“Abolition seeks to undo the way of thinking and doing things that sees prison and punishment as solutions for all kinds of social, economic, political, behavioral and interpersonal problems...It is reorganizing how we live our lives together in the world.”
- Ruth Wilson Gilmore
Our Inspirations
Angela Davis
“Angela Davis is a radical activist, philosopher, writer, speaker, and educator. In the 1960s and 1970s, she was well known for her association with the Black Panthers.” Her book Are Prisons Obsolete outlines a compelling case for prison abolition.
Marsha P. Johnson
Marsha P. Johnson was a LGBTQ rights activist, sex worker, drag queen, and a major figure in the Stonewall riots of 1969. “She was on the front lines of protests against oppressive policing. She helped found one of the country's first safe spaces for transgender and homeless youth. And she advocated tirelessly on behalf of sex workers, prisoners and people with HIV/AIDS.”
Michelle Alexander
“Michelle Alexander is a highly acclaimed civil rights lawyer, advocate, legal scholar and author of The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness — the bestselling book that helped to transform the national debate on racial and criminal justice in the United States.”
Survived and Punished NYC
“S&P New York is a grassroots prison abolition organization, dedicated to freeing criminalized survivors of gender violence held in prisons in New York.”
Tourmaline
Tourmaline is an abolitionist, filmmaker, and activist “most notable for her work in transgender activism and economic justice, through her work with the Sylvia Rivera Law Project, Critical Resistance and Queers for Economic Justice.”
Ruth Wilson Gilmore
“Ruth Wilson Gilmore is an abolitionist and prison scholar. She is the Director of the Center for Place, Culture, and Politics and professor of geography in Earth and Environmental Sciences at The City University of New York.” In “Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind,” she outlines the tenants of the abolitionist movement.
Miss Major Griffin-Gracy
“Miss Major is a ‘community leader―an organizer, activist, prison abolitionist, former sex worker, formerly incarcerated person, transgender elder and mother to countless transgender and GNC youth’(HuffPo).”
Mariame Kaba
In her own words: “I’m an organizer, educator and curator. My work focuses on ending violence, dismantling the prison industrial complex, transformative justice and supporting youth leadership development.”