For our opening episode "Reimagine Justice" I would like to introduce you all to our wonderful team as we have an informal conversation about how we've been engaging in this work, how the criminal punishment system became embedded into other institutions, and the idea of abolition. Throughout the episode, and throughout this series we will come back to the question of reimagining justice. What you all should ask yourselves is, how would you reimagine justice?

Reimagine Justice

In order to understand how we can dismantle the criminal legal system and carceral mindsets embedded within other social institutions, we must first take a look at how the carceral system inflicts economic predation onto Black, Latino, and Indigenous communities. The first step in understanding this economic exploitation is examining how resources, infrastructures, and institutions that provide basic needs have been divested from in order to expedite the growth of the police and carceral system. This episode will examine the ongoing fight to defund the police and prison system in Chicago and other places in order to bring power back to the communities and people the police system harms the most. We will also discuss how divesting from violence and investing in care is just the first step in the path towards abolition and what investing in communities can look like.

Decarceral Constellations