Abolition Now!: Ten Years of Strategy and Struggle Against the Prison Industrial Complex

by The CR10 Publications Collective (Editor), Ben Goldstein (Collective Member), Beth E. Richie (Collective Member)

“As new and more virulent articulations of imprisonment, policing, and surveillance have grown over the past decade, one thing remains clear: the prison industrial complex must be abolished. Critical Resistance is a leading voice in the movement for abolition and the pieces in this collection are powerful tools for both long-time activists and those brand new to the movement for abolition now!”—Angela Y. Davis, author of Are Prisons Obsolete?

The number of people in prison in the United States has risen 400 percent in the last twenty years—the world’s highest incarceration rate. Over seven million people currently live under the control of US jail, prison, probation, or parole systems—the vast majority of them people of color and young people. Policing at all levels is increasingly militarized and demands more and more resources.

For a decade, Critical Resistance has organized to abolish the reliance on imprisonment, policing, and surveillance, seeing the prison industrial complex (PIC) not as a broken system to be fixed, but a well-oiled machine that must be eliminated entirely.

Published in honor of Critical Resistance’s tenth anniversary, Abolition Now! reflects the organization’s themes: Dismantle, Change, and Build. It presents bold strategies to create a stronger movement of people committed to PIC abolition and building stronger, safer, healthier communities, not more elaborate forms of repression.

The CR10 Publications Collective is a national grassroots organization with thousands of members and supporters working toward reducing the current prison population, stopping construction of new prisons, and developing alternative public safety models.

Genres: Nonfiction, Politics, Social Justice, Race, Anti Racist, Activism, Justice

176 pages, Paperback

First published November 1, 2008

Reviews

[Athena]

This collection is uneven in terms of the styles and quality of writing. Still, I learned a lot from it.

[Jung]

[5 stars] A anthology of essays, and poetry reflecting on the first ten years of Critical Resistance and its work to abolish policing and the prison industrial complex (PIC). An excellent primer on abolition that integrates a gender lens into its analyses on race and class; a couple of writers touched on disability, and I wish there had been more. Despite being published 12 years ago, its demands remain urgent and timely, grounding readers in historical context and lessons learned. Some essays felt overly academic (e.g. Dylan Rodríguez’s essay Warfare and the Terms of Engagement is useful for linking the PIC and NPIC but similarly dense to his contribution to The Revolution Will Not Be Funded) though many more presented case studies and organizing examples. Standouts for me include the joint CR / INCITE Statement on Gender Violence and the PIC and Autobiography @ 33 (from Section 1: Dismantle), No One is Criminal & Prickly Coalitions (from Section 2: Change), and all four pieces in Section 3: Build. Highly recommended for anyone looking to sharpen their abolitionist political analysis, deepen their practice, and/or honor the history that brought us to our current moment. Also available as a PDF in the Abolitionist Tools section of CR’s website.

Goodreads Challenge: 48/72
Femibooks Nonfiction Reading Challenge: a book about LGBTQ+ communities and/or people

[Toby]

A good anthology of writings from the prison abolition movement. The organization of the book does a good job tying the various pieces together, but some of the individual pieces drag or leave me wanting to know more about the campaigns in question.

[Spicy T AKA Mr. Tea]

Nearly a week after getting back from Critical Resistance 10, I was able to finish their latest book: Abolition Now! Ten Years of Strategy and Struggle Against the Prison Industrial Complex. There is definitely a plethora of topics covered in the book: the founding of CR, racism, immigration, intimacy/sexual violence, police as domestic military force, prickly alliances, indigenous peoples' struggle, and safety, among others, all connecting back to the Prison Industrial Complex. A quick and informative read. I do recommend you check it out.

[Delaney]

Abolition Now! is a really important book in many ways. It offers essays from folks actually in prison writing about the abolition movement -- voices that are often missing in activist literature today. There are many grammar mistakes that can be distracting, but if we're being honest, grammar isn't the point anyways. The message is. And the message needs to be shared.

[Emily]

Very impressive essays. Makes me feel like i'm taking a college course on the PIC

[Allee]

An inspiring sternum-punch of a book.

[Julia]

This is 12 years old now so some info is out of date, but it was a compelling introduction to the movement for abolition and what exactly that means. A great starting point for diving into activism surrounding the PIC and community care.

[Samantha Pajor]

A valuable book, but most of the essays are written with highly academic language, which can make this hard to understand.

[Asa]

Critical Resistance at ten, and the strength is who is in it. Current and former incarcerated contributors alongside organisers and academics, which puts the party with standing inside the argument rather than as its subject. And the prison industrial complex framing is structural by construction: the object of critique is an arrangement of contracts, land, labour and law rather than a set of bad prisons.

A movement anthology at an anniversary is written to consolidate, and the opposition appears only as what is being organised against. Nothing in it could have come out otherwise, and that is a fact about the occasion rather than about the politics.

LQ 3: many hands, wide range, organisational prose in places.