10.7: Alternative Solutions 

eflection Summary: Alternative Solutions

This section gave me hope after reading so many difficult parts of this chapter. The earlier sections talked about prisons, policing, racism, punishment, and the school-to-prison pipeline. This section is different because it focuses on solutions. It asks an important question: if policing and prisons cause so much harm, then what can society do instead? I think this is one of the most important parts of the chapter because it does not only describe problems. It also offers ideas for change.

One important idea in this section is that we need to learn from history. The chapter says we should think about policing before colonization of the Americas and how policing was later used to support colonization. This means that modern policing is not the only possible way to create order or safety. It also means that we should question the systems we have today. Just because police and prisons exist now does not mean they are the best answer.

The reading talks about Tribal Police on Native American reservations. It explains that Native Americans were not originally allowed to take part in policing their own communities. Later, some Native people became Tribal Police, but many community members did not trust them because they were seen as representatives of the U.S. government. They sometimes had to monitor their own people and report on them. This caused pain and conflict. This example shows that policing has often been used as a tool of control, even inside Native communities. It also shows that government systems can divide people and create mistrust.

Another important part of this section is Dr. Victor Rios’s idea of the Youth Control Complex. This theory explains how many institutions work together to criminalize young Black and Latinx boys. These institutions include schools, police, probation systems, and other authorities. Instead of helping youth grow, these systems often watch them, punish them, and treat them like future criminals. I think this is a powerful idea because it shows that the problem is not only one teacher, one officer, or one school. It is a whole system that works against some young people.

Rios does not only describe the problem. He also offers a solution called the Youth Support Complex. This idea stood out to me the most in this section. A Youth Support Complex means creating a system that supports young people instead of punishing them. It means giving them mentors, academic support, cultural programs, and affirmative opportunities. It means helping young people feel respected and valued. I think this is a much healthier way to think about youth.

Rios says that when poor, young, Black and Latinx boys make mistakes, they should have a chance to learn and grow instead of being pushed into prison. I strongly agree with this. Young people make mistakes because they are still learning. If society only punishes them, then it takes away their chance to change. But if society guides them, teaches them, and supports them, then they can become stronger and more successful.

Another powerful line in this section is the idea that “freedom is work.” This means that staying free from prison, resisting the system, and building a better life takes effort. It also means that society must work to create real freedom for young people. Freedom is not only about being outside of jail. It is also about having support, dignity, and opportunity.

Rios also says that policymakers need to take risks if they truly want to support youth. I think this is true. It is easier for leaders to continue punishment because punishment is already built into the system. But if they want real change, they must try new ideas. They must invest in people, not only in police or prisons. That takes courage.

Another important point from Rios is that schools and justice institutions should respect young people’s dignity and freedom. This is very important to me. Many systems treat marginalized youth like problems to control. But Rios says young people should be part of building the programs that support them. They should have a voice. They should help shape the solutions. This makes sense because young people know their own experiences. When adults only make rules for them without listening, the programs may fail.

I also liked the sentence that says youth need “a stage with good props, good lighting, and a supportive audience.” This is a beautiful way to explain support. It means youth need the right environment to succeed. They need encouragement, resources, and people who believe in them. When society gives young people those things, they have a better chance to grow.

The reading then moves to the topic of prison abolition. Angela Davis explains that prison abolitionists are often called dreamers or unrealistic people. Some people think abolition means ignoring crime or letting people do anything they want. But the reading explains that abolition is much deeper than that. Abolition means creating a different kind of society, one that does not depend on cages and punishment as the main solution.

This section asks readers to think carefully about why abolition seems so impossible to many people. The reading suggests that this reaction is connected to race and power. Many people have become used to a system where certain communities are heavily policed and incarcerated. So when someone says prisons should be abolished, it sounds radical. But maybe it only sounds radical because society has become too comfortable with punishment.

The chapter compares this to other ideas that once seemed impossible, such as direct government financial help during the COVID-19 pandemic. The point is that ideas first called unrealistic can later become real. This made me think that change often starts with imagination. People have to imagine something better before they can build it.

The book Abolition for the People is mentioned in this section. It asks questions like: What is abolition? Is it practical? What does it look like in real life? I think these are important questions because many people misunderstand abolition. The reading explains that abolition is not just about ending prisons and police. It is also about creating new systems based on care, justice, community, and dignity.

Robin D. G. Kelley explains that abolition means dismantling harmful systems and moving money toward social and economic resources. This includes things like housing, education, healthcare, and restorative justice. I think this is one of the clearest definitions in the section. It shows that abolition is not about doing nothing. It is about doing something better.

