Abolitionism and decarceration: Our summer reading list
As the summer holidays get underway, even if you're staying at home for your holiday, we thought you might be interested in reading our back catalogue of articles on prison abolitionism and decarceration.
Here are our top reading recommendations.
I would build…radical strategies for resisting the harms of reform
Dr Bree Carlton outlines the critical differences between liberal reformism and radical abolitionism and decarceration strategies.
Building new prisons? How about no prison at all?
Richard Garside argues the case that rather than planning the next generation of prisons, we should be addressing the underlying antagonisms in society which make prisons our go-to response to social problems.
Prisons cannot be places of rehabilitation
J M Moore takes aim at the ways in which prisons are legitimised forms of social exclusion and asks that we look beyond prisons.
Prison safety and reform: When?
Joe Sim puts the 2016 Prison Safety and Reform White Paper into the context of the prisons crisis, concluding that the paper's legacy would fuel further penal expansion.
Close prisons and redevelop the land to address racial inequalities laid bare by COVID-19
Matt Ford argues that racial inequalities which have been highlighted during the pandemic can be alleviated through closing prisons and using the land for communities.
More mega prisons won't fix a broken society
Rebecca Roberts responds to the opening of mega prison, HMP Berwyn by describing the harms and social counterproductivity of imprisonment.
Build communities, not prisons
David Scott and Deborah Drake assess claims of economic prosperity for local communities in prison building projects, ultimately drawing attention to the human costs of prison expansionism.
Punishment is the pandemic
Charlie Weinberg looks at the meaning of the term 'containment' in the context of the pandemic, calling for a radical change in the way society views punishment.