Rustbelt Abolition Radio #8: Schools, Prisons, and Abolitionist futures

Listen and Download Here

In this episode we explore the parallel ways in which the institutions of prisons and schools work to reproduce our current society, racial capitalism, as well as the challenges and possibilities we face in its transformation.

Imprisoned intellectual Harold “HH” Gonzales tells us about the history of school segregation and the construction of the so-called school to prison pipeline. We also hear from Erica Meiners, who discusses how schools are embedded in carceral regimes, and encourages us to view them through the wider lens of abolitionist struggle. We conclude the episode with imprisoned artist Steven Hibbler, on how the policing and criminalization of Black and Brown youth prefigure the racist carceral logic of our society.

---

Rustbelt Abolition Radio is an abolitionist media and movement-building project based in Detroit, MI. Each episode amplifies the voices of those impacted by mass incarceration and explores ongoing work in the movement to abolish the carceral state (that is, prisons, police, courts as well as racial domination and capitalist exploitation).

The show seeks to strengthen community collaboration and undermine the common sense that putting people in cages and shackling them with electronic devices solves the problems produced by racial capitalism. As such, we aim to expand our ability to struggle against the ways in which the carceral state impacts our daily lives and to create a space where we can both imagine and remake our world anew.