April 4, 2024 at 6.00pm – 7.30pm
Online
Join Rachel Herzing, Justin Piché, and special guests for a discussion of lessons from the movement against imprisonment.
Critics of abolition sometimes castigate the movement for its utopianism, but in How to Abolish Prisons, long-time organizers Rachel Herzing and Justin Piché reveal a movement that has made the struggle for abolition as real as the institutions they are fighting against.
Abolitionist campaigns are constructing on-the-ground initiatives across North America to deconstruct carceral society and build resistant communities.Through the words, deeds, and personalities of this beautifully peopled movement, How to Abolish Prisons emerges as a stunning snapshot of a movement’s thinking in motion.
Get a copy of How to Abolish Prisons: https://www.haymarketbooks.org/books/2212-how-to-abolish-prisons
***Register through Ticket Tailor to receive a link to the live-streamed video on the day of the event. This event will also be recorded and captioning will be provided.***
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Speakers:
Rachel Herzing is an organizer, activist, and advocate fighting the violence of surveillance, policing and imprisonment. Herzing was executive director of Center for Political Education, a resource for political organizations on the left and progressive social movements; codirector of Critical Resistance, a national organization dedicated to abolishing the prison industrial complex; and director of research and training at Creative Interventions a community resource that developed interventions to interpersonal harm that do not rely on policing, imprisonment, or traditional social services. She lives in New York City.
Justin Piché is associate professor in the department of criminology, director of the Carceral Studies Research Collective at the University of Ottawa, and coeditor of the Journal of Prisoners on Prisons. He is also a founding member of the Criminalization and Punishment Education Project, the Abolition Coalition, and the Carceral Cultures Research Initiative. He lives in Ottawa, which is located on unceded and unsurrendered Algonquin Anishinaabe Territory.
In 2026, we’re celebrating 25 years of publishing “Books for Changing the World.” In those 25 years, we’ve helped build critical space and infrastructure for radical ideas and movements on the left to grow. That work of institution-building and popular political education has never been more necessary or more urgent. We need your help to continue to do this work.