I also found it meaningful that the reading talks about the Black Panther Party. The chapter shows that abolitionist ideas are not new. The Black Panther Party was formed to challenge police violence, but it also created community programs such as free breakfast for children, education, and know-your-rights workshops. This is important because it shows that alternatives already exist. Communities have long created ways to care for each other without depending only on the police.

The section then discusses Defund the Police. Mariame Kaba argues that police violence cannot be solved by small reforms alone. She says the only real way to reduce police violence is to reduce contact between police and the public. Her idea is to cut the number of police and reduce police budgets. Then that money can be redirected to housing, education, jobs, health care, and mental health services.

At first, some people may think defunding police means abandoning communities. But the reading clearly says that is not the goal. The goal is to build safer communities by investing in what people really need. If people have stable homes, good schools, healthcare, and support, then many problems can be prevented before they grow.

Kaba also explains that police reform has often failed. New rules and training programs do not always stop violence because police can still break the rules. This made me think that maybe the problem is not only about a lack of training. Maybe it is about the system itself and the power it gives. That is why abolitionists want deeper changes.

Another strong point in this section is the idea of using community care workers for mental health crises and using restorative justice for harm and conflict. These solutions sound more humane than sending armed police into every situation. Not every problem is a crime problem. Some situations need care, mediation, and support instead of force.

The next part of the chapter focuses on alternatives to school police. This was especially important because earlier sections showed how school police contribute to the school-to-prison pipeline. Now this section gives examples of change. In Oakland, the school board voted to eliminate the school police department and reinvest millions of dollars into a new safety plan. This happened after years of youth organizing and advocacy. I think this is a powerful example of community action leading to policy change.

Other cities like Los Angeles, Seattle, and Denver have also reduced school police funding. This shows that alternatives are not only ideas on paper. Some places are already trying them. The reading suggests using non-punitive discipline and hiring more counselors, support staff, and trained educators. I think this is a much better use of school resources. Students need adults who help them, not only officers who punish them.

The chapter also talks about community schools. These schools offer wraparound services like mental health care, tutoring, counseling, medical help, and support for families. This idea really stood out to me because it looks at the whole student, not just behavior or test scores. In places like Salt Lake City and Baltimore, community schools improved attendance, test scores, graduation rates, and reduced suspensions. This shows that when students get support, schools become stronger.

Finally, the chapter explains restorative justice programs. I think this may be one of the best alternatives discussed in the section. Restorative justice is based on Indigenous practices from around the world. It focuses on understanding harm, taking responsibility, repairing relationships, and building community. It does not ignore mistakes, but it responds differently. Instead of punishment first, it asks what happened, who was harmed, and how the harm can be repaired.

The reading says restorative justice can include peer juries, circles, conflict mediation, and community service. These methods require training, trust, and time. They are not quick fixes. But they can create a much healthier school environment. The goal is to make schools welcoming places where students can bring their struggles and still be treated with dignity.

The example of Fremont High School in Oakland was very encouraging. The school once had one of the highest suspension rates, but after investing in restorative justice, the campus climate improved. Enrollment increased, and the number of students qualifying for college went up. Students also used restorative circles to welcome new students and connect across language and ethnic differences. This is a beautiful example of what schools can become when they focus on trust and community instead of punishment.

I also liked that restorative justice was used in different languages, including Arabic and Mam. This shows respect for students’ cultures and identities. It helps students feel included. When students feel understood and connected, they are more likely to succeed.

In conclusion, this section gave me hope because it shows that alternatives to prisons, policing, and punishment are possible. Dr. Victor Rios’s Youth Support Complex, prison abolition, defunding the police, removing school police, community schools, and restorative justice all offer different ways to build safer and healthier communities. The main lesson I learned is that punishment is not the only answer. Support, dignity, care, and resources can do much more. This chapter helped me see that real safety comes from strong communities, fair opportunities, and systems that help people grow. I think these solutions are important because they focus on healing and prevention instead of fear and control.

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Building a Youth Support Complex

Figure : No Justice in a Racist System. An illustration of the scales of justice on fire with skulls on both sides and the phrase, "There is no justice in a racist system" written across. (CC BY-NC-SA 4.0; Roger Peet via JustSeeds)

When thinking of alternative solutions to modern day incarceration, we must examine and learn from the culture of policing before colonization of the Americas and how policing has been used to further the efforts of colonization. For example, the modern day Tribal Police found on many Native American reservations are the product of various attempts to police Native Americans who were relegated to segregated and isolated communities.

American Indians were not allowed to participate in policing reservations until the 1860s (Wakeling et al., p.41). Although at that point most of those who were policing reservations were Native American (local tribal members and from other reservations), some continued to be non-native. However, because they were a part of the policing institution Native Americans were seen as representatives of the U.S. government and in many cases not trusted (p. 41). “Their duties included determining whether a fellow tribesman was working enough to merit his sugar, coffee, and tobacco rations” (p.41). This relationship between tribal members and Tribal Police caused much animosity which the federal government was more than happy to take advantage of. Moreover, the federal government believed that utilizing Native Americans as Tribal Police was more viable than utilizing white officers due to the shared experiences that native officers had with the local population.

In his book, Punished: Policing the Lives of Black and Latino Boys, Dr. Victor Rios, who teaches Sociology at UC Santa Barbara and has a PhD in Ethnic Studies, tells us how young Black and Latinx boys in Oakland’s Fruitvale district have not been abandoned by the state but instead are hypercriminalized by what he theorizes as the Youth Control Complex. Rios defines the Youth Control Complex as a system of criminalization molded by the synchronized, systematic punishment meted out by socializing and social control institutions (Rios, 2011, p. 21). Rios emphasizes that there are many approaches to interrupting the hypercriminalization of young Black and Latinx boys and the school-to-prison pipeline and the following are some of his solutions toward dismantling the Youth Control Complex.

This section will focus on the solutions Rios proposes in the closing chapter, especially those found in: “Building a Youth Support Complex, Facilitating Dignity and Freedom for All Young People, and One Youngster at a Time” (Rios, 2011, p. 161). When creating a Youth Support Complex Rios states that youth will need many mentors along the way with academic, cultural, and affirmative action programs (p. 162). Furthermore, when poor, young, Black and Latinx boys make mistakes they should be given the opportunity to learn and grow from their mistakes in order to allow transformation (p. 162). Rios also emphasizes that their resistance should be redirected toward learning to navigate mainstream institutions to become more productive citizens. By remaining free from prison, the boys in this study demonstrated that they were resisting the system: “freedom is work.” Rios adds that “the social movements of the new millennium among the most marginalized classes will be centered on dismantling punitive social control” (p. 163). These sections also suggest that when policymakers want to be supportive they will have to take risks when proposing (and implementing) new policies to dismantle punitive social control (p. 164).

Furthermore, Rios recommends that schools and criminal justice institutions “respect and embrace the work that young people do for dignity and freedom” (2011, p. 164). He also advocates having participation from young people when creating programs that can support them and in turn empower them simultaneously (p. 165). Rios writes, “the key is to provide all marginalized youths a stage with good props, good lighting, and a supportive audience” (p. 166). Ultimately Rios urges the reader that “redistributing resources from criminal justice institutions back into nurturing institutions must become a priority” (p. 166).

Abolition Now

Figure : Black Unity marching in Eugene, Oregon. (CC BY 2.0; David Geitgey Sierralupe via Flickr)

In her book, Are Prisons Obsolete? (2003) Angela Y. Davis mentions that prison abolitionists are stereotyped as utopian dreamers and naive. Davis goes on to state that the general free population have a passive role in consenting when new prisons are being built. The logic of the free population is that when more prisons are built, the more the free population feel that their rights are being protected. Ultimately, the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) has distorted the free population's sense of harm and attributed abolition to “letting people off easy.”

In order to address how prison abolitionists are stereotyped as utopian dreamers we need to critically analyze prisons as a racial or racist project. How is prison abolition a racial project?

For example, the original idea of a stimulus check in 2020 to financially aid the unemployed and financially impacted during the COVID-19 pandemic was an idea of utopian dreamers. This immediately caused uproar from right wing proponents. Questions arose, such as: Who would be worthy of getting a stimulus check? Who would pay for it? Was this a band aid solution that would have major repercussions? It is imperative to highlight how the pushback against the idea of a stimulus check to those facing economic hardships during COVID-19 may have had racial undertones.

When examining the pushback against even the very idea of prison abolition, we need to be fully aware of the racialized undertones. When prison abolition is seen as a goal synonymous with utopia, what does that utopia look like? Whose utopia? What do the racial demographics look like in an abolitionist utopia? As we have covered throughout this chapter, the creation of police and prisons have led the US towards a carceral dystopia.

The first book from Kaepernick Publishing is called Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing & Prisons (2021). Many important authors involved in the abolition movement are included in this work such as: Angela Davis, Kimberlé Crenshaw, Mumia Abu-Jamal, Robin D.G. Kelley, among others. One purpose of this work is to “ensure that the book before you is useful and that it inspires you to take action to build a world without and beyond police and prisons” (Kaepernick, 2021, p.13). The book argues “that the efforts to reform police and prisons have nearly always enhanced their power, reach, and legitimacy” (Preface). Furthermore, Abolition for the People aims to answer the following questions: What is abolition? Is abolition practical? and what does abolition look like in the real world? Abolition is defined by Dylan Rodriguez as “the work of constantly remaking sociality, politics, economy, place and (human) being against the duress that some call dehumanization, others name colonialism, and still others identify as slavery and incarceration” (Kaepernick, 2021, p.15).

In Abolition for the People, Robin D.G. Kelley writes in "Change from the Roots: What Abolition Looks Like, from the Panthers To The People" that the abolitionist movement is not new and that the “Black Panther Party (BPP) was formed in 1966 in Oakland, California, precisely to monitor police violence” (Kaepernick, 2021, p.189). Through their abolitionist work the BPP provided many services to their communities such as the free breakfast program, patrolling the streets, know-your-right workshops, exposing the names of brutal police, and liberation schools for children (Kaepernick, 2021, p.189). Furthermore Kelley defines Abolition as,

Work[ing] to dismantle systems that have caused harm, namely police and prisons, and reallocate funds to social and economic resources, and to develop new systems of community-controlled public safety and restorative justice (Kaepernick, 2021, p.187).

The abolitionist movement is very real such as the Movement for Black Lives, a coalition that is made up of over 150 abolitionist organizations. Abolitionist efforts have intentionally worked to center the experiences of gendered violence as a key abolitionist issue (Kaepernick, 2021, p. 187). For more analysis of gender-based violence, please see the sections in this chapter titled "Colonialism and Violence against Indigenous Women," "The Slave Patrol," "Immigration Enforcement," and "Girls of Color."

Figure : Defund the Police, taken June 5, 2020. (CC BY 2.0; Taymaz Valley via Flickr)

Defund the Police

Leading police and prison abolitionist, Mariame Kaba wrote “enough” to police reform and giving police departments hundreds of millions of dollars. In a New York Times Op-Ed, Kaba wrote, “Enough. We can’t reform the police. The only way to diminish police violence is to reduce contact between the public and the police” (2020, para 2). She pointed out that there’s never been a moment in U.S. history when police were not a force of violence against marginalized populations, in order to “protect the status quo” (para 3).

As an abolitionist, Kaba calls for an immediate demand all of us can make, which is to defund the police: “Cut the number of police in half and cut their budget in half. Fewer police officers equals fewer opportunities for them to brutalize and kill people” (para 9). Kaba reminds us that reforms have never proven to reduce violence nor protect vulnerable communities. She points out that, “The philosophy undergirding these reforms is that more rules will mean less violence. But police officers break rules all the time” (para 16) without ever facing serious repercussions.

By defunding the police, Kaba writes that “We are not abandoning our communities to violence” (para 19). Kaba and other abolitionists call to redirect those billions toward health care, housing, education, and jobs so that there would be less need for police in the first place. She calls for trained community care workers to respond to mental-health checks and implement restorative justice models instead of simply throwing people into jail cells. As for the crime of rape, Kaba reminds readers that our current approach isn’t working, and that most rapists never go to court. Two-thirds of people who face sexual violence don’t report it and people who do file a report with the police are typically “dissatisfied with the response” (para 22). Furthermore, it’s police officers themselves who commit sexual assault “alarmingly often” (para 22).

In conclusion, Kaba calls on us to imagine a different approach:

As a society, we have been so indoctrinated with the idea that we solve problems by policing and caging people that many cannot imagine anything other than prisons and the police as solutions to violence and harm. People like me who want to abolish prisons and police, however, have a vision of a different society, built on cooperation instead of individualism, on mutual aid instead of self-preservation. What would the country look like if it had billions of extra dollars to spend on housing, food and education for all? This change in society wouldn’t happen immediately, but the protests show that many people are ready to embrace a different vision of safety and justice (2020, para 23-24).

Alternatives to School Police

There has been some push back recently from the community, youth, and organizers to remove school police. The Oakland School Board, for example, unanimously passed the George Floyd Resolution in June of 2020, after a decade of organizing and advocacy work led by the organizers and youth of the Black Organizing Project (Black Organizing Project). The school board committed to eliminating the Oakland School Police Department and reinvesting the $6 million budget to a safety plan that will work to dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline (Getachew, 2021, para. 1-2). In 2021, Los Angeles Board of Education voted to eliminate a third of the Los Angeles School Police Department’s police force and ban the use of pepper sprays. Other major cities including Seattle and Denver have also recently taken steps to remove funding from school police.

