I recently saw a talk on the University of Illinois campus by Dylan Rodriguez, a co-founder of Critical Resistance, cultural studies professor at the University of California, Riverside, and author of the new book White Reconstruction. His comments about the current state of the prison abolition movement got me thinking about my own practice of what I called when I started Sentences, “abolition journalism.”
For those who have not yet heard, we had an important win recently—we won free phone calls at the Champaign County jail!
Sandra Ahten thanked the sheriff and county board for doing the right thing during public comment at a meeting on November 21, 2023:
Listen to Sandra deliver her message here:
I have often wondered, is prison phone justice abolition?
• The issue was an easy one for moderate Democrats like the sheriff and those on the county board to go along with. When we began, county board members told us the decision was out of their hands, and the sheriff claimed the county would “have to pay” for free phone calls. Ultimately, it didn’t cost them anything financially or politically. The sheriff and county board members thanked one another at the Nov. 21 county board meeting. (Only one county board member, Samantha Carter, thanked “everyone” who pushed for the change.) When they go up for re-election, they will likely mention free phone calls in boasting of the things they have accomplished. In this way, the phone justice is NOT abolitionist.
• Throughout our campaign, we worked successfully, I think, to foreground the voices of those incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, and their families. We reached out to members of FirstFollowers who spoke before the county board and joined a panel we held at the Unitarian church. They put me in touch with Blaine Lee, whose son was arrested in Urbana and has been in jail for two years awaiting trial. I told her story and shared the news of our victory in an article for Smile Politely:
“He calls first thing in the morning just to say good morning,” Ms. Lee told me. “Usually, he hangs up because he needs to eat and shower. Usually, he calls back maybe by noon. Then, after that phone call, he said they go on lockdown, I think around 3 p.m., for like an hour or two. He calls back maybe around six. And then again, right before he goes to bed.”
Over the two years, Lee estimated that she and other family members had spent around $3,000 on phone calls and commissary — additional food, hygiene products, and other supplies that can be purchased at inflated prices. “It’s extremely expensive,” Lee told me.
To me, THIS is what it means to practice abolition. These are powerful stories, and the necessary antidote to decades of “tough on crime” rhetoric that still dominates the media landscape.
• The jail phone issue is one way to engage people for whom abolition may sound too daunting, politically impossible, or threatening their own understanding of “safety.” We can use the issue of phone calls as a way to share knowledge of the terrible conditions of incarceration, expose the many parasitic prison profiteers who feed off the system, and tell the stories of families who do the time along with their loved ones.
• We fought this campaign without the help of a national non-profit organization or funding from a foundation. Dylan Rodriguez is especially critical of NGOs and self-promoting professors who have co-opted abolition. Our phone justice campaign was the work of a small group of individuals (you know who you are) that gave their time and energy. While we didn’t always agree, we each had our own strengths, and we moved forward together as an act of love and solidarity.
• There is still much work to do. While we won the campaign for free phone calls, they will be made from the cells of a shiny, new $20 million jail currently under construction. We lost that campaign two years ago. Incarceration rates are returning to pre-pandemic levels. In Champaign County, kids are being tried as adults. The struggle continues.
Free calls are expected to go into effect in mid-February, as Farrah Anderson of Illinois Public Media has reported. The news was also covered by the News-Gazette, WCIA, and Fox Illinois.
Thank you for reading Sentences, my Substack is almost a year old! In my next post, I’ll reflect more on what I have accomplished in the last year. In the meantime, wishing you a restful holiday!
BD
What a big win. It’s one step closer to creating change in a broken system. Thanks for sharing and for the work you do. 🙌🏼