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Young people stepping up and calling this moment for what it is, is the best thing on the interwebs today.

Abolitionist frameworks advocate dismantling punitive systems and investing in community-based solutions that aren't centered around punishment. This compelling alternative vision for justice actively challenges the law and looks to reshape harmful norms to build a more equitable and just future.

Law is not a neutral or static force; it is a tool used to maintain power and shape hierarchies. Systems of control that disproportionately affect marginalized communities, particularly communities of color, should challenge us to think critically about the law, and concepts of legal and illegal.

An illustrative graphic. The background is tan. The text at the top says Sweet Tea w/ Transparency in red block letters. On top of the word "sweet" it says Update! in white block letters with a black brush stroke behind the word. Below the title it says An Open Records Resource for Movements in the South. The letter "o" is in the shape of a magnifying glass with an open eye in the center of the glass. Towards the bottom are the outlines of the state of Alabama and Tennessee from left to right. The Alabama outline has a megaphone icon in the middle and the Tennessee outline has a hand with a leaf sprout in the middle. At the bottom left corner is the title sweet tea w/ transparency in red and the bottom right corner is the center for constitutional rights logo in black and red.

It’s the last day of #SunshineWeek — and we’ve got something sweet to serve!

Our Sweet Tea w/Transparency site, our toolkit for government transparency in southern states, just got an update!

What is ICWA? Why is it important?
Link to Video:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=8mlO...

Families of color are often targeted under the Child Welfare system, in particular there has been an disproportionate amount of Native families losing parental rights compared to others. This graph shows the discrepancies between Indigenous families and other families
www.hrw.org/news/2022/11...

This is certainly an important critique to hold— I wonder how we might be able to raise this critique while also dealing with the fact that any avenues(DEI/affirmative action being the only ones we got to see yet) to address deep inequalities get butchered.

Beautifully written, it is in the details. When we take time to understand an individual's circumstances then humanity can flow back into our society! -JG

I love that you noted some companies that still participate in DEI -JG

UWT and Formally Incarcerated Students

What About The Rapists — Interrupting Criminalization

www.interruptingcriminalization.com/what-about-t...

What About the Rapists and Murderers? | TransformHarm.org Trigger warning: rape, sexual assault, murder, torture, ablelism, trauma. The most common question posed to abolitionists is “what about the rapists and murderers?” Most people are not satisfied with ...

A world without prisons would be fairer, but would it be safer?

transformharm.org/ab_resource/...

A far greater need is to focus on systemic change, as opposed to remedial punishment. When we focus on blaming, prosecuting and punishing, we are ignoring the larger economic, structural and psychological harms committed of the state.

https://sites.miamioh.edu/edt222-2017/2018/07/prison-abolition-with-project-based-learning/

What will help is tackling the societal problems that led them to cause harm in the first place. Shifting priorities from prisons (both private and public) to allocating the funding for these prisons to social programs would be a step in the right direction.

People from poorer communities, or who have battled with mental health, grown up outside of a nuclear family, melanated and marginalized groups are all more likely to end up in prison. Crime will not be reduced by locking all these people up.

https://socialmovements.trinity.duke.edu/movements/prison-abolition.html

Prison Abolition, A World without Prisons

Upending our current system and putting the needs of those who are harmed first.

Right now prisons are used too often for dealing with the inequalities and problems that our health, welfare, education and employment systems aren't solving.

(3/3) DEI is under attack and the belief in meritocracy is only climbing. It is important that we protest anti-DEI initiatives, and educate people we know about the dangers of meritocracy.

(2/3) Hiring based on merit sounds like the perfect system, but some critical flaws make meritocracy the enemy of equity, as explained in the slides below.

(1/3) What is DEI and why is meritocracy so bad?

In the presentation below, I go into what DEI is, what it means for people, and how merit-based systems simply do not work because of structural inequalities in America.

#DEI #Meritocracy

I also like your note on profit, both parties make money off of these actions. Monetization in videogames is rampant currently and companies can make tons off of new excitement. Similarly, the government makes money from prisons, bail, etc. by continuing to abuse carceral systems.

That's an amazing point, just as people want new exciting things in a game, people want "order" in society given by carceral systems. Both architects are happy to oblige.

5/6
Immigration is often a hot topic in our current society and politics; impacting how immigrants are viewed and law is used to prevent them from succeeding in their attempt to look for a better life. Recent executive orders and bills proposed challenge the role law plays in immigration.

Good evening everybody,
Today I wanted to write about a concept we talked about in class called carceral creep. It reminded me of an issue that happens often in games that I have played and I think that the comparison would help new people access this topic of conversation. (3/3)

Good evening everybody,
Today I wanted to write about a concept we talked about in class called carceral creep. It reminded me of an issue that happens often in games that I have played and I think that the comparison would help new people access this topic of conversation. (2/3)

Good evening everybody,
Today I wanted to write about a concept we talked about in class called carceral creep. It reminded me of an issue that happens often in games that I have played and I think that the comparison would help new people access this topic of conversation. (1/3)

AG
This is a very good message, it is not only important that we discuss the past but focus on education and continue to fight for the future!

Feminism Against the Carceral State - Emily L. Thuma - Inquest Seventies-era anti-carceral feminism opposed “tough on crime” policymaking and played an important role in the making of today’s prison abolition movement.

In the 70s & 80s, feminists connected violence against women to a critique of state violence. Emily Thuma @haymarketbooks.org traces how this anti-carceral feminism got hijacked by tough-on-crime lawmakers—then revived in the modern prison abolition movement.

Must read: Mahmoud Khalil speaks out for the first time since his arrest by the Trump administration in an exclusive letter, dictated over the phone to his family, from ICE detention in Louisiana.

Settlercolonialism has been a hot topic for years, but it isn’t a thing of the past, it shapes the world we live in today. The effects of land loss and systemic inequalities are still felt by indigenous communities everyday. #Decolonize

AG
Exclusion is an interesting topic to cover and becomes very intertwined with everything that we talk about in class such as law enabling it, which was set up by settler colonialism and kept in place by empire. All of these concepts come together like a web and exclusion is a great example of it.