Black & Pink Prison Abolition Syllabus

Session 1¶

• Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America, Anne-Marie Cusac (Yale University Press: New Haven, 2009) Ch. 1 “When Punishment Is the Subject, Religion Is the Predicate” (pages 17-30)
• With Liberty For Some: 500 Years of Imprisonment in America, Scott Christianson (Northeastern University Press; Boston, 1998) Ch. 2 “A Land of Prisoners and Keepers” (pages 39-67)
• Cruel and Unusual: Punishment and US Culture, Brian Jarvis (Pluto Press: Virginia, 2004) Ch. 1 “The Birth of a Prison Nation” and half of Ch 2 “The Scarlet Letter and the Long Forever of Puritan Punishment” (pages 1-33)

Session 2 – The Birth of the Penitentiary¶

• Cruel and Unusual: The Culture of Punishment in America, Anne-Marie Cusac (Yale University Press: New Haven, 2009) Ch. 2 and 3 “’A Heart Is Not Wholly Corrupted’ Revolution, Religion and Punishment” and “Reforming the Reforms” (pages 31-71)
• “Penitence for the Privileged: Manhood, Race, and Penitentiaries in Early America,” Mark E. Kann in Prison Masculinities (Temple University Press: Philadelphia, 2001) pages 21-31
• With Liberty For Some: 500 Years of Imprisonment in America, Scott Christianson (Northeastern University Press; Boston, 1998) Ch. 4 “Little Man in the Big House” (pages 110-162)

Session 3 – The 13th Amendment and Convict Leasing¶

• With Liberty For Some: 500 Years of Imprisonment in America, Scott Christianson (Northeastern University Press; Boston, 1998) Ch.5 “Scandal and Reform” (pages 163-203)
• The New Abolitionists: Neo-slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings, Joy James (State University of New York Press: Albany, 2005) “Introduction: Democracy and Captivity” (pages xxi-xxv)

Session 4 – White Supremacy and the Racialization of Incarceration¶

• “The American Indian in the White Man’s Prisons: A Story of Genocide,” Little Rock Reed in The New Abolitionists: Neo-slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings, Joy James (State University of New York Press: Albany, 2005) pages 133-150
• Cruel and Unusual: Punishment and US Culture, Brian Jarvis (Pluto Press: Virginia, 2004) Ch. 4 “Punishment, Resistance and the African-American Experience” (pages 78-125)
  • Notes
  • Bibliography
• “A Brief History of the New Afrikan Prison Struggle” Sundiata Acoli in Black Prison Movements USA (Africa World Press: Trenton, 1995) pages 5-26

Session 5 – Death Penalty¶

• Peculiar Institution: America’s Death Penalty in an Age of Abolition, David Garland (The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press: Harvard, 2010) | Internet Archive, Library Availability, Review
  * “The Death Penalty in Black and White: Who Lives, Who Dies, Who Decides,” Richard C. Dieter Report from Death Penalty Information Center June 1998
• “Death Penalty, Still Racist and Arbitrary,” David R. Dow Op-Ed in New York Times July 8, 2011
• “Homophobia, Gender Deviance, and the Death Penalty” in Queer (In)justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States Joey Mogul, Andrea Ritchie, and Kay Whitlock (Beacon Press: Beacon Press, 2011) pages 79-90

Session 6 – Presentation by Jamie Bisonette and/or Bobby Delello on the story of Walpole¶

• When the Prisoners Ran Walpole: A True Story in the Movement for Prison Abolition, Jamie Bissonette (South End Press: Cambridge, 2008) | Library Availability, Review
• “Psychological Warfare at Norfolk Prison Camp,” Juno Bakali Tshombe/Craig Dee Anderson in Who Took the Weight? Black Voices from Norfolk Prison (Elma Lewis School of Fine Arts: Boston, 1972) pages 91-97

