currently processing something said to me in anger

a prison abolitionist,

a harm reductionist,

for decriminilization,

and giving the land back

shit, i don’t know. we need prisons as prisons are to A) withhold certain people from harming their communities, B) punish certain people, C) kill certain people.

uh, i guess i can kind of answer this. the criminal justice system still exists. why don’t we just leave those people in charge? they’re not cops! and we should definitely let people who have committed non-violent offenses go. drug charges are stupid.

ok, i feel a little more confident answering this. we need to change the prison model for the better and follow the example of countries with restorative justice practices. incarcerated people need better access to healthcare and education, as well as access to opportunifies post-prison so that they are less likely to face reincarceration.

wait. if we’re abolishing the police for upholding white supremacy and terrorizing marginalized communities, we need to abolish a lot of shit. restorative justice sounds cool, i agree with that guy above. but shouldn’t these efforts be run by the communities affected? wasn’t the problem a white supremacist state? wasn’t the goal community terrorism? wasn’t the power taken out of our hands, especially the hands of people being systematically criminalized? i think i have things to read about.

anyway, whatever your conclusion: here are some things to read about.

darkness matters: on the surveillance of blackness by simone brown

are prisons obsolete? by angela davis

the law is a white dog by colin dayan

gendering the carceral state: african american women, history, and the criminal justice system by kali n gross and cheryl d hicks

“indigenous space and decolonizing prison abolition” from the final straw radio podcast (this is an episode of a podcast featuring ni frontiers ni prison, an indigenous prison abolitionist group)

migra! a history of the us border control by kelly lyle hernandez

disability incarcerated by liat ben-moshe and allison c carey

queer (in)justice by joey l mogul, andrea j ritchie, and kay whitlock

crazy in america: the hidden tragedy of our criminalized mentally ill by mary beth pfeiffer

inventing the savage: the social construction of native american criminality by luana ross

criminal justice facts posted by the sentencing project

is prison necessary? an article featuring ruth wilson gilmore & explaining prison abolition to children who were very good at asking “but what about [x]?” questions

and here’s an FAQ about prison abolition by people against prisons aotearoa

and then another collection of links by the marshall project.

They want buckskin and face paint, drumming, songs in languages they can’t understand recorded for them but with English subtitles, of course. They want educated, well spoken, but not too smart. Christian, well behaved, never question. They want to learn the history of the people, but not the ones that are here now, waving signs in their faces, asking them for clean drinking water, asking them why their women are going missing, asking them why their land is being ruined.

They want fantastical stories of Indians that used to roam this land. They want my culture behind glass in a museum.

UPDATE: her Venmo got flagged (🙃) but her ko-fi works!!!

(O7/03/26) Survival is harrowing in Sudan's human rights crisis for everyone, but especially women and queer kinfolk. I have been friends with the camp leader, Abdul, since June of 2025. I am happy to know of his survival but understand and mourn that his people are starving, not living.

At the time of posting, it has been over 24 hours since anyone has eaten. They are at zero funds.

With evidence below, Abdu has informed me that their expenses are nearly 100 USD a day due to scarcity. So, the number he gave was 600 dollars a week. The lowest goal, then, approximately 2400 for one month of food.

Reasonably, I will set their goal at 2800 for the month of July. The nature of these posts, is that as funds are expended, goals are harder to track. But I implore you to donate and share his gfm with some of this info, far and wide if you cannot donate. Please do not ignore when 5 dollars, 10 dollars, 50 dollars can add up to save vulnerable human lives. Black lives still matter. Trans people are real human beings who deserve safety.

please do not ignore the voices of these people, if you can, donate as much as you can.