Abolition Sunday, June 13, 2021

It’s the second Sunday of the month! Abolition Sunday is a monthly deep dive and discussion on the topic of Abolition: What is it? What is its history? Is it even possible?

We now meet on Zoom: http://bit.ly/awg-zoom

The United States is the world’s leader in incarceration.

“There are 2.2 million people in the nation’s prisons and jails—a 500% increase over the last 40 years, despite increasing evidence that large-scale incarceration is not an effective means of achieving public safety.” – The Sentencing Project

The PIC is a system that claims to resolve a problem (the problem of “crime”) but that in fact relies on and reproduces that problem, industriously and often, profitably.

Week two: The Prison Industrial Complex PIC

These resources can all be found here.

Approx times:

1 min: Watch Mary Hooks, “What is the Prison Industrial Complex?”
4 min: Watch Angela Davis, “The Shifting Concept of the Prison Industrial Complex”
3 min: Watch Ruth Wilson Gilmore, “When the Prison Industrial Complex Masquerades as Social Welfare”
30 min: Read Eve Goldberg and Linda Evans, “The Prison Industrial Complex and the Global Economy”
6 min: Read Mia Armstrong, “Here’s Why Abolishing Private Prisons Isn’t a Silver Bullet”
45 min: View Chart: Mass Incarceration and more data visualizations on current prisons and policing at the Prison Policy Initiative
10 min: Read: Livia Luan, “Profiting from Enforcement: The Role of Private Prisons in U.S. Immigration Detention”

I also HIGHLY recommend:

Interview with Brett Story, filmmaker “The Prison in 12 Landscapes” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbC3ZskZqIQ If you have Amazon Prime, you can rent the film for $4.99 here: https://www.amazon.com/Prison-Twelve-Landscapes-Brett-Story/dp/B07M659LRB

Also current campaign illustrating how to carceral system’s revolving door is perpetuated and call to action:

People versus Mark Clements
Graphic to download and share to demand Kim Foxx drop charges against Mark Clements, survivor of police torture

See you on the 13th!

abolition, Angela Davis, Antiracism, Cook County State's Attorney Kim Foxx, crime, Eve Goldberg, Immigration detention, Indivisible IL9, Linda Evans, Lori Ashikawa, Mark Clements, Mary Hooks, Mass incarceration, Mia Armstrong, Prison Industrial Complex, Prison Policy Initiative, profit, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Sunday

Leni

Contact me to connect with other likeminded activists to get out the vote, elect leaders with bold, progressive agendas, and work in coalition with others to resist hate.