When beginning advocacy for abolition and the necessary change within our carceral system, it’s of utmost importance to maintain a centering and prioritization of those most directly affected by its harm and whose lived experiences allow the greatest knowledge and information on the system itself. Though texts published in journals or prominent news sources can often provide beneficial and necessary statistics or data on occurrences within the prison industrial complex (PIC), they are often through the eyes and words of people who have never truly experienced incarceration. One organization that strives to change this practice is Critical Resistance.
Critical Resistance is a national grassroots organization that works towards a vision of abolition and “the creation of genuinely healthy, stable communities that respond to harm without relying on imprisonment and punishment.” Originally formed in 1997 to challenge the role of prisons and policing in solving social, economic, and political problems, their work is vast and covers many forms of activism. Critical Resistance has uplifted and organized protests and campaigns against prison expansion and in favor of prison closure, led education programs in schools, and managed prisoner mail programs (correspondence with inmates that allows their writing to be published through a bilingual newspaper, The Abolitionist, which is then distributed to thousands of other prisoners).
The Abolitionist is one of the most notable and long-running advocacy campaigns within Critical Resistance. First launched in spring of 2005, The Abolitionist has served as a forum to amplify prisoner voices through allowing their work to be distributed to other incarcerated individuals. The editorial collective itself can be read for free on Critical Resistance’s website (a commitment to accessible knowledge and the inclusion of all in the fight for abolition), but readers have the option to pay to subscribe, which will sponsor a free subscription for at least one prisoner. Critical Resistance describes the topics covered in the issues ranging “from re-entry to the criminalization of immigrants to prisoner health care to internationalism to alternative visions, practices and models for a safer, more humane world.” Critical Resistance also works to uplift and amplify the perspectives of the most targeted by the PIC through their project “Prisoner Speakout.” This webpage posts outside campaigns, projects, and reports of imprisoned people speaking out against the PIC.
Critical Resistance has been involved with and supported numerous abolitionist efforts and educational programs in addition to its newsletter, some of its most notable work including: the successful defunding and abolition of Urban Shield in the Bay Area, CA (formerly housing the world’s largest police and SWAT training program); making Oakland the first city to end gang injunctions through grassroot organizing; stopping the construction of prisons and jails in Delano, the Bronx, San Francisco, and LA County; and the hosting of four national conferences on abolition.
Critical Resistance currently operates through four main chapters (CR Los Angeles, CR New York, CR Oakland, and CR Portland) which accept weekly volunteers to assist with local projects. Beyond work at the local level within these chapters, Critical Resistance offers the opportunity to intern, donate, and to apply for starting a new chapter.
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