Truthout
Abolition
![](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/09/2024_0904-prison-400x300.jpg)
In Vermont, Abolitionists Are Fighting a Prison-Building Boom
Why is “progressive haven” Vermont spending millions on new prisons? Abolitionists like Jayna Ahsaf are fighting back.
![](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/08/2024_0816-prison-phone-400x300.jpg)
New Price Caps Won’t End Exploitation Baked Into Prison Communications Industry
While long overdue, I know firsthand that the Federal Communications Commission’s new reforms don’t offer true progress.
![A glowing, golden wrecking ball with a highlight in the shape of the state of Illinois smashes into a brick prison wall, releasing the money entrapped within as it does so.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/08/2024_0802_illinois_prisons-400x300.jpg)
Illinois Aims to Spend $900 Million Revamping Prisons. Let’s Close Them Instead.
Rebuilding decaying prisons isn’t the answer -- shuttering them is.
![The Ash Street Jail in New Bedford, Massachusetts, believed to be the oldest continuously operating jail in the country, pictured on February 2, 2024.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-2035575150-400x300.jpg)
Massachusetts’ Proposed Prison Moratorium Is a First Step Toward Abolition
A bill to halt the construction of new prisons and jails provides a way forward for decarceration.
![Shanita Jefferson talks about her mother at a Families for Justice as Healing rally led by formerly incarcerated and directly impacted women and girls in support of Angela Jefferson's motion for a new trial outside Suffolk County District Attorneys Office in Boston, Massachusetts, on October 18, 2021.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/07/GettyImages-1235968675-400x300.jpg)
Several States Are Building New Women’s Prisons — Can They Be Stopped?
Organizers across the country are working to halt the expansion of the carceral system.
![Donald Trump speaks into a microphone in front of a U.S. flag and a throng of reporters](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/06/2024_0603-donald-trump-400x300.jpg)
Why Trump’s Conviction Does Not Complicate My Abolitionist Politics
While this moment has generated satisfaction for many, the terrain of injustice we are navigating remains unchanged.
![](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-2131329694-400x300.jpg)
We Can’t Trade a Path to Legalization in Exchange for More Border Militarization
Author Silky Shah says immigration enforcement and the prison-industrial complex are intertwined systems of oppression.
![](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1617311621-400x300.jpg)
Public Health Finally Sees Incarceration as a Crisis. Abolition Is the Solution.
Backed by research, more public health advocates are opposing projects that harm rather than heal their communities.
![A protester projects ''Defund The Police'' on the wall of the Oakland Police Department as people gather at the Frank H. Ogawa Plaza following the police-perpetrated killing of Tyre Nichols by Memphis police, in Oakland, California, on January 29, 2023.](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/04/GettyImages-1246658236-400x300.jpg)
Abolition Is a Project of Human Liberation That Must Be Ongoing
Let’s amplify the efforts already in progress to demolish the prison industrial complex and move toward liberation.
![](https://truthout.org/app/uploads/2024/04/IMG_0665-400x300.jpeg)
Dispatch From a Missouri Execution: A Microcosm of the US Death Penalty Fight
The state-sponsored execution of Brian Dorsey on April 9 marked the fifth death row killing in the US this year.