Stephen Henderson on the work of Henry Dumas, Knees of a Natural Man: Selected Poems of Henry Dumas

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.

a black woman named zoe amira posted a video on youtube. this video is an hour long and filled with art and music from black creators. it has a ton of ads, and in result will rack up a ton of revenue. 100% of the ad revenue from the video will be dispersed between various blm organizations, including bail-out funds for protesters. it will be split between the following, dependent on necessity

brooklyn bail fund

minnesota freedom fund

atlanta action network

columbus freedom fund

louisville community bail fund

chicago bond

black visions collective

richmond community bail fund

the bail project inc

nw com bail fund

philadelphia bail fund

the korchhinski-parquet family gofundme

george floyd’s family gofundme

blacklivesmatter.com

reclaim the block

aclu

turn off your adblocker and put the video on repeat. do not skip ads. let it play on loop whether you’re listening or not. mute the tab if you need to focus elsewhere. but let. it. play.

youtube will donate to blm for you.