[VIRTUAL] Caging compassion: Recognizing & resisting carceral humanist narratives

Caging compassion: Recognizing and resisting carceral humanist narratives in criminal justice reform

Advocates for criminal justice reform are often caught between the immediate need to address the dehumanizing conditions people are subjected to and the need to make actual lasting reforms to the systems in which carceral harm is perpetuated. Sometimes, they are faced with reforms, often proposed by prison systems themselves, that fall under the label of “carceral humanism”. Carceral humanist reforms co-opt our compassion and use it to suggest minimal improvements to the carceral system without changing the dehumanization at the core of mass incarceration. Carceral humanist reforms are not genuine change, but rather a public relations strategy that seeks to remove the objection to harm rather than to remove the harm itself. 

On February 25 at 1 PM EST, join the Prison Policy Initiative and guests James Kilgore and Mon Mohapatra as we discuss our new toolkit, Caging Compassion: Recognizing and resisting carceral humanist narratives in criminal justice reform. We offer useful tips for advocates seeking to avoid superficial carceral humanist reforms in their quest to make genuine, lasting systemic change. This webinar will be recorded and shared on the Prison Policy Initiative's YouTube page and website.