Reviewed by: Tanveer Ahamed

Critics of prison abolitionism often argue that abolitionism is an impractical and utopian idea that has, in spite of its convincing theoretical claims, little empirical value in long-term crime prevention and rehabilitation of offenders in a society. Many who support the abolitionist cause also deem the activities of abolitionists to be largely haphazard and anarchist in nature. While these assumptions are not easily repudiable, Rachel Herzing and Justin Piché have shown new possibilities for an organized and properly-led movement against carceral practices in their book titled ‘How to abolish prisons: Lessons from the Movement against Imprisonment’.  In the eight chapters of the book, including the introduction and the splendid concluding section, the authors have presented a detailed account of lessons learnt from notable abolitionist campaigns in the US and Canada in order to help activists choose the right pathway based on their surrounding circumstances. While these lessons bear special value for abolitionists, they can also provide significant insights for those who are working for prison reform in different parts of the world.

The writers, however, repudiated the reformist agenda, since reforms help an essentially repressive system to adopt some particular demands of a new era and to perpetuate itself through minor, cosmetic changes without affecting its innermost violence and malice. However, they did not forget that sometimes outright abolitionist activities can prove counter-productive, and it is better to work for ‘abolitionist reforms’ to gain necessary short-term victories that will pave the way toward long-term revolutionary changes and will also keep the abolitionist desire alive. While the concept of ‘abolitionist reforms’ sounds sufficiently convincing, it also gives hints of a crude reality, that is, to make people realize the practical value of prison abolition and to establish it as a commonsense idea. Abolitionists have to adopt a certain extent of reformism in their attitude and activities.

The writers classified the abolitionist approaches practiced in the US and Canada into five broad-brush categories, such as, (a) grassroots campaigns to fight prison and jail expansion, (b) prisoner solidarity campaigns and projects, (c) art and cultural work, (d) legal advocacy, and (e) policy advocacy. For each category, the writers have supplied numerous examples of grassroots activism in the two North-American countries. The writers discussed various tactics to resist prison expansion, such as building coordinated movements against the construction of new prisons, pressuring governments to reduce prison budgets, and so forth. They linked prison abolition with other movements with democratic spirits (e.g. environmental justice), since they think ensuring ‘increased democratic space’ is an inalienable part of their fight for prison abolitionism. They also shared valuable insights on the significance of communication and networking in the abolitionist journey. As they put it, it is only the organized and collective movements of the people of a society that can bring revolutionary changes in an apparently unconquerable system.  Prison abolition is also feasible when it has a large community base. The writers discussed a number of success stories of such organized movements to convince their readers of the practicality of their approaches. Nevertheless, it remains doubtful whether these little successes will one day lead to bigger ones, provided that there are established anti-abolition public sentiments in both the US and Canada. What’s more, the mutative power of the institutions of capitalism and of the Prison Industrial Complex can also render long-term change impossible and undesirable. As a matter of fact, the writers too discussed challenges of this kind in the chapter titled ‘Contradiction, Tensions, and Challenges.’

One excruciating limitation of this book is that it does not say anything about prison abolition or reform in underdeveloped countries of Asia and Africa. The writers claimed, in the concluding chapter, that ‘the fight for prison abolition is also an internationalist fight’. They also claimed that abolitionist campaigns in the US and Canada have drawn insights from similar movements in European countries like Norway or the Netherlands. Nonetheless, the involvement of only Europe and America is not sufficient to make an agenda ‘truly internationalist’. Unless writers like Rachel Herzing or Justin Piché include developing and underdeveloped countries in their abolitionist vision, prison abolition will remain only a sophisticated, Western idea that does have any empirical value except in some advanced democracies of Europe and America. Exchange of insights between activists developed and underdeveloped nations is compulsory to turn prison abolition into a global, ‘transformative political vision.’