Introduction

This study guide introduces the theme of prison abolition, as it appears in the exhibition Barring Freedom. There is a brief definition of “prison abolition,” followed by a summary of how some of the artists in Barring Freedom invite reflection on a future beyond prisons. Relevant short clips from the artist interviews are included with each section, and the embedded links will take you to more information about the artworks and artists mentioned.

In their article “The Case for Prison Abolition,” scholars Ruth Wilson Gilmore and James Kilgare argue that prisons, jails, and policing in the United States cannot be understood or improved when viewed alone—these structures need to be understood within, “the entire ecology of precarious existence” that produces incarceration. Instead of focusing only on tearing down the physical walls of prisons, jails, and detention centers, the prison abolition movement seeks to eliminate the need for prisons. It takes as its central premise that to create an equitable society, the core problems that lead to incarceration must be addressed. In the words of activist and scholar Angela Davis, we must, “imagine a constellation of alternative strategies and institutions, with the ultimate aim of removing the prison from the social and ideological landscapes of our society.”

Abolitionists strive to envision and build social structures that would make prisons and policing obsolete. Their aim is to redesign society so that problems such as poverty, mental health issues, homelessness, and lack of access to education are not solved through punitive means like imprisonment, but instead through universal and justice-based programs. Abolitionist tactics include activism aimed directly at the systems of incarceration and policing and include: stopping the construction of new prisons, eliminating mandatory minimum sentences, and introducing restorative justice models. This also includes work directed away from prisons, such as, increasing investment in schools, mental health services, and other social programs intent on ending inequalities.

When Angela Davis says that an abolitionist approach requires us to, “imagine… alternative strategies and institutions,” she is suggesting that abolition is a creative project. It requires the ability to dream outside of how society is currently organized and think beyond the belief and value systems that position prisons and jails as solutions to social problems. She also cautions us that, “dangerous limits have been placed on the very possibility of imagining alternatives” to prison. What are these “dangerous limits”?

In his full interview, Emile DeWeaver discusses what he calls, “our imagination problem.” He points out that the project of prison abolition is ultimately the reopening of imaginative possibilities that have been closed off through settler colonialism and white supremacy. These systems of inequality have had lasting effects on how we see and understand the world, including how we imagine our responsibilities to other people and our ideas of crime and punishment. In the words of scholar Saidiya Hartman, writing on the abolitionist imaginary, “What is required is a remaking of the social order, and nothing short of that is going to make a difference.”

In “What Abolitionists Do?”, scholars and activists Dan Berger, Mariame Kaba, and David Stein make the argument that far from being utopian dreamers, prison abolition activists are pragmatic organizers, leading the way in mobilizing for concrete policy changes. The artists in Barring Freedom also reflect this engaged and grounded method. Artist Ashley Hunt describes artists and activists, “as two positions within which people make the world and reproduce it,” emphasizing the interrelationship and complementary activities of both. Hunt’s exhibitions often include contributions from local activists that amplify abolitionist projects happening in the surrounding area. Even though Hunt’s photographs draw attention to the ubiquity and normalization of incarceration in our landscape, he frames several of his prints within the context of ways critiques of the prison system become visible in our cultural landscape, adding to his “atlas of incarceration” the record of dissent.

Tapping into the potential synergy between artists and civic participation, Hank Willis Thomas is among a collective of Wide Awakes, an open-source network inspired by the 1860 abolitionists but who are imagining forms of political action in the present. The video below gives a taste of what they are planning. In his extended interview, Thomas also compares his use of prison uniforms in his artwork to how nineteenth century abolitionists circulated objects of torture to draw attention to the cruelties of enslavement and the plantation system.