Abolition means attack! Towards an insurrectionary theory of prison abolition

In this article, we propose an insurrectionary theoretical framework for approaching prison abolition. We argue that transformative change arises not merely from top-down legislative reforms and grassroots consciousness-raising but also from sustained, collective resistance generated from within carceral spaces. This analysis is grounded in 20 years of support and political collaboration with prisoners and detainees across the United States, the authors’ own experiences of incarceration, as well as careful observation of prisoner and detainee resistance. We use insurrectionary theory to frame our analysis of a strategy for prison abolition that begins with direct resistance and disruption to prisons from the inside, in the form of strikes (including hunger strikes, work stoppages, protests, and boycotts), uprisings, and escapes. Drawing upon 15 years of empirical data collected via Perilous Chronicle (a research project one of us helped found, which focuses on the United States and Canada), we illustrate that organized prison resistance constitutes an ongoing movement capable of rendering prisons ungovernable. We end with a call to abolition geographers and other scholars and activists to integrate analyses of prisoner and detainee resistance into their theoretical frameworks and reassess strategic priorities. While an insurrectionary strategy may not be the only or at all times most effective route for dismantling prisons, it does represent a potent, ongoing strategy that many prisoners and detainees themselves choose to wield in confronting the carceral state in the United States.