92 Quotes About Abolition

Why petition Parliament, at all, to do that for us, which, were they ever so well disposed, we can do more speedily and more effectively for ourselves.

My life is too short to focus on legislation when I could be making art. So I'm not a copyright reformer, I'm a copyright abolitionist.

The Underground Railroad has several stations in the [Welsh] Mountains, and secrecy was not just a buzzword, as breaking the code of silence could mean death. The justice meted out in the Mountains was sure and swift, making it different from that in the surrounding community. The laws were meant to protect the security of the community, and not just the individual person.

Liberation is a love that is big enough to encompass all society, and active enough to transform it. It is a love that dismantles oppression, recognizing that our oppressions are intertwined.

Abolition is about abolishing the conditions under which prison became the solution to problems, rather than abolishing the buildings we call prisons.

Habilitation would mean better housing, health care, mental health care, childcare, jobs, educational opportunities -- all resources that are, in many senses, the opposite of house arrest and monitoring.

Prison abolition is more than a politic, it’s a daily practice.

Arguments for bringing back asylums based on the large number of imprisoned people who are diagnosed with mental illness fail to account for the fact that prison is a traumatizing and sometimes torturous space that causes most people significant psychological anguish. Prison produces mental health problems.

Again and again, psychiatric labels become vehicles for race- and gender-based harm. The use of diagnosis as a tool of structural oppression is not a new phenomenon.