"Boldly and eloquently contributing to the argument against the prison system in the United States, these provocative essays offer an ideological and practical framework for empowering prisoners instead of incarcerating them. Experts and activists who have worked within and against the prison system join forces here to call attention to the debilitating effects of a punishment-driven society and offer clear-eyed alternatives, emphasizing working directly with prisoners and their communities.
Introduction : Empowerment or incarceration? : reclaiming hope and justice from a punishing democracy / Stephen John Hartnett -- Building an abolition democracy : or, the fight against public fear, private benefits, and prison expansion / Erica R. Meiners -- Militarizing the police : Officer Jon Burge, torture, and war in the "urban jungle" / Julilly Kohler-Hausmann -- Killing democracy : or, how the drug war drives the prison-industrial complex / Daniel Mark Larson -- Teaching you to love fear : television news and racial stereotypes in a punishing democracy / Travis L. Dixon -- Diagnosing the schools-to-prisons pipeline : maximum security, minimum learning / Rose Braz and Myesha Williams -- "A piece of the reply" : the prison creative arts project and practicing resistance / Buzz Alexander -- Each one reach one : playwriting and community activism as redemption and prevention / Robin Sohnen -- Fostering cultures of achievement in urban schools : how to work toward the abolition of the schools-to-prisons pipeline / Garrett Albert Duncan -- Humanizing education behind bars : Shakespeare and the theater of empowerment / Jonathan Shailor -- Breaking down the walls : inside-out learning and the pedagogy of transformation / Lori Pompa -- Appendix : Prisoner art and the work of community building / Janie Paul.