World-Class Study Guide: Abolition. Feminism. Now.

Core Principles and Authorship of Abolition Feminism

Conceptual Framework: The book argues for the indivisibility of abolition and feminism. Abolition is defined as a political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance while creating lasting alternatives to punishment. Feminism, in this context, is an antiracist, anticapitalist, and internationalist practice that refuses the logic of disposability.
The Authors (Activist-Scholars): * Angela Y. Davis: A political activist and author known for her work on Black liberation, prison abolition, and the intersections of race, gender, and class. She is a founding member of Critical Resistance. * Gina Dent: Associate Professor at UC Santa Cruz, specializing in race, feminism, popular culture, and legal studies. She has been part of Critical Resistance since its 1998 inception. * Erica R. Meiners: Professor of Education and Women’s and Gender Studies at Northeastern Illinois University. Her work focuses on the school-to-prison pipeline and public enemies. * Beth E. Richie: Professor of African American Studies and Criminology at UIC. She is a founding member of INCITE! and wrote Arrested Justice.
The Significance of Punctuation: The title Abolition. Feminism. Now. uses full stops to signify that while each concept has a singular history, they must interrupt and inform one another. Abolition is unimaginable without feminism, and feminism is not possible without an abolitionist imagination.
Definition of Abolitionist Praxis: A politically informed practice that demands intentional movement and the ability to do multiple things at once: working locally and internationally, holding people accountable while believing in the capacity for change, and protesting state violence while building mutual aid.

The 2001 INCITE!-Critical Resistance Statement

The Mills College Convening: In 2001, a small group of women of color from INCITE! Women of Color Against Violence and Critical Resistance gathered in Oakland, CA, to address the intersection of interpersonal gender violence and state violence.
Primary Challenge: The statement was a response to the mainstream anti-violence movement's reliance on policing and punishment, which marginalized women of color who suffer disproportionately from both state and interpersonal violence.
Core Demands of the 11-Point Statement: 1. Develop community-based responses that do not rely on the criminal justice system. 2. Critically assess the impact of state funding on social justice organizations (overcoming the "Non-Profit Industrial Complex"). 3. Connect interpersonal violence to domestic state institutions (prisons, child protective services) and international violence (war, militarism). 4. Refuse to isolate individual acts of violence from their larger social contexts. 5. Center poor/working-class women of color in leadership and analysis. 6. Oppose legislative changes that promote prison expansion even if they include measures for victims. 7. Challenge men in social justice movements to organize against gender violence within their communities.

A Genealogy of Abolitionist Practice

The New York Women’s House of Detention (1932–1974): * Constructed for over $2,000,000$ in Greenwich Village, it was heralded as a model of "modern penology" focused on isolation. * Interruption of Isolation: Audre Lorde described how information and endearments were shouted between the street and the prison windows, creating unregulated conduits for organizing. * Collective Bail: During Angela Davis’s time there, women on the inside collectively decided who would benefit from bail funds, with released women committing to raise further funds.
Attica Uprising (1971): A watershed moment where incarcerated people issued a passionate call for abolition and the end of the construction of new prisons.
The 1998 Critical Resistance Conference: * Held at UC Berkeley with $3,500$ attendees. It consolidated abolition as a $21^{st}$ century strategy and introduced the term Prison Industrial Complex (PIC). * PIC Definition: The overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social, and political problems.
W.E.B. Du Bois and "Abolition Democracy": * In Black Reconstruction in America (1935), Du Bois argued that slavery could not be expunged as a discrete institution without analyzing the root causes of injustice. * Abolition requires acquiring for incarcerated communities economic, intellectual, and political power, mirroring the needs of formerly enslaved people for "land, light, and leading."

Feminism and the Anti-Violence Movement

The Evolution of #MeToo and AAPF: While #MeToo was popularized by Alyssa Milano in 2017, it was founded by Tarana Burke in 2006. The #SayHerName campaign by Kimberlé Crenshaw addresses the erasure of Black women killed by police.
Historical Black Feminist Forerunners: * Claudia Jones (1949): Argued that Black women were subject to "superexploitation" and that domestic work was a routine site of sexual abuse. * Ella Baker and Marvel Cooke (1935): Wrote "Bronx Slave Market," documenting how street-corner domestic work mirrored the conditions of slavery. * Rosa Parks: Long before the bus boycott, Parks was an anti-rape activist defending Black women like Recy Taylor against white sexual violence.
The Impact of the 1994 Crime Bill (VCCLEA) and VAWA: * The Violence Against Women Act (VAWA) bolstered the framing of gender violence as requiring a criminal justice solution. * Over $8,000,000,000$ was spent on VAWA between 1995 and 2018, primarily funneling money into policing and the legal system rather than safe housing or healthcare for survivors.
Carceral Feminism: Defined as an overreliance on carceral approaches to solve gender violence. It assumes the state is a benevolent protector, ignoring the fact that police are often perpetrators of violence against survivors and marginalized groups.

Abolition Feminism in the Now: Chicago as a Site of Struggle

The Laquan McDonald Case (2014–2015): The murder of $17$-year-old McDonald by officer Jason Van Dyke led to a $13$-month cover-up. The resulting protests demanded the shrinking of police budgets rather than just prosecution.
Youth-Led Movements: * We Charge Genocide: Submitted a report to the UN documenting police torture of youth and demanded safety outside policing. * Assata's Daughters and BYP100: Pushed the demand to #FundBlackFutures, arguing that accountability is not found in the legal system.
The #nocopacademy Campaign (2017–2019): * Opposed the construction of a $95,000,000$ police training academy in Chicago. * The movement highlighted that the city's annual budget for substance abuse ($2,581,272$) equals roughly what is spent on half a day of policing.
Abolitionist Infrastructure: Groups like Love & Protect and Survived & Punished support survivors criminalized for self-defense (e.g., Marissa Alexander, CeCe McDonald). They argue that "Prisons are a form of gender violence."

Distinguishing Reform from Abolition

Reformist Reforms: These strengthen the system or expand its reach (e.g., building "nicer" jails, incremental police training, adding body cameras, or creating specialized carceral "wings" for trans people).
Abolitionist Steps (Non-Reformist Reforms): These reduce the system's power and scale. They include: * Reducing the number of people imprisoned. * Dismantling parts of the system without replacement (e.g., ending cash bail). * Divesting from policing and investing in community-led infrastructures (housing, healthcare, education).
Carceral Humanism: A term used to describe reforms that dress up carceral state expansion in the language of care, such as "gender-responsive" prisons or electronic monitoring (e-carceration).
The Power and Control Wheel (Monica Cosby): Adapted from domestic violence analysis to show that state violence (shakedowns, strip searches, solitary confinement) functions by the same logic as abusive relationships: isolation, intimidation, and arbitrary authority.