Can Prison Education be Abolitionist? Reflections from the Circle of Solidarity

Abstract

University-sponsored prison education programs offer valuable resources to populations typically denied educational access and opportunity. They also extend the university’s resources and legitimacy to the carceral system within which they necessarily operate. This essay takes up the potential contradiction between prison education and prison abolition by reflecting on my experience developing a correspondence-based inside-outside program independent from official channels: the Circle of Solidarity Study Group. Through collaborative cross-wall abolitionist study, the Circle of Solidarity seeks to connect prison education with individuals and organizations committed to the struggle for a society that does not use surveillance, policing, and human caging to address social problems and interpersonal harm.