POLICING AND MASS INCARCERATION
There is probably no social justice issue more critical to Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities than the issue of policing and the prison industrial complex. The ACSJL brought key frontline organizers and intellectuals who were committed to taking this crisis from the margins into the mainstream. We supported Patrisse Khan-Cullors, founder of the hashtag Black Lives Matter before the BLM movement took off, and hosted the first major showing of the 2016 film Thirteenth in Kalamazoo. It was a packed house.
While there had been a Shakespeare service-learning course for years in the juvenile justice Center, through the efforts of the ACSJL, new courses and critical pedagogies were introduced. One course was introduced by the ACSJL Academic Director, Dr. Lisa Brock, highlighted below. Another is by Assistant Professor in Anthropology, Dr. Francisco Villegas, Prisoners and Detainees. Significantly, Associate Professor of English, Dr. Ryan Fong, was supported by the ACSJL to research and to attend conferences in order to apply current carceral frameworks to 19th century Charles Dickens Studies. His work is now making an impact on the field. As you will see below, our attention to this area has increased the education and capacity of faculty, students, and community in this area.
BANNER IMAGES: NNEKA JONES, SARAH JANE RHEE, NIKKOLAS SMITH
Reform LA Jails was a finalist for the 2013 Social Justice Leadership Prize.
It was founded by Patrisse Khan-Cullors, co-founder of #BlackLivesMatter and New York Times, Best Selling Author. She credits the ACSJL with significant support along her journey. The photograph on the left is from the 2013 Global Prize for Collaborative Social Justice Leadership. The photograph above is of Khan-Cullors, Ashley Yates, and another gentleman from Ferguson. They are Ferguson frontline organizers who came for a few days during WOBs 2014.
Mariame Kaba: Dismantling the Prison Industrial Complex
Legendary grassroots prison abolitionist, award-winning social justice leader, and New York Times best-selling author visited the ACSJL numerous times over the ten years.
“Concrete tools/specific issues. Gave good information. I learned so much in this workshop—facts and figures as well as important connections between institutions. Addressed the issues surrounding and contributing to the prison industrial complex in an in-depth and incredibly engaging manner. Very informative—targeted larger issues which was necessary. Amazing visuals and incredible tools. Deeper perspective. In a short time, I received a great amount of data and examples of direct action/campaigns regarding decarceration. I was somewhat informed and learned so much more that I had no idea about. I was very appreciative of the knowledge that was shared and learned things about the prison industrial complex that I didn't know before.”
“Gave me so much more awareness and passion around the issue and how to approach it sensitively and effectively. Gave tools and ideas to effectively combat the prison industrial complex in our communities. Great websites/online resources that the speaker introduced. I am working on prosecutorial defense, Bail Out, and school-to-prison pipeline. While contributing greatly to my understanding of the issue, there was more emphasis on information than being a leader on some of the issues.”
“Definitely opened my eyes just past the scope of private prisons. So good—thank you. Definitely—I never really knew much about cash bail and how it works; now I am going to do some research so I can use knowledge as power to help people get out of jail. Would love the book—please include me in any workshops on topics like this. The workshop addressed factors contributing to the incarceration rates in a form I had never been exposed to and in a way I found to be beneficial to my understanding. I learned a lot of new things that I hadn't even considered about the prison industrial complex. Have more clear arguments for the abolition of prison. Mariame Kaba is the most intelligent, analytical, insightful, engaging speaker I have ever heard at the ACSJL—please recruit her for future events and people like her.”
Kalamazoo community organization, SEE Change hosted a screening of the film Healing Justice for 65 community members at the ACSJL in 2018.
“Excellent concept and film—cuts to the heart of what's wrong with our criminal justice system. I have been opened and am more aware of how broken our justice system is—I am grateful to see an alternative”
— Community Member
Language Partners was a winner of the 2013 Global Prize in Collaborative Social Justice Leadership.
Language Partners is a program of The Education Justice Project (EJP) established in 2006 at the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign. It provides upper-level college courses and educational workshops at Danville Correctional Center, a medium-security state prison in Illinois. EJP is staffed by U.I. professors, graduate students, and other community members on a volunteer basis, and funded mainly by grants and donations.
“The ACSJL provided information on incarceration issues that I have brought to the classroom and have helped students think about these issues for their SIPS or legal future careers.”
— Faculty Member response to the ACSJL Community Survey
Academic Director, Dr. Lisa Brock introduced courses on African-American history to the College, taught a course on Nelson Mandela and the International Anti-Apartheid Movement, and a senior seminar that historicized policing and the Ferguson Uprising. A booklet of student research and writing was the result of this seminar.
