UCLA Criminal Justice Law Review

Our inability to have empathy and seek changes that support incarcerated people beyond those with nonviolent crimes has the unintended consequence of creating more violence, less safety, and instability for individuals and our communities. This is particularly true for people marginalized by race, ethnicity, class, age, ability, gender, sexuality, religion, and immigration status. Strategies grounded in theories of anti-oppression and prison abolition may help legal and policy leaders work more closely with people on the inside of prisons allowing us to address the root causes of incarceration, find forms of accountability that do not rely on prisons, move beyond gender binaries, and uplift entire communities.