Prisons as Tools for Reproductive Oppression

The aim of the workshop will be to highlight connections between the racial and gender justice movements from the lens of reproductive justice. Prisons by their very nature inhibit connections and ties between families and within communities, working to weaken systems of support that are so important to individuals, families, and to movements seeking social justice. Prisons should be viewed as very sophisticated mechanisms for systematically targeting, oppressing, and disenfranchising communities of color and people who are “otherized” as undesirable in a white supremacist, capitalist, heterosexist, and patriarchal society. We also have learned much through our efforts challenging gender responsive prison expansion how reform efforts aimed at ameliorating prison conditions while not attacking systemic roots of oppression undergirding the system are readily co-opted to help build and reinforce current structures of imprisonment and oppression. We hope to share clear examples of our organizing gone wrong, as well. Segments of Justice Now’s CD compilation “The We that Sets Us Free” will also be played for workshop attendees, featuring performances by people who are currently still locked up.