16 research outputs found
Doing Justice Without Prisons: A Framework to Build the Abolitionist Movement
No description supplie
Prison abolition, contradiction and the justice system
Prison abolitionism is nearly as old as the prison itself. Yet, despite almost century-long efforts of prison abolitionists, imprisonment rates in the much of the West remain unfathomably high compared to 30 years ago. This paper examines the differing logics of prison abolitionism over the last 40 years and how, despite revolutionary rhetoric, many contemporary abolitionist movements and academics seem hostile to proposing of concrete alternatives. As the paper will demonstrate, this is partially due to an incoherent idealism that has infected abolitionism. As a counter-narrative, this paper will outline the necessity of a historical materialist framework of abolitionism that exploits contradictions within the capitalist justice system. It proposes alternatives, based on existing conditions and contradictions, which make prisons redundant
Abolitionist Justice: Towards an Abolitionist Theory of Justice and the State
Thesis summary for the full PhD thesis with the same title
Grieving Prison Death
This paper explores the findings of my MA thesis, which I completed in 2017. The thesis critically examines 108 coroners’ reports into deaths in New Zealand prisons. It provides both quantitative analysis of the kinds of deaths and demographics of the deceased, and also outlines how the material conditions of confinement facilitate the death of the prisoner. Using critical discourse analysis, it demonstrates the irreconcilable contradictions in the state’s account for the death of the prisoner, as well as the inevitable absences in the coroners’ reports
Politics at pride?
This article follows the events at the Auckland Pride parade in February 2015, where protesters from the queer and transgender prison abolitionist group No Pride in Prisons attempted to prevent police officers from marching. It contextualises this event within a history of Pride and gay liberation in Aotearoa, finding that the politics, or lack thereof, of Pride have changed over time. It is proposed that the contemporary iteration of Auckland Pride, as it usually occurs, exists as a homonormative event that does not challenge the current structures of domination. Auckland Pride is, following Jacques Rancière, an example of "consensus democracy." However, it is argued that this particular parade was exceptional because it, unlike many other Pride parades, had a moment of politics
Submission to the Social Services Committee on the Social Security (Stopping Benefit Payments for Offenders who Repeatedly Fail to Comply with Community Sentences) Amendment Bill
No description supplie
Submission to the Justice Committee on the Electoral (Registration of Sentenced Prisoners) Amendment Bill
No description supplie