Roundtable: Penal Abolition – Building Ideas and Practices

Session Submission Type: Roundtable Session

Abstract

The purpose of this roundtable is to facilitate discussion and contact between those interested in the ideas and practices of penal abolition – especially how we are to continue this work at ASC. The roundtable is a discussion by all those present about how to shift the intellectual and practice-centered life of “criminology” and “criminal justice” from the centuries’ old notion of “criminal justice reform” (and the now aging critical examinations of status quo criminological theory and practice), to that which moves beyond the penal project. Thus, the goal of this roundtable is to identify penal abolition as a distinct field of ideas and activities that travels beyond the profession of critiquing “criminology” and “criminal justice,” and to strategize about creating a lasting space for penal abolition.

Sub Unit

• Area XIII: Roundtable Sessions

Chair

• Michael J. Coyle, California State University, Chico

Discussants

• Randall Amster, Georgetown University

• William Calathes, New Jersey City University

• Angela Bryant, Ohio State University - Newark

• Luis Fernandez, Northern Arizona University

• Meghan McDowell, Old Dominion University

• Denise Woodall, University of North Georgia