THE QUEER, FEMINIST & TRANS POLITICS OF PRISON ABOLITION (2008)

PDF: http://prisonercorrespondenceproject.com/QFT_prison_abolition_full.pdf


Introduction: Making Links and Building Solidarity................................................ 3
A Note on Terms .................................................................................................. 4
Getting the Facts: A Preliminary Note on Public (Mis)information ........................ 5
The Growing Crisis of Mass Incarceration: UK Prison System Overview............. 6
Putting Things in Perspective: A Brief History of Modern Punishment ............... 10
Criminalizing Social Exclusion: Who is really in UK prisons? ............................. 11
Profile of Criminalized Women ........................................................................... 14
Social Costs of Incarceration for Women............................................................ 15
The Criminalization / Punishment of Queer, Trans & Gender-variant persons ... 16
The Impact of the “War on Terror” on Queer & Trans Communities................... 18
Locked Out of Entry, Locked into Prison: UK Immigration Detention.................. 20
Psychiatric Imprisonment ................................................................................... 21
Failures in the Youth Justice System: Why Getting Tough Doesn’t Work .......... 22
Transgender Youth and the Prison Industrial Complex: Disrupt the Flow .......... 23
The Violence of Cages: Assault, Abuse and Deaths in Custody ........................ 24
Profiting from Harm: Prison Privatization & the Prison Industrial Complex......... 26
Ten Reasons to Abolish Prisons......................................................................... 28
Alternatives to Prisons........................................................................................ 30
Frequently Asked Questions on Prison Abolition................................................ 32
Building Safe Communities: Abolition in Practice ............................................... 34
Critical Resistance & INCITE: Gender Violence & Prison Industrial Complex .... 35
Principles of Prisoners Justice Activism.............................................................. 38
Prisoners Justice Activism: Ten Things You Can Do Today............................... 39
Additional Resources.......................................................................................... 40

This resource package was designed as a tool to
be used, distributed, shared, and discussed in the
hope that it will contribute to broader social justice
struggles. It was developed as part of a series of
prison abolition workshops in the UK, but may be
usefully adapted for other contexts. Feel free to
copy, modify, expand and use these resources as
you see fit, so long as they are not used for
commercial purposes and credit is given to the
activists, artists and sources named throughout.
For more information, to give feedback, or get
involved in organizing, please contact;
SLAMBLE.81@GMAIL.COM


INTRODUCTION:
making links and building solidarity between
prison abolition and queer, trans, feminist struggles
This workshop emerged from a need to make better connections between struggles for gender
/ sexual justice and the growing problem of mass incarceration, over-policing, and cultures of
control. Too often, these issues are seen in isolation from each other. On the one hand,
prisoner justice activists have not always paid enough attention to the gender and sexual
dimensions of mass imprisonment, especially for queer and transgender people. On the other
hand, feminist, queer and trans groups have often excluded prisoners from our communities
and not prioritized prisoner’s justice issues within movement struggles. In the antiviolence
movement, some feminist, queer and transfolk have also been too quick to equate justice with
imprisonment – by embracing hate crime laws, advocating prison sentences for those who
commit sexual violence and calling for increased “community” policing.
But if we genuinely want to work towards a world where we are all safe from violence, poverty,
racism, sexual assault, abuse and oppression, it is important to connect these struggles.
Indeed, many of us who identify as queer/trans/feminist and have been involved in antiviolence
work through rape crisis centres, shelters and queer/trans safe spaces—we are also committed
to prison abolition. For some, our prison abolition politics grew out of that antiviolence work.
After years of responding to the same forms of violence over and over again and after dealing
with the repeated failures and injustices of the criminal system, it has become clear that the
prison system not only fails to protect our communities from violence, but enables, perpetuates
and fosters more violence.
These issues are particularly urgent now, as the so-called war on terror intensifies, as attacks
on migrants and people of colour increase, as violence against women, queers and
transpeople shows little signs of abating, as the global prison population expands dramatically.
Indeed, women are the one of the fastest growing prison populations worldwide. These trends
are closely related to changes in the global economy; as governments continue to slash
welfare, education, housing, and health care budgets on the one hand, they increase budgets
for prison, police and border controls, on the other.
As the more privileged members of queer and trans communities are ushered into new forms
of neoliberal citizenship—where buying power, respectability, assimilation and nationalism are
the price of welcome—and as some queer/trans groups are getting increasingly cozy with
police and military forces, we need to question who is bearing the costs of that so-called
“inclusion”. We must reject all strategies which allow queer, trans and feminists politics to be
coopted and used to enable war, imprisonment, state violence and racism. This workshop is an
attempt to confront those issues – and to instead put anti-violence, anti-racism, feminism,
queer politics, trans struggles and prison abolition at the centre of our organizing efforts.
We also want to express thanks and support of our colleagues, comrades, friends, family and
loved ones in prison. Special thanks to Peter Collins, artist and activist currently held in Bath
Institution, Canada, whose art is used throughout the workshop. Thanks also to the Prisoners
Justice Action Committee in Toronto, Canada, and Critical Resistance in the USA, which both
provide much inspiration. This workshop is modelled after a series originally developed for
Prisoners Justice Week in Toronto, 2006. On hearing about these workshops, many prisoners
were moved to know that there is a growing movement of people on the outside who want to
work for prison abolition and prisoners rights. They are thankful for the support and
encouragement they draw from our work. As Pete said, “It is dangerous for us, for prisoners to
speak out about abuses and injustices we see. But it becomes less dangerous and more
powerful when you speak out with us.”...