Session 7 – Women and Incarceration¶

• Resistance Behind Bars: the Struggles of Incarcerated Women Victoria Law (PM Press: Oakland, 2009) “Overview” and “Unlikely Communities” (pages 1-28)
  * “Cruel But Not Unusual – The Punishment of Women in US Prisons,” Marilyn Buck and Laura Whitehorn in The New Abolitionists: Neo-slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings, Joy James (State University of New York Press: Albany, 2005) pages 259-271
• “Gender Violence and the Prison Industrial Complex” in Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology (South End Press: Cambridge, 2006) pages 223-226
• “Severed Ties: The Incarcerated Mother,” in Black Prison Movements USA (Africa World Press: Trenton, 1995)pages 27-32

Session 8 – Heteropatriarchy and the Prison Industrial Complex¶

• “Queering Anti-prison work: African American Lesbians in the Juvenile Justice System,” Beth Richie in Global Lockdown: Race, Gender, and the Prison-Industrial Complex edited by Julia Sudbury (Routledge: NYC, 2005) pages 73-86
• Queer (In)justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States Joey Mogul, Andrea Ritchie, and Kay Whitlock (Beacon Press: Beacon Press, 2011) Ch. 5 “Caging Deviance: Prisons as Queer Spaces” pages 92-117
• “Making It Happen, Mama: A Conversation with Miss Major” in Captive Genders: Trans-Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex edited by Eric Stanley and Nat Smith (AK Press: Oakland, 2011) Ch. 19
• “P.I.M.P: Prostitutes in Municipal Politics” in Policing Public Sex, edited by Dangerous Bedfellows (South End Press: Boston, 1995) pages 251-262
• “Transforming Carceral Logics: 10 Reasons to Dismantle the Prison Industrial Complex Through Queer/Trans Analysis and Action by S. Lamble in Captive Genders: Trans-Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex edited by Eric Stanley and Nat Smith (AK Press: Oakland, 2011)

Session 9 – Healthcare and Prisons¶

• “Private Health Care in Jails Can Be a Death Sentence,” Paul von Zielbauer in Prison Profiteers: Who Makes Money From Mass Incarceration Edited by Tara Herivel and Paul Wright (The New Press: NYC, 2007) pages 204-227
• “Engaged in Life: Alan Berkman on Prison Health Care (as told to Susie Day) in The New Abolitionists: Neo-slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings, Joy James (State University of New York Press: Albany, 2005) pages 289-294
• “Regulatory Sites: Management, Confinement and HIV/AIDS” by Michelle Potts in Captive Genders: Trans-Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex edited by Eric Stanley and Nat Smith (AK Press: Oakland, 2011) Ch.7

Session 10 – Police and Guard Labor: The First Line of the Prison Industrial Complex¶

• Our Enemies in Blue, Kristian Williams (South End Press: Cambridge, 2007) ch 6 “Police Autonomy and Blue Power”
• “Garrison America,” Samuel Bowles and Arjun Jayadev in Economists’ Voice March 2007 pages 1-7
• “Law Enforcement Violence Against Women of Color” in Color of Violence: The Incite! Anthology (South End Press: Cambridge, 2006) pages 138-156

Session 11 – Theology and Abolition¶

• The Fall of the Prison: Biblical Perspectives on Prison Abolition, Lee Griffith (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids, 1993) “Prisons and the Bible” pages 87-118 and “Prisons and Discipleship” pages 177-203
• Death Blossoms: Reflections from a Prisoner of Conscience, Mumia Abu Jamal (South End Press: Cambridge, 1996) pages 34-60
• “A Theology for the Penal Abolition Movement,” Jason Lydon in Peace Review: A Journal of Social Justice (Taylor and Francis Group: Philadelphia, 2011) pages 296-303
• Good Punishment: Christian Moral Practice and US Imprisonment, James Samuel Logan (William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company: Grand Rapids, 2008) “Mining Stanley Hauerwas: Foundations for a Christian Social Ethics of Good Punishment,” pages 143-174

Session 12 – Transformative Justice¶

• (skim) “Toward Transformative Justice” Generation 5
• Beyond Prisons: A New Interfaith Paradigm for Our Failed Prison System, Laura Magnani and Harmon L. Wray (Fortress Press: Minneapolis, 2006)
• “Beautiful, Difficult, Powerful: Ending Sexual Assault Through Transformative Justice,” The Chrysalis Collective in The Revolution Starts at Home, edited by Ching-In Chen, Jai Dulani, and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samrasinha (South End Press: NYC, 2011) Ch. 14