Prison abolition, not reform: 5C Prisab hosts workshop with Critical Resistance LA organizers

On Sept. 23, Critical Resistance LA organizer Jose Gutierrez and Scripps Politics Professor Mar Golub, also a member of CRLA, led an “intro to prison abolition” teach-in organized by the Claremont Prison Abolition Collective at the Motley which 23 students attended.

The teach-in explained how prison abolition aims to eliminate the government’s use of surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as punitive forms of punishment. The teach-in additionally outlined the ways by which one can be a prison industrial complex-abolitionist in their daily lives. 

The Undercurrents writers also sat down and interviewed Jane Lovett SC ’25, a student representative  of Prisab, and Mar Golub, about the teach-in.

Defining the Prison Industrial Complex

The workshop defined PIC abolition as not only opposition towards the imprisonment of individuals but the structural system that imprisonment functions within. 

“What’s driving policing and imprisonment is all of the other social factors, the surveillance, the repression, the holding in place, the so-called solving a problem of racial capitalism when you don’t have other tools,” said Golub. 

The workshop made a clear distinction between abolition and reform. Reform is defined as an action that works within the framework of the PIC to strengthen the system rather than tear it down. In contrast, abolition is embodied by action that works outside of the frame of the established PIC.  

For example, increasing the amount of training and resources given to local police works within the law enforcement system and as a result, strengthens the PIC. In contrast, an abolitionist perspective would advocate for a shift in personnel to address violent and nonviolent police calls, such as the hiring of more mental health professionals to respond to calls for individuals experiencing mental health crises.

While the steps to abolish the PIC often seem large and overwhelming, the workshop emphasized that the steps to abolition are incremental, and begin on a small scale.

Similar sentiment was later shared by Lovett during her interview. She expressed that her reason for involvement in organizations like 5C Prisab is to make change on both a small and large scale.

“Prison abolition is both a long-term vision for the future and a short-term organizing strategy. In daily abolition work, we make clear steps to dismantle the prison industrial complex, whether those are efforts like shifting prison spending towards community services or passing bills that release people from cages.” They said, “All work that is done in PIC abolition is in service of the long-term goal of dismantling the PIC in its entirety.”

The Theory of Change: Steps to PIC Abolition

PIC abolition is defined and implemented through a three step process called the “theory of change,” which functions as Critical Resistance’s broad abolitionist strategy. 

The first step of the theory of change is to dismantle, or tear down all of the physical manifestations of the PIC, which Golub described as driving down the scale of the industrial complex. 

The second step is to change the systems that the PIC has created. The organizers explained that this change can come in the form of challenging others’ common sense, reallocating resources, and combatting practices of harm such as punishment and control. 

“Change work is like changing the terrain upon which we have these conversations or making interventions that will change common sense so that when we do go to talk to people, it will be… building a case for how they understand the world that no longer makes [someone think], oh, I need prisons.” Golub and Gutierrez explained. 

The final step, they established, is to build, which is a process that occurs simultaneously with dismantlement and change. 

An example of this on a broader scale would be building housing for people that need it. Golub and Gutierrez emphasized that housing is not just about shelter but also about creating a stable community that can address the needs of its constituents. 

During their interview Golub explained, “dismantling prisons is only one part of PIC-abolition; the biggest job is growing and building alternatives to policing, restoring the health of our communities, and making sure that everyone’s needs get met.” They said,“building a community to look after each other and care for each other rather than turning to cops or calling campus security – that abolitionist build-work is super important as well, and something we can do every day.” 

Lastly, Golub and Gutierrez presented the Critical Resistance’s abolitionist toolkit, a succession of seven questions the movement deems important to ask oneself when supporting abolition. The toolkit asks questions like, “Where do you work?” and “Does your work reject the PIC everywhere?” 

“If you wanna be involved in abolition work, you have to spend a lot of time thinking about whether the work that you do is in fact just trying to reform the system or whether it’s in fact taking a small step to build a different kind of system,” Golub added. 

The organizers also emphasized the importance of being ready for the tough questions that skeptics of prison abolition will likely ask. To prepare for this, a section of the workshop was dedicated to practicing responses to these tough scenarios.

For Lovett, this section was one of her largest takeaways from the workshop,

“Often, when people hear that PIC abolition seeks to dismantle all cages in all forms, they ask questions like, ‘Well what if someone did something really bad – don’t they deserve to be incarcerated.” Or, ‘what about this reform – why do we need to abolish the whole system?’ These questions are likely to be asked, and abolitionist organizers need to be ready to answer them for multiple reasons. First, it helps abolitionists continue to grow in their political consciousness and understand why they are doing the work they are doing. It also helps organize skeptical folks into abolitionist work,” she stated.

Gutierrez and Golub concluded the teach-in by saying, “All the work that you do every day can amount to a bigger, larger victory.”