“Taking the class 'Historical Readings on Ferguson' was one of the two turning points in my undergraduate experience at K College that solidified my goal to be a civil rights attorney with a focus on police misconduct. Understanding the history of policing in this country is critical to challenging and dismantling the ongoing and systemic injustices."
— Madison Sinkovitch, Attorney and Counselor at Johnson Law, PLC, K’15
Zolo Azania, a Gary, Indiana political activist who was falsely accused of killing a policeman and served 36 years in prison, visited the ACSJL shortly after his release in 2017.
Here, he is pictured with Julia Plomer, a former student staff worker at the ACSJL, who is working with him on his computer skills.
For 36 years, Zolo Agona Azania was one of the many Black people who await execution as a result of a racially biased criminal justice system. Politically active at the time of his arrest, Zolo remains committed to freedom for Black people and to a just world for all. He defended his own rights and the rights of other prisoners during his many years in prison. He won the respect of fellow prisoners and jailers alike. Zolo spent much of his time researching the law and fighting for a reversal of his conviction and was finally released from prison in 2017. His tireless efforts exposed the unfair and racist way his case was handled by the authorities.
Darrell Cannon, formerly and falsely incarcerated, visits the ACSJL.
Chicagoan, Darrell Cannon, is one of over 100 Black men picked up on the southside of Chicago by a notorious unit of the Chicago Police Department led by Detective Jon Burge and forced through torture into false confessions. These cases led the former governor of Illinois George Ryan to institute a moratorium on the death penalty in the state in 2000. However, many of the victims remained behind bars. After nearly three decades of social justice struggle, and a review of their cases, most of the men have now been released. This Burge torture survivor, who was wrongly imprisoned for 24 years, spoke to community members at ACSJL.
“In Spring 2015, I met Daryl Cannon in my seminar on police brutality. His story continues to stick with me. I never cared what he did, only that the system meant to protect us did not include him or most BIPOCs. I carry lessons from that class in the spaces I am in and stand for ending police brutality. We ought to question a system rooted in slave patrols that allow legalized murder and torturing of people. Dr. Brock gave me some of the tools to dismantle the white supremacist system.”
— Natalie Cherne, K’15
ACSJL takes faculty, staff, and student to the Making and Unmaking Mass Incarceration Conference.
“The Mississippi Conference was a game-changer for me. As a new staff member to the Arcus team and the college, it was nice to be able to connect with other like-minded people in different areas and departments on campus. As a person of color, community building is very essential to my sense of belonging so this professional development trip allowed me to be able to start building that community.
Also, the conference was just amazing. Sharing a space with so many activists doing so many great things was the best thing that I could have experienced as a new staff member at Arcus. I was struggling to find my lane and the way I could personally contribute to the work of the center before attending that conference.
After attending it though, I was so inspired and fired up that my colleague and I connected with one of the speakers (Amani Sawari) present at the conference and together we developed a Mass Incarceration webinar that we brought to Kalamazoo College. That event led to the creation of new efforts at Kalamazoo College to start connecting and organizing with inmates in local facilities around Michigan.
Both my colleague and I still work closely with Amani today. I have interviewed Amani on the Arcus Center Podcast (Radical Futures Now) that I created shortly after attending the conference. Being around so many fearless and passionate people while at that conference, unlocked my own fearlessness and passion to do social justice work.”
— Rhiki Swinton, ACSJL Center Manager
Art and Publications
Alice Kim completed edits on The Long Term as an author in residence at ACSJL.
Zolo Azania was a featured artist on Praxis Center, which committed to including incarcerated writers and artists among its contributors.
Praxis Center published more that 50 pieces on Mass Incarceration.
What People are Saying
“Because of Arcus, I organized and led a block party event about prison abolition, reparations, and transformative justice with an organization called Good Jobs Now/Detroit Action. I have been asked to be on the Board of an organization in my community called MECCA that works for resident-led, resident-driven change around issues of youth, elders, residential development, and workforce development. I have attended many workshops around new issues of justice from different sources in conferences, books, events, etc”
“I have focused in on prison abolition work, become more comfortable in movement spaces, grown my critical analysis on all social justice issues, connected me to mentors and organizing networks, developed my skills in events management. I also learned mapping and data and statistics that can be used for social justice organizations and social justice goals. I have developed mentor relationships that exist to this day.”
“I'm more aware of movements that are happening right now around the issues. It's nice to be in a room of people interested in this issue—it's nice to hear about movements, for example, the National Bail Out. Very interested in organizing around DA work (#ByeAnita). There were a variety of videos showing the work and movements of several justice campaigns. She is amazing and inspiring!.”