I am grateful to Oishik Sircar for asking me perhaps the most interesting questions I have ever been asked during this recent conversation. We talked about teaching, mutual aid, the role of legal work in social movements, and so much more. Check it out here.PDF here.
I am thrilled to be teaching Prison by Any Other Name this semester in Poverty Law. It’s exactly the right text for this moment, helping students get a wide and deep understanding of how police and prison reforms have failed to resolve problems and ended up expanding the very systems that cause them. I am writing reading questions for my students to help them ensure they are finding the themes in the text and to help them go back to the text throughout the semester. I offer this first set here in case they are useful to other people’s classes or reading groups using this book.
Reading Questions Prison By Any Other Name Intro and Ch 5
Introduction
Schenwar and Law return to the story of Collette Payne again and again throughout the Introduction, talking about her experience with being imprisoned in her home, her struggle with addiction, her neighborhood, her obstacles to parenting and social life. What did you learn from Collette’s story? What points did it illustrate from the Introduction?
On p. 3 the authors cite research showing that more incarceration doesn’t reduce crime and may increase it. Why do you think is the case?
Why are Schenwar and Law concerned that conservatives are working on criminal punishment reform platforms? What’s wrong with people like the Koch brothers collaborating with the NAACP in this way? What questions does it raise?
Why do the authors say that the First Step Act and other Right on Crime modifications might “entrench the underlying principles of the system” (p. 5-6)? What do you think the underlying principles they are refer to are?
On p. 8-9 the authors introduce the term “prison nation” from Beth Richie’s work, and the term “prison industrial complex” defined by Rachel Herzing. Why are these terms important to the authors? What do they help us see or understand?
On p. 10, the authors talk about how dangerousness is framed in criminal justice reforms, particularly when conservatives insist we need to make sure the system keeps imprisoning “people we are afraid of.” They then juxtapose this imagined set of dangerous people to landlords, politicians, and corporations who advocate and create policies that maintain socioeconomic inequality. How might we expand on this critical move of redefining who are the “most dangerous people”? Is there anyone you would add to the list of who is dangerous but isn’t treated like they should be locked up? What might this tell us about where we see and refuse to see violence, or how we define violence to make some kinds of harm invisible?
On p. 11 the authors raise concerns about reforms that focus on more “sympathetic” people. What are they worried about?
On the same page, the authors point out that many reforms change the look of confinement, shifting it from criminal punishment facilities to medical or psychiatric facilities. How would a disability justice perspective on criminal punishment reform help us see this problem? Are there things you know about the history of disability justice movement work that could help with this expanded thinking about confinement and injustice? Are there questions you have or things you’d like to know about this?
What is the problem with trying to make capitivity “kinder and gentler” (p. 12)?
Schenwar and Law argue, like Davis, that contemporary criminal punishment in the US emerged from slavery and colonialism. Did you notice any new aspects to their argument or did it land any differently with you, reading this idea again?
If white people are equally likely to use drugs, and more likely to sell them than Black people, why are Black people criminalized for drugs more? How does it work? (p. 14)
At the top of p. 15, the authors provide a very short summary of how neoliberal economic reforms–reduced taxes, reduced social programs, and increased war expenditure–relate to expanded criminal punishment. What specific polices or laws would you suggest illustrate their points? What else do you know about the items they mention, and other features of neoliberalism, that you would add to that point if you were going to expand it?
Were you surprised to learn that the immigration detention system we have now that imprisons tens of thousands of people didn’t exist before 2005? Does learning this impact anything about how you see that system?
How do the authors use the example of the 1984 Sentencing Reform Act to illustrate their arguments on p. 17?
What are the author’s saying about Mariame Kaba’s idea of “Somewhere Else”?
Why is prison-like drug treatment unlikely to help people with addictions?
On p. 22, Schenwar and Law introduce the following question to evaluate reforms: “Are these reforms building up structures we will need to dismantle in the future?” Why is this an important question? What are examples of criminal punishment system reforms that don’t pass this test? Can you think of an example that would pass it?
On p. 23 the authors talk about freedom and liberation. What do you think these words mean to them? What do you think they mean to the right wing criminal system reformers that they disagree with? What do these words mean to you? What do these words have to do with economic systems, punishment systems, health systems, education systems, energy systems, and transportation systems? What would a “free” world look like, with regard to these systems and the basic needs they meet, to you? Where do you think you got your ideas about what constitutes freedom?
Chapter 5
What evidence do Schenwar and Law provide that community policing and predictive policing tactics make some communitiies into “open-air prisons”?
The Black Panther Party and other Black liberation movement organizers in the 1970’s famously asserted that the police were a colonizing force in Black neighborhoods. How does this idea relate to what the authors describe in this chapter? How might the police operate similarly to how a foreign military occupies a city? Various historical and contemporary movements for Black liberation have described the relationship between Black people and the US government as genocidal, or as a war. How might those ideas relate to the information in this chapter?
