Abolition is Survivor-Centric: A Resource List
Content Warning:
This article mentions sexual violence.
Image: Unsplash
On January 14th, Eric Post, an Ottawa Police constable, pleaded guilty to five of 32 criminal charges: four charges of assault and one count of uttering threats. The other charges include two counts of sexual assault. Post has been suspended by the Ottawa Police since 2018. And sure, it's easy to brush this particular case off as a "one-off," unfortunately, that isn't the case. Police officers have continuously used force, sexual violence included, to maintain power and perpetuate violence. A 2013 report by Human Rights Watch titled "Those Who Take Us Away" outlines the RCMP involvement and the issues with police responses to the murders and disappearances of Indigenous women and girls in Canada. The police do not keep us safe. More often, the police perpetuate and create the circumstances for further harm and violence in our communities.
However, almost without fail, in every conversation about abolition, someone asks: "what about the murders and rapists?" and while not everyone with that question is looking to disrupt the organizing around defunding the police, the question signals towards a more significant issue: the notion that justice for sexual violence and gender-based violence can be delivered through criminalization and punishment. Turning to incarceration and confinement rarely solves our problems in society; they exacerbate the conditions for violence to continue circling within us and around us. The most impacted by these conditions are Black, Indigenous and racialized people.
Our world has changed drastically before, prioritizing power and violence every time. This time, may that change hold survivors at the centre instead. But first, who is a survivor? Binary thinking has led us to believe that there can only be one survivor and one abuser, that there has to be a clear cut line that separates "good" and "bad." However, this falsifies and further denies our realities are marginalized people whose entire lives are targeted and shaped by state violence. People who harm are also survivors. Danielle Sered of Common Justice has said, "No one enters violence for the first time by committing it. As such, when we commit ourselves to survivor-centric and survivor-informed practise and work, we cannot dismiss the impact of structural violence.
Below is a list of resources that address the myths around policing and prisons, especially as it pertains to sexual violence and gender-based violence:
Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind:
https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html
In this feature by the New York Times, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, prison abolitionist and scholar, makes a strong case for abolition. This piece is a great starting point for those looking for an overview of Gilmore's organizing around abolition and several moments in history that defined the importance of such a movement. One critical moment included in the piece is the organizing response to California wanting to build "gender-responsive" prisons.
"The organization Justice Now circulated a petition that 3,300 incarcerated people signed, to protest the new facilities intended to house them. A list of the incarcerated signatories — a 25-foot scroll — was presented at the State Capitol, to audible gasps from the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Prisons."
Are Prisons Obsolete?
Written by Dr. Angela Davis, Are Prisons Obsolete?, is a must-read. Providing an overview of the differences between reform and abolition, the prison industrial complex (PIC), and a gender analysis of the prison systems, Dr. Davis lays out the foundation for an abolitionist perspective. Dr. Davis writes,
"… sexual abuse by prison guards is translated into hypersexuality of women prisoners. The notion that female "deviance" always has a sexual dimension persists in the contemporary era, and this intersection of criminality and sexuality continues to be racialized. Thus, white women labeled as "criminals" are more closely associated with blackness than their "normal" counterparts"
Dr. Davis ends the book with several alternatives to policing and prisons.
Assata: An Autobiography
Assata Shakur narrates the gendering of state violence through policing and prisons. The following passage from the book provides an insight into how patriarchy reigns within prisons:
"The next phase was the strip and search. There were two groups of women: those who were returning from kourt and those who, like me, were new admissions. We were directed to stand in little booths and take off all our cloth we were told to turn around, squat, run our fingers through our hair, lift up our feet and open our mouths. This was for everybody."
Shakur describes the dehumanizing within women's prisons while pointing us towards an analysis of gender, race and carceral space.
Additional Resources Hubs on Alternatives to Prisons and Policing:
