10.8: Summary/Review 

Reflection Summary: Summary and Review of Incarceration, Policing, and State-Sanctioned Violence

This chapter summary brings together many important ideas about prisons, policing, race, and justice in the United States. After reading this section, I understand more clearly how the prison system is not only about crime and punishment. It is also about power, racism, history, and inequality. The chapter shows that prisons and policing have been shaped by slavery, white supremacy, settler-colonialism, and discrimination against poor communities and communities of color. This reflection helped me think more deeply about what justice really means.

One of the biggest ideas in this chapter is the Prison Industrial Complex, also called the PIC. This means the connection between government, private businesses, policing, surveillance, and prisons. These systems work together and often treat social problems like they should be solved through punishment. Instead of helping people with poverty, mental health, housing, education, or addiction, society often responds with police, jails, and prisons. This was one of the strongest lessons for me. It made me realize that incarceration is not only about safety. It is also about control and profit.

The chapter explains that mass incarceration has affected mostly Black Americans and poor communities of color. This did not happen by accident. It happened through specific laws, policies, and practices. Politicians, media, and police helped create the idea that imprisonment is normal and necessary. They often made people of color look dangerous or criminal. Because of this, many people accepted prisons and policing as the answer. This chapter helped me understand how powerful media and political messages can be. They shape the way society thinks.

Another very important idea in the chapter is that imprisonment and policing do not necessarily make communities safer. This surprised me because many people grow up hearing that police protect us and prisons keep dangerous people away. But the chapter says that many researchers and activists have shown that policing and incarceration often do not solve the real problems. Instead, they can increase harm, trauma, and inequality. This made me think that safety should not only mean punishment. Real safety should mean support, resources, and fairness.

The chapter also explains that many scholars see policing and prisons as extensions of white supremacy, slavery, Jim Crow, and settler-colonialism. This is a very serious statement, but after reading the chapter, I understand why they say this. Earlier sections showed that policing grew out of slave patrols, colonial violence, and control of poor and nonwhite people. Prisons also continued the legacy of slavery through convict leasing and prison labor. So when we look at prisons and police today, we must also look at history. The past is still shaping the present.

The section on the War on Drugs was one of the most important parts of the chapter. The War on Drugs criminalized drug use in political ways and targeted poor communities of color. The chapter explains that this so-called war did not affect everyone equally. Black and Brown communities were policed more heavily, arrested more often, and punished more severely, even though white people also used and sold drugs. This shows that drug policy was not only about drugs. It was also about race and power.

Because of the War on Drugs, millions of people were incarcerated or placed under correctional control. The chapter explains that after serving time, these people often still face discrimination in jobs, housing, education, and public benefits. This means punishment does not end when someone leaves prison. It continues in everyday life. I think this is one of the saddest truths in the chapter. A person may serve their sentence, but society still keeps punishing them.

The chapter uses Michelle Alexander’s idea that the justice system now works more to control the dispossessed than to prevent crime. This idea stayed with me. It means that the system focuses on controlling poor and marginalized people rather than helping communities or reducing harm. This made me think differently about the criminal justice system. It is not always acting equally or fairly. It often treats some groups as problems to manage.

Another major point in the chapter is the role of racial profiling. The chapter explains that police often stop, search, and question people based on race, ethnicity, religion, or national origin. Black and Latinx people are often profiled while driving or walking. Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians have also been profiled, especially after 9/11. This shows that suspicion is not spread equally. Some groups are treated as more suspicious than others just because of how they look or where they come from.

The chapter also discusses stop-and-frisk, which allowed police to stop and search mostly Black and Latinx people in New York. Even though the policy was later found unconstitutional, it caused a lot of harm. It created fear, humiliation, and criminal records for many people. This shows how policies can look legal for a long time even when they are unfair and harmful.

Another important point in the chapter is the unfairness in the conviction process. Many people do not get good legal representation. Poor defendants may be pressured to plead guilty, even when they are innocent, because they fear harsher punishment. Prosecutors also have a lot of power. The chapter says that even when there is strong evidence of racial disparities in sentencing, courts make it very hard to challenge racial discrimination unless someone openly admits racist intent. This means the system can produce racist results while still calling itself fair or colorblind.

The chapter also made a strong point about crimmigration. Crimmigration means immigration law and criminal law become mixed together. Immigrants, especially undocumented immigrants, are treated like criminals simply because of their immigration status. The chapter says that this process makes immigrants seem like lawbreakers and limits their rights. This was important for me because it shows that criminalization is not only about prisons or police. It also happens through immigration laws and detention systems.

I also learned more about convict leasing. This system forced incarcerated people to work for private and public benefit. Many scholars say it was a continuation of slavery. Even today, prison labor is still used in many areas, from making products to fighting wildfires. This made me realize that labor exploitation is still part of the prison system. Incarcerated people are often treated as a cheap workforce, which is unfair and dehumanizing.

One of the most painful sections in the chapter was about the school-to-prison pipeline. This means school policies and punishment push many students into the criminal justice system. Students of color, LGBTQ students, and students with disabilities are punished more often and more harshly. The chapter explains that school police, suspensions, expulsions, and zero-tolerance policies can all push children out of school. This is very disturbing because schools should be places of support and growth.

I think this part matters a lot because it shows how early criminalization can begin. A child does not need to be an adult to enter the system. It can start in school. The chapter explains that children are now increasingly policed in schools, and this has led to tragic outcomes. Students are arrested for small things like disrespect, cell phone use, or classroom behavior. This is not the kind of care that children need.

The chapter also discusses the Youth Control Complex, which describes how many institutions work together to punish and criminalize young people, especially Black and Latino boys. But it also introduces the Youth Support Complex, which offers hope. This means creating systems that support young people through mentors, educational programs, after-school activities, and affirmative opportunities. I really liked this idea because it shows that there are better ways to respond to youth than punishment.

Another very important idea in the chapter is abolition. The abolition movement asks people to imagine a future without policing and prisons as the main answers to harm. At first, this may sound unrealistic to some people. But the chapter explains that abolition is not about doing nothing. It is about building new systems based on care, justice, and healing. This includes investing in education, housing, jobs, healthcare, and community safety programs.

The chapter also talks about restorative justice. Restorative justice is based on practices that focus on repairing harm, taking responsibility, and rebuilding relationships. It is especially important as an alternative in schools. Instead of suspending or arresting students, restorative justice asks what happened, who was harmed, and how the harm can be repaired. I think this is a very meaningful approach because it treats people like human beings who can learn and change.

The chapter reminds readers that communities have always resisted oppression. There are activists, organizers, teachers, youth, and scholars who continue to fight against unfair systems. Some work to abolish prisons and police. Others work to remove school police and create restorative justice programs. This part gave me hope. It shows that even though the problems are serious, people are working hard to create change.

The list of key terms in the summary was also helpful because it put many ideas together clearly. Terms like Prison Industrial Complex, criminalization, convict leasing, crimmigration, racial profiling, stop-and-frisk, school-to-prison pipeline, Youth Control Complex, Youth Support Complex, abolition, and restorative justice all connect to the same larger issue. They show how systems of punishment and control work in many different areas of life. Learning these terms helped me better understand the whole chapter.

One thing I reflected on after reading this chapter is how easy it is for society to accept injustice when it is presented as normal. Prisons, police, school punishment, immigration detention, and harsh sentencing can become ordinary in people’s minds. But this chapter challenges that idea. It asks readers to look deeper and question what has been normalized.

I also reflected on the idea of second-class status. The chapter asks whether we know people who cannot vote, get a job, find housing, or access benefits because of a past conviction. This made me think about how punishment can continue long after a sentence ends. It can trap people in poverty and exclusion. That is not true justice. True justice should allow people to heal, grow, and rebuild their lives.

Another important lesson from this chapter is that myths about the criminal justice system are very powerful. Many people believe prisons hold only dangerous people, police exist mainly for safety, and punishment solves crime. But the chapter shows many truths that challenge these ideas. Many people in the system are there because of nonviolent offenses, racial profiling, poverty, immigration status, school discipline, and lack of support. This changes how I think about crime and punishment.

In conclusion, this chapter summary helped me understand the larger picture of incarceration, policing, and state-sanctioned violence. It showed that the Prison Industrial Complex is connected to racism, history, profit, and control. It also showed that the War on Drugs, racial profiling, harsh sentencing, crimmigration, and school punishment have all harmed poor communities and communities of color. At the same time, the chapter gave hope by discussing abolition, restorative justice, and youth support systems. My biggest lesson from this chapter is that justice should not only mean punishment. Real justice should mean fairness, dignity, healing, and opportunity. This chapter made me reflect on how society can move away from fear and punishment and toward care, support, and equity.

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Conclusion

In this chapter we reviewed the various institutions, policies, laws, and practices that have led to the creation of the Prison Industrial Complex and mass incarceration of largely Black Americans and poor communities of color. The media and rhetoric by politicians and police have helped to normalize imprisonment and criminalization of people of color, when in fact decades of research and activism has proven how ineffectual imprisonment and policing are when it comes to increasing safety. Instead, many scholars and activists cited in this chapter have expressed that policing and caging people is an extension of white supremacy, slavery, Jim Crow, and settler-colonialism.

We’ve reviewed the ways in which drug use has been criminalized for political reasons in the War on Drugs. Due to this shift and continued heavy policing in poor communities of color and extraordinary discretion given to law enforcement, we’ve witnessed the normalization of caging millions of people and allowing system-impacted people to be legally discriminated against after having served their time.

This chapter has also explained the ways in which our punishment system is, as Angela Y. Davis (2003) argues, entrenched in antiblack racism, and other racialized histories of minoritized people. Michelle Alexander poignantly states that the U.S. justice system is “no longer concerned…with the prevention and punishment of crime, but rather with the management and control of the dispossessed” (2020, p. 233). We see this in how policing is drenched in the legacy of systemic violence related to settler-colonialism, worker suppression, slavery, and anti-immigrant practices, including practices that target women and girls, and members of the LGBTQ community. We see institutional racism tied to policing that targets people of color for stop-and-search, even though whites are more likely to use and carry weapons and drugs. We also see racial discrimination in the conviction process, as many are denied legal representation and forced to plead guilty or snitch for a lesser sentence. Despite pages of data proving racial discrepancies in sentencing, the Supreme Court has made it impossible to challenge racial discrimination practiced by law enforcement unless it’s explicitly admitted.

Furthermore, this chapter has reviewed the ways in which children are increasingly policed in our schools with shocking and tragic outcomes that push more youth into the criminal justice system.

Still, this chapter has also reviewed the ways in which our communities have and continue to resist policing and caging and fight back against systemic oppression. Some examples are prison abolitionists organizing for a prison and police free future. Others are working toward dismantling school police and instead instituting effective programs like Restorative Justice. The authors of this chapter hope readers will see how these struggles are intrinsically tied to anti-racist movements for justice and equity.

Key Terms

• Prison Industrial Complex (PIC): the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.
• Criminalization: Criminalization is the act of making something or someone illegal. It also applies to practices, prejudices, and policies that frame certain groups of people as a criminal, or someone who doesn’t deserve to have rights or be treated with respect. Many scholars and activists point to how poor people, undocumented immigrants, and people of color are often criminalized by politicians or specific policies that scapegoat communities without much political power. Criminalization of such communities rely on the perpetuation of negative stereotypes that simply being undocumented, or Black, or poor is viewed as criminal. Criminalization leads to over-policing in poor communities of color, racial profiling of Arabs, Muslims, and South Asians at the airports, punitive policies against youth of color, and mass deportations of Latinx communities.
• Convict Leasing: A practice of forced labor, where incarcerated people are leased to work for private and public institutions, typically for the financial benefit of the carceral system. Many scholars agree that the convict lease system was a reincarnation of slavery, and some of the similar methods of labor control and intimidation were used. Prisoner labor essentially supported agricultural labor and industrialization in the South. Today, we continue to rely on prisoner labor for countless products, to fight wildfires under dangerous conditions, and they’ve been on the frontlines of pandemic response, manufacturing masks and other PPE that prisoners were not allowed to use to protect themselves. Prisoner labor is also relied on to maintain the costs of running a prison.
• Crimmigration is the merging of immigration law with criminal law and posing immigrants as lawbreakers usually through a racialized lens. Through various laws and policies, crimmigration promotes the notion that an individual must be a citizen in order to be prequalified for basic civil and constitutional rights such as privacy, due process, and the right to not incriminate oneself.
• The War on Drugs: A “colorblind” vehicle that’s driven millions, particularly poor people of color, into the prison system. A shift in the modern criminal justice system framed drug abuse as “public enemy number one” during Richard Nixon’s presidential term in 1971. Exposed to decades of media “images of Black men in handcuffs” and the narrative that “bad guys” are in prison, the “new normal” includes: the rapid establishment of prisons, jails, and immigration detention centers, the Drug Enforcement Agency, over-policing of communities of color, legalized discrimination against system-impacted people in employment, housing, and public benefits, mandatory minimum sentencing, and plea deal bargains.
• Slave Patrols: These were early policing groups that would extend the reinforcement of racist restrictions, or slave codes, against enslaved African Americans both on and off plantations. Slave patrols were created to suppress slave rebellions and they would surveille, intimidate, search for weapons or evidence of learning how to read and write, and interrogate and lash anyone they pleased. They also worked to prevent runaway slaves from crossing into the North. Slave patrols turned into some of the earlier policing agencies in the South.
• Racial Profiling: The discriminatory practice by law enforcement of stopping, interrogating, arresting, harassing, or searching an individual based on their race, ethnicity, religion or national origin. Some examples of racial profiling including border patrol stopping someone with “Mexican appearance,” highway patrol pulling over Black and Latinx drivers, the Stop-and-Frisk policy of targeting Black and Latinx pedestrians, and Arab, Muslim, and South Asian people being targeted at airports or for detention and minor immigrant violations.
• Stop-and-Frisk: A policy enforced by the New York Police Department that allowed officers to use discretion on deciding who to stop, interrogate, and search. The practice almost exclusively targeted Black and Latinx people, who were regularly harassed by the police, for some, multiple times in the same day. This routine contact between the police and men of color served as “a gateway into the criminal justice system” and as a way to collect personal information on individuals not yet in the criminal database, which create barriers for jobs, housing, and access to resources. Similar practices have been endorsed in other police departments across the nation. The practice has been found unconstitutional as of 2013.
• School-to-Prison Pipeline: A set of institutional practices, policies, and culture that inflict methods of punishment that end up disproportionately being enforced against poor students of color, LGBTQ, and disabled students. Such punitive institutional practices often lead disenfranchised students to be entangled in the criminal justice system.
• Youth Control Complex: A term coined by Victor Rios, it is a system of criminalization molded by the synchronized, systematic punishment meted out by socializing and social control institutions. Examples are parole officers, police officers, school principals, teachers, parents, social workers, and the media.
• Youth Support Complex: Approaches or resources used to interrupt the hypercriminalization of young Black and Latino boys and the school to prison pipeline. Examples are mentors, educational programs, affirmative action programs, and after school programs.
• Abolition (Movement): Dr. Dylan Rodriguez defines it 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."
• Restorative Justice is a growing alternative to school police and punitive policies against youth and based on indigenous practices from across the globe. Restorative justice programs address underlying causes and involve students as responsible members of the community. They may implement peer juries, problem-solving circles, conflict mediation or community service. The core principle is creating a welcoming space for students to work on issues in a cooperative manner, in a way that is in the best interest of the student and the school community.

Discussion Questions

1. The first book from Kaepernick Publishing is called Abolition for the People: The Movement for a Future Without Policing & Prisons. 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, . The book argues “that the efforts to reform police and prisons have nearly always enhanced their power, reach, and legitimacy”. Furthermore, Abolition for the People asks the following questions: What is abolition? Is abolition practical? and What does abolition look like in the real world? Please answer the three above questions to the best of your abilities.
2. According to this chapter, what is crimmigration? How have immigrants been criminalized in the United States? Please provide specific examples (policies and laws). How have immigrants pushed back against laws that criminalize them because of their immigration status?
3. Summarize and explain 2-3 myths and truths about our criminal justice system, such as “prisons work to put away ‘bad’ guys so that the rest of us can be safe.”
4. What is the School-to-Prison pipeline and explain 2-3 practices that create hostile schools, especially for students of color and special needs students.

Journal Prompts

1. Are prisons racist institutions? Can we eliminate one without the other?
2. What can we do to abolish prisons, resist the prison industrial complex, or dismantle what Michelle Alexander calls the “New Jim Crow” – this social system used to control racial minorities in the U.S.?
3. Are you, or is anyone you know locked in a second-class status—unable to vote or legally discriminated against in employment, housing, education, or access to public benefits?
4. Did you attend a school with School Resource Officers (SROs)? If so, what was your experience with campus police or what did you observe?

Class Activities

In-person - Racial Profile while Driving

1. In small groups students will review the California maps providing geographical information on Driver’s License Suspension Rates and Poverty Rates. What patterns do you see? What problems do you see in the patterns found in the map? (15 minutes)
2. Students then read and take notes from the Back on the Road website and understand “the problem” of this project and the solutions. Also, please review the section of this chapter titled "Driving While Black or Brown" on page 10.5 "Is Policing Inherently Racist?" (10 minutes)
3. Students share their small group analysis with the class. Any experiences being pulled over? Students should explore the following themes someone may experience while being pulled over: racial profiling (driving while black/brown), immigrant status profiling, socioeconomic class profiling, etc. (15 minutes)

In-person - Four Corners:

It is suggested to conduct this activity before students read this chapter and learn about Incarceration, Policing, and State Sanctioned Violence. “Four Corners” is an activity that allows students to move around the classroom and discuss their opinions or share their experiences with different classmates in response to general statements read by the instructor. The statements may be generalizations or based on stereotypes related to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

Materials:

4 pieces of paper

Tape

Statements (use ones below or write your own)

Instructions:

Write the following words on a piece of paper (one per paper) and tape in the four corners of the classroom: “Agree,” “Disagree,” “Strongly Agree,” and “Strongly Disagree”

Instruct students to gather in the center of the classroom and listen to each statement (see samples below) read by the instructor. Once a statement is read, students will quietly decide which corner they move to. For example, if a student “agrees” with the statement read by the instructor, they will move into the corner labeled “Agree.” Students must choose a corner - if they are stuck between two, ask them to move to a corner that’s the closest to how they feel about the statement.

Once students choose a corner, they may discuss the following with people in their corner:

Why did you choose this corner?

Why do you think others chose their corners?

After giving students 5 minutes or so to discuss in smaller groups, the instructor can ask a representative from each corner to share a summary of what was discussed in their respective corners. A healthy debate may ensue after students hear each of the corners’ responses and individuals may decide to move if they’ve changed their minds based on what is shared by their classmates.

Repeat steps 2 to 4 for each statement.

Once completed, you may have students debrief on this experience.

Review these Vocabulary words before the 4 Corners Statements:

• Punishment: penalties imposed as a result of a criminal offense (i.e., incarceration). The goal is to penalize the offender and to deter others from committing criminal offenses.
• Rehabilitation: actions and programs designed to change the behavior of an offender or help them with specific issues. The goal is for offenders to successfully re-enter society as productive citizens.
• Restorative Justice: specific approaches (such as mediation and sentencing circles) that focus on the offender understanding and addressing their actions harmed the victim and community. The goal is reconciliation and healing for all parties involved.

Sample Statements:

• Our public schools and public colleges/universities should have police presence at all times.
• The point of the criminal justice system is to punish criminals. Offenders should be punished harshly to deter others from committing crimes.
• Our correctional system should have opportunities for education, therapy, and other types of rehabilitation.
• Someone who commits a crime deserves a second chance if they apologize for their actions. Criminal offenders should have the opportunity to work with victims and do things to make amends for their actions.
• When previously incarcerated people re-enter society they usually have a lot of support from society.
• Because of the internet, previously incarcerated people have an easy time getting a job.

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This page titled 10.8: Summary/Review 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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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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