Prison Abolition Club advocates for change

Illustration by Maya Winshell

Over the past few months, the U.S.’s racial reckoning following the death of George

Floyd has led to once radical concepts entering the mainstream. People have begun seriously reconsidering the roles of policing and criminal justice in society to an extent rarely seen before, and Lewis & Clark’s new Prison Abolition Club is at the vanguard of this social movement.

“People’s first impression is ‘oh, they just want to get rid of the prison system,’” Elijah Hart ’21, the club’s vice president, said. “But it’s more applicable to think of (prison abolition) as an ideology, of questioning the ways of addressing crime.”

In the beginning, the club will focus less on activism and more on education.

Rather than starting out with an established path toward abolishing prisons, Co-Founder Emi Olson ’22 envisions the club as a space where students can bounce ideas off each other and gradually reach conclusions through discussion.

“The point of our club is really to explore the alternatives and possibilities of abolishing (prisons),” Olson said.

The club’s ultimate mission, according to Co-Founder Coral Barrett ’22, is to promote the idea of “restorative justice” as opposed to “retributive justice,” at LC and beyond. Restorative justice is de ned as a justice system that emphasizes the rehabilitation of incarcerated individuals back into society. It is the opposite of retributive justice, which centers exclusively on punishment.

The club’s leaders have gained experience in restorative justice through their jobs. Olson works with youth who have committed sexual offenses under a state program that allows them to complete a treatment program instead of being registered as sex offenders. Barrett provides care to children with autism spectrum disorder (ASD), and aspires to become a disability lawyer. Hart is a treatment specialist for the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board, a state agency that provides psychological treatment for incarcerated individuals who have been found not guilty by reason of insanity, a system that only exists in a few other states besides Oregon.

This work has given them insight into alternatives to imprisonment and what a post-prison world could look like. However, they are all adamant that programs like the Oregon Psychiatric Security Review Board and treatment for young sex o enders are not enough. Olson describes these policies as resulting from “a reform view, altering the system slightly but maintaining the same system, which is not the goal (of the Prison Abolition Club).”

The club is partnering with several like-minded organizations in Portland, including Black Lives Matter, national anti-prison group Critical Resistance and the Write Them All campaign, which aims to send a handwritten letter to every prisoner in Oregon.

Though interest in prison abolition has spiked since the nationwide Black Lives Matter protests began in May, Barrett and Olson had founded the Prison Abolition Club before George Floyd’s death. They completed the paperwork to start the club in March, but they were not able to hold the  rst meeting as the school transitioned to online instruction due to COVID-19.

As a result of the delay, there are still a few things that have not been finalized. A regular schedule for the club’s Zoom meetings has yet to be worked out, but they do have an social club email. Barrett and Olson recommend that anybody interested in the Prison Abolition Club should contact prisonabolitionlc@lclark.edu.

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About Tor Parsons 49 Articles
Tor Parsons '24 is a well-known figure on campus. I interviewed three random LC students to gauge the public opinion on Tor. "Who?" - A student with a really cool backpack "I have no idea who you're talking about." - Some dude on the Pio Express "He's cool, I guess." - Tor's roommate

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