On p. 143, the authors note that special police officers are assigned to police public housing in New York City. This is also true elsewhere. What impacts might this have that Poverty Law students would be concerned about? How might people living in housing that has special police assigned to it live differently than people who do not?
On p. 144, the authors talk about how young people in neighborhoods saturated with police have a hard time hanging out anywhere without being harassed by cops. What do young people do in places that are not targeted with this kind of policing? When you think about these different experiences?
How does the call for community policing expand policing?
What impacts do you think it might have on young people to be falsely arrested again and again or to see their friends or siblings experience searches, pat downs, being handcuffed, being thrown on the ground or into police cars, again and again throughout their youth?
How can you imagined that the kinds of policing described in this Chapter might increase sexual harassment and sexual violence by police?
What is “broken windows policing” and what are the authors’ concerns about it? (p. 148)
What are the authors’ concerns about police encouraging community members to come to meetings about safety and identify their safety concerns? What do the authors think is wrong with neighborhood watch programs?
Is there a way to imagine communities keeping each other safe and having an eye out for each other that is different from the way neighborhood watch programs work now? What would be different?
On p. 153, the authors describe Project ROSE in Phoenix, where social workers patrolled with police focused on arresting sex workers. From the perspective of a poverty lawyer, what is concerning about this project? Here is an article with more details about Project ROSE for more information.
Our university, like many, sends campus-wide emails about suspicious people and crimes on or near campus. What impact do you think this has? Does it have any relationship to the kinds of policing we read about in this chapter?
Law and Schenwar suggest that the way “community” is defined in community policing practices is classed and raced in particular ways that have particular outcomes. How does this defining happen and who is doing it? Who is included and excluded?
This chapter critiques popular ideas about gangs. How do the authors see gangs differently than how gangs are portrayed in popular media and by public officials? What impacts do they argue gang databases have? Check out these two campaigns that show communities resisting these gang-focused criminalization practices: 1) this campaign to get rid of the gang database in Chicago, 2) this campaign to stop gang injunctions in Oakland.
Are there any activities primarily taken up by white people that are “gang-like” but authorized by law, which might help as a comparison to how the gang problem is framed in the US? Fraternities? Elite sex and drug conspiracies like those exposed by the Me Too movement and the Jeffrey Epstien case? What about the behaviors of police? Can such comparisons help us critically examine what we are being told is dangerous and where we are being told violence happens?
Why do the authors say that community policing and predictive policing are public relations strategies for police?
Community policing frames the problem as “mistrust” between the police and the people they police. What do the authors think is wrong with that framing? A similar framing has been used in recent years about immigrants and police, with various reforms proceeding based on the idea that immigrants need to be able to trust the police. What would the authors say about that?
What evidence do the authors provide that “racism is baked in” the data gathered by police surveillance methods now being touted as the smart and innovative new way to do policing?
How would you use the analysis and research in this Chapter to argue against the Trump Administration’s new plans to collect increased personal information from immigrants, including DNA samples?
For years, I have been sad about how mutual aid rarely gets taught in classes about social change and social movements. It is such a vital part of movement building and transformation, and often very mobilizing for students to learn about it. I hope this will be changing as the concept of mutual aid is circulating more. I made a Teaching Guide to go with my new book about mutual aid being published by Verso Books in October, wanted to share now in case anyone is considering the book for fall syllabi.
I feel emboldened in the current political moment about teaching abolition. Abolition is always on my syllabi, but usually my students have never heard of it and resist a lot, so I have to strategize carefully how to introduce and build the ideas. This year is different! Our own City Council is getting ready to fire cops, our public school system has kicked out the cops, the police union was expelled from the largest labor group, and no matter how limited my students’ media silo, they must be aware of the work happening to defund cops and separate cops from many institutions. So I have created a full-class group project that I hope will give them a chance to deeply chew on these ideas and learn how grassroots work for abolition happens.
Here is the syllabus for the class this assignment is for.
Here is the assignment:
Group Project: Plan a Campaign to End SU Collaboration with SPD and Eliminate Campus Security
Learning Objectives:
Experience working in a group, paying attention to group dynamics, working to establish a group culture of collaboration, sharing work, meeting facilitation, interest in one another’s participation, generative disagreements, and consensus-building.
Understand what is required to build shared messaging, to develop coalitions, to plan attention-getting actions, and to apply pressure in order to win campaign goals.
Write effective, understandable campaign messaging in multiple forms (op-eds, memes, flyers, etc.).
Understand how police and prison abolition efforts are undertaken.
Understand how law and law enforcement systems are changed through grassroots organizing.
For the purposes of this assignment, the members of our class constitute a student activist organization on the Seattle U campus. Inspired by the global rebellion against racist policing in the summer of 2020, you all came together to work on breaking ties between SU and SPD, and getting rid of campus security. Now you are planning your campaign to do so. This document and this toolkit will be useful resources.
Your group will meet weekly for an hour during the semester during our Monday class times (excluding the first Monday of the semester).
I will attend the first meeting to support you all in putting various structures in place for your meetings and answer any questions.
