD in her own home
stats:
Michigan spends $2 billion on state prisons; in comparison, we spend less than half a billion on education Washtenaw County spends $30 million on police; in comparison, we spend $2 million on mental health Michigan police killed 123 people between 2013 and 2019, nearly 40% of whom were POC (mappingpoliceviolence.org) In Michigan there are 6.7 Black men in prison to every 1 white man.
The bottom line: Ann Arbor deserves better.
Map of prisons in Michigan (non-exhaustive)
Join activist groups in doing the work. Michigan Collaborative to End Mass Incarceration: michigancollaborative.org Safe & Just Michigan: safeandjustmi.org Liberate Don’t Incarcerate Washtenaw County: liberatedontincarcerate.org Michigan Liberation: facebook.com/MichiganLiberation Michigan Abolition and Prisoner Solidarity: michiganabolition.org Detroit Justice Center: detroitjustice.org
possibilities for
the future
B L M
community accountability The idea behind community accountability is selfgovernance; that we are capable of seeing our neighbors, not watching and reporting them. True democracy includes community control of local ordinances, policing, and budgets. "Democratic community control of the police transforms the power dynamic between police and citizens," Frank Chapman, a NAARPR leader, said. "Black communities policing the police in their neighborhoods to confront the long-term racist roots of policing in the United States.�
transformative justice Transformative justice stands in opposition to our traditional punitive justice system. Instead of punishment, transformative justice aims to address harm by fundamentally transforming the relationship between perpetrator and victim. Transformative justice centers are already gaining popularity all over the country; abolitionists see this as an opportunity to not only decarcerate, but also heal communities at an interpersonal level. Examples of its use in practice include "trauma-informed crisis intervention teams" and "unarmed urgent responders trained in behavioral and mental health," according to Jamal Rich.
reduce crime through social safety nets "Until we invest in...things that actually reduce the amount of violence we witness—I don’t want to hear about how necessary the police are," Mychal Denzel Smith said. "They are only necessary because we are all too willing to hide behind our cowardice and not actually put forth the effort to create a better world." With the funding we currently spend on militarized police and mass incarceration, we could spend money on: employment, unemployment, and a living wage free education, including comprehensive sex ed affordable and accessible housing for all universal healthcare, including mental health care addiction treatment and rehabilitation Although abolitionists recognize that there will always be some level of crime because humans are imperfect, government can provide basic needs to prevent, not police, behavior that we have collectively labeled as "criminal" or harmful to society. With less crime, we would be better able to address the harm it causes.
"so much of the work of oppression is policing the imagination" - Saidiya Hartman
continued reading michelle alexander "It’s easy to imagine that a system like mass incarceration can’t be dismantled. The same was said about slavery, the same was said about Jim Crow. And yet a powerful movement, led in large part by courageous, young people who were unwilling to accept the status quo, who were bold and brave and who were truth-tellers, helped to bring that Jim Crow system to its knees."
ruth wilson gilmore "Far from being starry-eyed idealists, we are specialists in the daily grind of the deliberate, patient and persistent work necessary for what we want–freedom and justice."
angela davis “You have to act as if it were possible to radically transform the world. And you have to do it all the time.”
fay honey knopp "We have observed how countless revolutions have emptied the prisons, only to fill them up again with a different class of prisoner. Our goal, on the other hand, is to eliminate the keeper, not merely to switch the roles of keepers and kept."
mariame kaba "Let this radicalize you rather than lead you to despair."
sources "The Case for Abolition," Ruth Wilson Gilmore and James Kilgore. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2019/06/19/the-case-for-abolition "Abolish the Police," Mychal Denzel Smith. https://www.thenation.com/article/archive/abolish-police-instead-lets-have-fullsocial-economic-and-political-equality/ "Abolition." https://transformharm.org/abolition/ "Timeline of the Rise of the Modern American Prison System." https://www.truah.org/wp-content/uploads/MIH/MIH-18-20-timeline-modernamerican-prison.pdf "How the U.S. Got Its Police Force," Olivia B. Waxman. https://time.com/4779112/police-history-origins/ "Mass Incarceration: the Whole Pie 2020," Wendy Sawyer and Pete Wagner. https://www.prisonpolicy.org/reports/pie2020.html "Mass incarceration in America, explained in 22 maps and charts," German Lopez. https://www.vox.com/2015/7/13/8913297/mass-incarceration-mapscharts "Containing the Crisis: A History of Mass Incarceration and Rebellion in the Rustbelt." https://michiganabolition.files.wordpress.com/2017/04/containing_the_crisis_zi ne.pdf "Prison and police abolition: Re-imagining public safety and liberation," Jamal Rich. https://peoplesworld.org/article/prison-and-police-abolition-reimagining-public-safety-and-liberation/ "FY2021 Executive Budget." https://www.michigan.gov/documents/budget/FY2021_Executive_Budget_680 297_7.pdf
Black Lives Matter protest in Ann Arbor, Michigan, July 2016.