Today and every day, I want to do what I can to support and celebrate human rights and freedom.
But first, we have to acknowledge that slavery is still legal for 2 million people via forced labor in U.S. Prisons.
The 13th Amendment outlawed slavery except for as punishment for crime. This exception created a financial incentive to criminalize people and steal their labor, and it was exploited almost immediately. Not a year had passed after its ratification when Southern states and localities began to institute Black Codes that criminalized things like “vagrancy” and “walking without purpose.” Under Mississippi’s Black Codes, Black people who did not present proof of employment became “criminals” who could be imprisoned and “leased” to private companies for harsh forced labor.
—Nicholas Turner & Erica Bryant, Vera Institue of Justice article entitled Slavery Is Still Legal for Two Million People in the U.S., June 15, 2022.
Here’s another article on prison abolition from Georgetown Law, an interesting list of perspectives for prison abolitionists from PrisonPolicy.org, and an article on rethinking incarceration from Harvard Radcliffe Institute. You can also read What are Reparations and What Could They Look Like in New York? From ACLU of New York, and The Case for Reparations by Ta-Nehisi Coates. There are a wealth of articles on this topic: All you need to do is search ‘prison abolition’ or ‘police abolition’ online. If you don’t know much about it, just understand that these systems and institutions are rooted in racism and slavery. If we want to live in a more just world, we have to come up with something better and fairer.
If reading isn’t something you have time for, there’s also a documentary by Ava DuVarney from 2016 called 13th that we all (in particular, white people such as myself) need to watch. It’s available for free on YouTube. It is painful and emotional, but we can use those feelings to motivate us to action.
So, what can individuals do to support positive change? We can share this information with friends and loved ones. We can be active voters, on the local and federal level. We can also donate or volunteer to police and/or prison abolition organizations, such as:
End the Exception
The Marshall Project
Abolitionist Law Center
We can also donate or volunteer at organizations that support people who are currently in prison. There is a great list with links from AbolitionNotes.org.
You can also check out national civil rights organizations, like the ones listed here.
The important part is to figure out what you can do as an individual, and do it. That might be donating to one of the groups listed above, or finding a local organization accepting volunteers. I hope others will join me this Juneteenth on taking action toward prison and police abolition.