At each meeting, you will need two facilitators, a note taker, and a time-keeper. These roles must rotate between you as much as possible. It is helpful to create a schedule for these roles at the beginning of the project so people can anticipate their duties and be prepared.
24 hours before each meeting, the facilitators must circulate a draft agenda for the meeting to all participants so that participants can give feedback, and ask for items to be added to the agenda. Facilitators assess requests, estimate times for each agenda item, decide what can wait until the following meeting if there are too many items on the agenda. Please cc me on these emails.
Agendas and notes should be kept in a shared folder, through Google Drive or another service. Please give me access to this folder.
Your meetings should always include a check-in about timelines and tasks so that you can speak directly to each other about progress in the work and share any feedback or concerns you have with each other and do any planning needed to ensure everything is moving along.
You should form teams to take on particular parts of the campaign development work. You can adjust those teams as you go—you may choose to meld or further split teams as the work requires. You can use some of your weekly whole-group meeting time to do small group meetings, but you also want to make sure to use the whole-group time to ensure that everyone knows what all the teams are doing and is making any decisions that require the whole group together. For example, the whole-group meetings might be a time to discuss drafts that have been circulated of written materials or graphics created by a team.
By the end of the project, the group should produce the items below. The due date for all of these deliverables is December 3. You will have 30 minutes to present them in class on that day in addition to turning in the finished products.
A 4-5 page persuasive research paper about SU’s relationship with SPD, and about SU’s campus police, supporting the campaign. This document should be written to an audience of students, faculty, staff and administrators at SU who you hope to win over to your aims, as well as the broader Seattle Community from whom you hope to garner support for the campaign. This document is where more detailed information and analysis that supports the campaign lives, since social media posts and other aspects of the website have shorter persuasive information.
A plan for building a coalition of other organizations and groups who would back your campaign and how you would work with that coalition to win. Who would you reach out to? Why? How would you talk to those you are reaching out to about joining the coalition? What timeline would you give yourselves for doing that? How many people from your group would it take?
A 1-2 minute video aimed at making the SU community aware of your campaign and convincing people to back your demands.
Plan for a social media campaign (including to raise awareness about your concerns and pressure the SU administration to concede to your demands).
A website for your campaign that includes your video, graphics from your social media campaign, your persuasive research paper, a FAQ about your campaign, and anything else you think would be beneficial. You might look at these campaigns’ websites to see examples: No New Women’s Prison, No New Youth Jail, No Cop Academy, Shut Down the NWDC .
A plan for some kind of online or live direct action to pressure the SU administration to concede to your demands.
Along the way, the group should produce:
By September 10, a schedule for each of the different deliverables drafting and editing processes and a roster of the teams that will be working on each element. This is a living document that you can change and adjust as you go.
By September 13, a plan for how to do the research needed and the timeline for that research, how it will be shared with the group by those who do the research, and what follow up will occur to address unanswered or new questions that emerge. This plan must be shared with me.
By September 20, research being generated by the researchers should be available to those making the social media campaign and video, through presentations, discussions and/or public notes, so that those pieces of the work can be developed alongside the research paper. The written elements of this research should also be shared with me.
By September 27, a draft plan for building a coalition and working with that coalition to win your demands.
By October 11, a first draft of your group research paper to be circulated among you for comments. By October 26, a draft that incorporates those changes is due to me.
By November 1, an initial written proposal to the group regarding your direct action, to be discussed by the group in one or more whole-group meetings until you settle on a plan.
By October 18, a draft video script to be circulated to the group for comments/improvements. Please share this draft with me.
By October 18, a draft social media plan to be circulated to the group for comments/improvements.
By October 25, an “elevator pitch” script draft that you can all use to talk to potential coalition partners or anyone you’re introducing to the campaign to be circulated to the group for comments/improvements.
Each week that one of these drafts are due, you must post the draft by 10am on the Monday of that week, and I will attend the beginning of your whole group meeting that day at 1:30 to give you feedback.
Additionally, each of you will write two 300-word reflections over the course of the semester on how the campaign is going, with a focus on group dynamics and collaboration. These are due to me on September 14 and October 19. These reflections should consider questions such as:
How would I describe the group’s culture? Look at this chart to think about examples of qualities a group’s culture might have. What do I like about it and what would I like to see shift? Are there ways I could help it shift?
How am I participating in the group? Do I feel like I might be over- or under-participating? How do I feel when I participate? How do I feel after? How would I like to feel when I participate?
Are there people I wish I could hear more from in the group? How could I help them to participate more?
Are there any stuck roles emerging in the group that are making workload uneven, or making some people’s presence more dominant or more invisible?
What lessons am I learning about participating in groups?
How is group decision-making going? What principles from our readings about consensus decision-making do I see at play?
How is meeting facilitation going? What tips from our readings on meeting facilitation have been useful? What am I learning about facilitating meetings?
At the end of the semester, you will each provide a two-sentence (minimum) assessment for every other student in the group that includes the best qualities and contributions they brought to the group and areas for improvements and reflection.
