It’s not just cops in riot gear that we have to fight to win abolition—it’s the whole damn system. Even when bad people are targeted by the state, it increases the state’s legitimacy. ACAB. You’ve likely seen the phrase on buildings or at least in a few Twitter bios. It means “all cops are bastards”...
Tag: prison industrial complex
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Prison Food, Abolitionist Geographies, and Food Sovereignty: Food as a Tool of Resistance
Eating in prison is deeply political. Carceral institutions weaponize and transform the role of food provision into a tool of control, dehumanization, and state-sanctioned violence. By Kanav Kathuria and Jamesha Caldwell Food conditions in prisons across the United States have drawn increased media attention in recent months. Incidents such as white supremacist Jacob Chansley—also known...
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The Execution of Brandon Bernard and How The Carceral State Courts Death
Brandon Bernard’s execution was premeditated murder by the carceral state, a killing machine that touches every part of our lives. It has to be eradicated. TW: Black death, executions, prison industrial complex, mentions of violence and police brutality On December 10, 2020, Brandon Bernard was executed after being sentenced to death in 1999 by an...
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Abolition Cannot Wait: Visions For Transformation and Radical World-Building
Abolition is the practice of building a radical vision for the end of imperialism, cis heteropatriarchy, capitalism, and white supremacy—and it is very possible. By K. Agbebiyi, Sarah T. Hamid, Rachel Kuo, and Mon Mohapatra Abolition means a world with zero police, a world without prisons, and a world where we build life-sustaining systems of...
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Surviving Rape as a Prison Abolitionist
People try to poke holes in the prison abolition movement by asking “what about rapists, do you want them just wandering around?” But they already are. TW/CW: mentions of sexual assault and details of r/pe. By Miriam Perez-Putnam It took me two years to tell anyone I had been raped. I won’t go into details...
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The Criminal Justice System: Returning Citizens Share Their Perspectives
The loudest voices discussing the criminal justice system often aren’t the voices we should be listening to. Three returning citizens share their stories here. In September 2019, the 34th Lieutenant Governor of Pennsylvania, John Fetterman, stated plainly and clearly that his one goal for his term is to keep people from dying needlessly in prison....
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2020 Democrats And Their Harmful Histories With Police
Just like Kamala, most of the prominent white candidates have complicated (read: bad) histories with policing, incarceration, and Black people in general. When Senator Kamala Harris dropped out of the presidential race last week, her supporters on Twitter claimed that she was unfairly treated by the “Kamala is a cop” narrative. They said that belaboring...
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Abolish It All: A World Without Private Prisons is Still A World With Slaves
None of these candidates are committed to abolishing private prisons because each of them have investments in the very things that allow for prisons of any kind to exist. Bernie Sanders recently tweeted that he wants to end “private prisons and detention centers” in the united states. This has been a sentiment expressed by many...
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The Trauma Inflicted Upon Migrant Children Today Mirrors The Experiences Of Korean Adoptees
Shared and ongoing histories of war and exploitation necessitate us to fight alongside not only migrant families, but all people engaged in struggle for collective liberation. CW: This essay mentions suicide and r/pe. By Elizabeth Niarhos Increased family separation and child abuse and neglect by the United States government against immigrant families have prompted thought-provoking...
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When They See Us Yesterday: The Black Imagination Beyond State Violence
I believe we can build a world where the Black Imagination no longer has to be a response to state-sanctioned violence. This article contains light spoilers for “See You Yesterday” and “When They See Us”. I sat down with my Queer Parent and one of our close friends to watch the new Netflix Original Movie,...