User:Natalieradrigan/sandbox

Prison Abolition Movement (Peer reviewers, don't look at this section, scroll down, I'm doing Critical Resistance)
Prison Industrial Complex Abolition, led by the Critical Resistance Movement, seeks to achieve the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing and surveillance and create lasting effective alternatives to prison and punishment. Their approach to abolition is a broad strategy since the prison-industrial complex maintains oppression and inequalities through violence, punishment, and control over millions of incarcerated individuals. The organization strives to build better models for future strategies and views abolition as not only a practical organizing tool but also a long-term goal.

I will be editing this section. I will elaborate on the what this movement is trying to accomplish and their reasoning behind it. I will also include who started and led the movement, attaching their wiki pages to it as well. I will include more sources to support all the I am going to be adding on this section of the page..

I am editing so the bold is what I have changed.
Critical Resistance is a national, member-based grassroots organization that works to build a mass movement to dismantle the prison-industrial complex.[1]Critical Resistance's national office is in Oakland, California, with three additional chapters in New York City, Los Angeles, and Portland, Oregon.[2]

Critical Resistance, formed in 1997, popularized the idea of challenging the prison industrial complex after their first conference in 1998, which drew thousands of former prisoners, family members, activists, academics and community members. Critical Resistance understood the prison industrial complex as a response to societal issues such as: homelessness, immigration, and gender non-conformity. Compared to previously where the United States relied on a welfare state to improve social problems[1]. It is considered to have re-invigorated anti-prison activism in the United States.[3]. The movement seeks to challenge the structures of different levels of the criminal justice system.

Organization[edit]
Critical Resistance was founded by Angela Davis, Rose Braz, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and others in 1997.[4] The organization is primarily volunteer member-based, with three staff members based in Oakland. Since the needs, therefore the activism necessary, varies throughout locations this movement depends on chapters to develop unique agendas.[1]

Each chapter determines its own work independently. Projects included:

·       Contributing to stopping California's prison building boom

·       Copwatching

·       Coalition-building and participation in the Community in Unity Coalition to stop construction of a 2,000-bed jail in the South Bronx.

·       Facilitating education within prisons and the creation of political media by, for, and with prisoners and former prisoners

·       Political education and leadership development

·       Building a mass movement for creating genuine safety that does not rely on incarceration and control to address social, economic and political problems

As of 2017, the Oakland chapter has three main campaigns/projects.

·       Stop Urban Shield

·       No San Francisco Jail Coalition

·       Oakland Power Project

"Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex"[edit]
"Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex" was the first conference held by CR at the University of California, Berkeley, in 1998.[8] Over 3,500 participants attended, including former and current prisoners and their families, activists, academics, religious leaders, the homeless, policymakers, and the LGBT community.[8] The conference brought a large amount of attention to mass incarceration issues, which they now call the "prison industrial complex". The conference became a starting point in the opposition against the PIC, causing different organizations to engage in activism. In particular, the "Schools Not Jails" initiative and the Youthforce Coalition began to combat the criminalization of youth of color after the conference.[8] CR was lauded for being the first organization that moved towards a more "rational and community-oriented" approach that called for the need to protect human rights whether they are of legal or illegal status.[9] CR holds conferences as a strategy to open discussion about the PIC, gain insight from different activists and participants, and spread awareness of the PIC to different parts of the United States. CR hosted more conferences through Critical Resistance South and Critical Resistance East in New Orleans and New York.

Peer Review: Tevin Mitchell: Well written very little grammar errors. You hit the points well and explain what you are going to talk about. I.E. the different coalitions. Very interesting topic. You could touch on what people are influential as well.

INCITE! partnership[edit]
The women’s anti-violence group INCITE! and Critical Resistance partnered to create this statement on gender violence and its connection to the PIC.[18] This partnership was formed because the lack of attention paid to violence within communities and ignoring the experiences of survivors of domestic abuse and other gender crimes in the 1970s caused tensions with the feminist movement, which limited the overall success of Critical Resistance.[19] The statement was published in 2001 and declares that the prison abolition movement must address gender violence and that social movements must not work in isolation, but rather in inter-sectional coalition. The publication emphasized that both organizations share common struggles and common goals in working to deconstructing the sexism, racism, classism and homophobia that exists in criminal justice system. The statement analyzes ways women are disproportionately targeted by the justice system and identifies strategies for combating these injustices.[20] '''Over 30 organizations signed the statement in support. [20]'''

Achievements[edit]
·       1998 - "Critical Resistance to the Prison Industrial Complex" conference in Berkeley, California. In September 1998, Critical Resistance held its first conference that challenged the phenomenon now called the prison industrial complex (PIC).[3]

·       1998 - Formation of Critical Resistance Youth Force, a coalition of Bay Area youth organizations that united to fight the criminalization & detention of youth of color. The coalition was co-directed by Anita Miralle De Asis & Rory Caygill, and at its height had 40 plus organizations in membership. The coalition was able to mobilize thousands of youth to organize against the infamous Prop 21 legislation and to run the Books Not Bars ("fund schools, not jails.") campaign.[21] It mobilized hundreds of Bay Area youth to protest the democratic national conventions in Los Angeles and the world trade organization meeting in Washington, DC.[22]

·       1998 - Several thousand high school students staged a walkout to demand “Schools Not Jails."[8]

·       2001 - Critical Resistance East Conference in New York City.[8]

·       2001 - Publication of INCITE! Critical Resistance Statement on Gender violence and the Prison Industrial Complex.[20]

·       2001- In spring 2001, CR filed an environment lawsuit against the California Department of Corrections that has since prevented the construction of a 5160-bed prison in California's Central Valley.[8]

·       2003 - Critical Resistance South Conference in Tremé, New Orleans.[8] It targeted problems in women prisons and held workshops that dealt with issues such as personal violence, drug addiction for pregnant women, prison conditions for the LGBTQ community.[7]

·       2005 - Helped bring about the end of California's prison building boom; featured in Christian Science Monitor, Los Angeles Times, and others. Launched amnesty campaign for people accused of looting post-Hurricane Katrina across the country.

·      2008 - On September 26–28, 2008, Critical Resistance held its 10th Anniversary (CR10) conference in Oakland, CA. The 3-day conference focused on strategizing, collaborating, and organizing for abolishing the prison industrial complex. CR10 exemplified Critical Resistance's multifaceted approach to activism by including hundreds of workshops, film showings, cultural art performances, strategy sessions, and meetings. A large number of youth, people of color and members of the LGBT community attended and participated in conference activities.[23] '''It was also an opportunity for organizers and researchers to ask question what can be used instead of policing to protect marginalized communities. https://www-tandfonline-com.proxy.library.ucsb.edu:9443/doi/full/10.1080/13613324.2010.500832?scroll=top&needAccess=true '''

·       2013 - CR worked with the No New SF Jail Coalition to stop the proposal for a $456 million jail project.[11]

·       2014 - CR distributed 12,000 issues of The Abolitionist paper that includes stories of those who are imprisoned and raises awareness of the PIC.[11]