As some districts are pivoting away from an over reliance on ineffective SROs, Vitale calls for non-punitive disciplinary measures in school and to include school staff to be a part of the solution, instead of relying on the criminal justice system. Furthermore, resources that support the whole students can benefit the entire learning community, especially students who shouldn’t have to just focus on testing at the expense of emotional and bodily health (2017, pp. 68 - 69). This includes increased investment in training, counselors, and support staff to provide effective services to students and their families.

For example, the American Federation of Teachers have supported the establishment of “community schools” where they provide wraparound services including medical and mental health care, counseling, tutoring, and social justice programming, as well as adult education for parents. Such services are provided through partnerships with local community organizations (Vitale, 2017, p. 69). In Salt Lake City, the United Way partnered with eleven community schools, with over half of the students coming from low-income families and 25% English learners. This partnership increased academic achievement amongst students and reduced chronic absenteeism. In Baltimore, they have 45 community schools serving a majority poor and student of color population, and such restructuring has improved attendance, reduced suspensions, increased graduation rates and test scores. Some of the schools have uniformed police, but they are unarmed and the community are pressuring to reduce their presence even further (pp. 69 - 70).

Restorative Justice Programs

Restorative justice is considered to be the most established of alternatives to school police and punitive policies against youth. More and more school districts are adopting these methods and turning away from punishment based approaches to student behavior. Based on indigenous practices from across the globe, restorative justice programs address underlying causes and involve students as responsible members of the community.

The program may implement peer juries, problem-solving circles, conflict mediation or community service and requires time to build buy-in from school staff and student trust. Vitale writes that at the center of these programs lies,

... the desire to make schools a welcoming place for young people regardless of the problems they bring to school and to try to work out those problems cooperatively in a way that is in the best interest of the student and the larger school community (2017, p. 70).

One of the core principles involves conflict resolution that requires participants to take on “meaningful responsibility” for their actions and work toward changing them in order to build healthy relationships. It’s about reducing and repairing harm, and restoring positive relationships. In order for this program to be effective, a substantial amount of time and resources must go into training. Vitale also notes that if schools face stress about testing affecting school budgets, it will be difficult to cultivate support and buy-in if teachers will be reluctant about taking time away from instruction. Simply replacing suspensions with forced community service won’t make much of a difference (2017, p. 71).

Figure : Exterior view of Oakland's Fremont High School's Library. April 19, 2013. (CC BY-SA 3.0; Syghost via Wikimedia Commons)

Fremont High School in Oakland, CA has reported a complete turn-around thanks to a $2.5 million investment into restorative justice programs in their school district. The high school once had the highest student suspension rate in Oakland Unified, but in 2022, the school focused on improving campus climate. Their enrollment has gone up 20%, and the number of students qualifying for college admission has tripled. Tatiana Chaterji, Fremont High’s restorative justice facilitator stated that they’ve “...worked hard on building community, relationship, trust” (Jones, 2022, para 4).

Although the focus of the program started with resolving conflict, now, Fremont High students use restorative justice circles to welcome new students and build bridges across different ethnic groups. They are held in multiple languages including Arabic and Mam, a Mayan language spoken by indigenous migrants from Guatemala. Ebrar Wasel, a junior, expressed that circles in Arabic and English helped her adjust to a new school, especially after fleeing a war in Yemen. She stated, “I used to be scared people would laugh at me…But then in circles, I learned that it was the same for other people, too” (Jones, 2022, para. 14 - 15).

Fremont High students even lead circles at a nearby elementary school, Horace Mann. Aaron Gray of the program at the elementary school shared that “it’s never too early to teach children about restorative practices” and that such skills “will help them feel safer and more comfortable at school, which in turn leads to better academic performance and an overall improved campus climate for everyone” (Jones, 2022, para. 26). He stated that when he first started working at the school, “I was dealing with conflicts all day. But now, there’s been a shift. Kids are resolving their own issues and organizing their own RJ circles….There’s been a huge change in the culture” (para. 27).

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This page titled 10.7: Alternative Solutions is shared under a CC BY-NC 4.0 license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by Ulysses Acevedo & Kay Fischer (ASCCC Open Educational Resources Initiative (OERI)) .

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