Resistance to Prison Abolition from Inside the Walls

• In Event: Penal Abolition: Session 3 of 3

Abstract

Since 2009, I have been offering Inside-Out courses at a medium-security male prison with an equal number of university and incarcerated students. The course content includes a series of critical readings and discussions focused upon such topics as the origins and development of the American criminal justice system, the historical and contemporary use of punishment and rehabilitation, the re-emergence of restorative justice, and the broader relationship between criminal and social justice. In 2014, I co-facilitated the course with a former inside student and we decided to include readings on penal abolition. In this presentation, I will discuss the challenges over the past two years of introducing penal abolition in a prison context, particularly with the incarcerated students. I will present students’ perspectives on penal abolition within the cultural landscape of America’s imprisonment binge and lessons learned from our discussions.

Author

• Angela Bryant, The Ohio State University-Newark