Abolitionist High School: Abolition 101

This course operates from the consideration that race and racism have been, and are currently, powerful social and cultural forces in United States society. The purpose of this class is to think critically about the relationality between carceral institutions in the US, now known as the prison industrial complex (PIC), and the interconnected state systems of political economy, law, and cultural practices that structure the PIC as both the physical infrastructure of prisons/jails/detention centers, but also the systems of policing, surveillance, and criminalization that produce state sanctioned forms of violence and/or premature death. This class will critically engage with key texts, articles, social movement histories, and experiences to address the ongoing structures that impact social and political relations, including contemporary issues such as COVID 19, Black Lives Matter movement, and abolition practices.

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Syllabus: Abolition 101

Lesson plan: Abolition 101