Session 2: What’s Wrong With Reform?
2018-2021 Core Readings:
Berger, Dan and Mariame Kaba and David Stein (2017). ‘What Abolitionists do,’ Jacobinmag.com [5 pages]
Naomi Murakawa & #BlackLivesMatter (2015) Liberals, Guns and the Roots of the U.S. Prison Explosion (2015). [first 14mins of Video] The Laura Flanders Show.
Ben-Moshe, L. (2013) The Tension Between Abolition and Reform. In: Nagel, M. E. and Nocella, A. J. (eds.) The End of Prisons: Reflections from the Decarceration Movement. Amsterdam: Value Inquriy Book Series, pp.83-92.
Kaba, Mariame ‘Police “Reforms” You Should Always Oppose’ Truth-Out. [1 page].
Critical Resistance (2020) Reformist Reforms vs Abolitionist Steps in Policing [Abolitionist Reforms Chart] [1 page]
Further reading:
If you’re joining an Abolitionist Futures reading group for the second time, we recommend you read these instead of the core readings.
Moore, John (2020) Prison - more than detention [3 pages]
Vitale, Alex S (2020) The answer to police violence is not ‘reform’. It’s defunding. Here’s why. The Guardian. [2 pages]
Chitseko, Sara (2020) Abolition not Reformation. 4Frontproject.org (2 pages)