Why Enhancing Criminalization Won’t Make Us Safe

In a recent interview on the radio program Against the Grain, Dean Spade talks about “five realities about violence and criminal punishment that are helpful for analyzing the limitations of… any enhancement of criminalization that we’re told will make us more safe.”

Here is one that’s particularly relevant to our work:

“The third reality is that most violence doesn’t happen on the street between strangers, like it seems to on TV, but between people who know each other, in our homes, schools and in familiar places. Images of out-of-control serial killers and rapists who attack strangers feed the cultural thirst for retribution, and the idea that it’s acceptable to lock people away for life in unimaginably abusive conditions. In reality, the people who hurt us are usually people we know, and usually are also struggling under desperate conditions, and/or are victims of violence. Violence, especially sexual violence, is so common that we couldn’t possibly lock away every person who engages in it. Most violence is never reported to police because people have complex relationships with those who hurt them, and the whole framing of criminalization where bad guys get put away does not work for most survivors of violence. If we deal with the complexity of how common violence is, and let go of a system built on a fantasy of monstrous strangers, we might actually begin to focus on how to prevent violence, and heal from it. Banishment and exile, which are the only tools offered by the criminal punishment system and immigration enforcement system, only make sense when we maintain the fantasy that there are evil perpetrators committing crimes, rather than facing the reality that people we love are harming us, and each other, and that we need to go to fundamental root causes to change that.”

Follow the link to listen to the whole interview.

Check out our new mini-zine, Strategies for Survivors

We’re excited to announce our new one-page zine, Strategies for Survivors. View or download the PDF at: http://phillysurvivorsupportcollective.files.wordpress.com/2013/04/strategiesforsurvivors.pdf

Note: This zine is designed to be printed on legal size paper (8.5×14).

Get in touch if you want paper copies — you can email us at survivorsupport@riseup.net, or call (215) 618-2020.

Please spread the word to anyone you think might find the zine useful!

Call for submissions for Everyday Abolition/Abolition Everyday Project

This new project will be launching a blog where people can post stories, art, poetry, interviews, etc. about what resistance to the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) looks like in our everyday lives.

Everyday Abolition/Abolition Everyday Project

The organizers of this project are hoping to create a space for folks to connect and think creatively about not only the ways the PIC impacts people’s lives and ways we respond to that and resist it, but also what we are doing everyday to create alternatives to that oppressive system. This resistance is happening in large and small ways, in the public and private spheres of life and community, and this project hopes to capture some of the complexity of this work and the vision for a different world that drives it.

Seeking Safety and Accountability Online

The internet is a place where survivors can call for public support, share stories and build community with other survivors. It is a place where communities can generate responses to the violence that has happened in their midst, and because the internet is so public, where some level of accountability can be pursued at least on the level of transparency of information about people’s harmful behavior.

However, it can also be a place of renewed trauma for survivors. There are no shortage of examples of survivors calling for support and receiving ridicule, victim blaming, and cross examination instead. Also, because it’s so public, once that information is out there, it is impossible to reel it back in and that story may continue to follow a survivor long after they wish to be done with all reminders of it.

Here are a few recent examples of how people have chosen to respond online to sexual assault(s) in their community, call for accountability for the person/people responsible for the assault(s) and build their community up to be a safer place.

Trigger warning: Both of these links go to sites where people are responding to direct experiences of sexual violence. Both contain graphic descriptions of the assaults they are responding to.

Linked here is an open letter to the administration of Steubenville High School responding to a recent and highly publicized assault involving members of that school’s football team. This letter asks stakeholders in that community to take account of ways the school and town’s culture not only allowed for the assault to occur, but also allowed for many of the young men who participated in the violence to feel justified in their actions, as if there were no negative consequences for what they were doing–and it demands that the community take steps to change this culture.

One important thing to note: this letter is not from the survivor of the most recent assault or from any other individual having survived violence at the hands of the young men in Steubenville. In light of that it is important that this letter leaves the survivor’s identity unknown so at least outside of her immediate community where people already know who she is, she can choose how involved she wants to be in any kind of larger public response and doesn’t face additional backlash or negativity directed at her based on this internet call-out and their set of demands.

http://steubenville2013.wordpress.com/photo-less-letter/

Linked here is a public call-out from a survivor local to the Philly/West Chester/Newark, DE area who has asked that her story be re-posted and made public on the internet. She is asking for people in the area especially people who go to shows and parties to be aware of and make public the name and behavior of the person she is calling out in order to keep those spaces safe from someone who has caused a lot of harm to her and others. She has chosen to make her story public and has received a lot of support from other survivors and community members in response to her blog post.

http://cullan.tumblr.com/post/41926285066/tw-rape-tw-abuse-ian-roberts-is-a-rapist-and-an

There are many many more ways that survivors and their communities can, have and will use the internet to call for accountability, justice and change. And still more folks will not turn to this medium, but will work in different ways publicly and privately to heal from the violence of sexual assault in their lives and communities. We hope that sharing these couple of examples can help keep folks informed and creative in generating healing and supportive responses for themselves and their communities.

We Appreciate PW’s “Survivor’s Project”

Our letter to Philly Weekly about their important Survivor’s Project

call for submissions: fire with fire (a zine about sexual assault)

[we're passing this on, please forward widely!] 

callout round #2 for fire with fire (a zine about sexual assault). 

 

this zine is being compiled largely in response to a zine that used to exist for many years called “fire with water” – this zine (fire with fire) is an effort to include people’s experiences that  in the past for reasons of feeling silenced by the implication that fire is most legitimately reacted to with water. that is, specifically trying to include those whose experiences don’t only include non-violence or non-violent strategies/reactions to experiences of sexual assault. 

sexual assault and sexualized violence impacts everyone, but everyone’s experiences of sexual assault and sexualized violence are different and are unique to them. people do what they have to do when they are experiencing violence. self-protection or protecting others can mean a lot of different things – including using violence or violent strategies. this zine is also an effort to specifically give recognition to the fact that the discrediting of violent strategies and tactics (and the promotion of non-violence as the “best” and “right” way to respond) helps protect rape culture, helps protect the state, and silences and erases so many experiences. 

also, everyone defines their own experiences for themselves. therefore, the point of this zine is not to suggest that ‘fire’ or ‘water’ mean anything except for what that means to a given person. what might seem like ‘water’ to one person might very well have felt like ‘fire’ to someone else. and what might seem like non-violence or even ‘passivity’ from an outside perspective might actually be the most fiery thing someone has ever been asked to do. 

this is therefore a callout open to anyone who wants to share experiences of sexual assault, sexualized violence, and/or supporting someone who has experienced sexual assault. while the theme of this zine does have a specific focus, submissions are welcome even if you don’t feel like they specifically fit the theme “fire with fire”. 

submissions can be written or image-based. 250-300 words is the suggested length for written submissions, but shorter and longer pieces are welcome as well. 

***les soumissions en français sont égalment invitées***

the deadline for submissions is NOVEMBER 15th

(the hope is to be able to have the zine ready for expozine!)

please send your submissions (and any questions or comments) to: firewithzine@gmail.com

No Justice Here

by Sarah Small and Hunter McCorkel

On October 3rd 2012, death row prisoner Terrance Williams narrowly avoided execution. If he had been executed, his would have been the first execution in Pennsylvania since 1999. However, his life still hangs in the balance. Philadelphia District Attorney Seth Williams is appealing the stay of execution, and if he has his way, Terrance Williams will be killed before the year is over.

Terry Williams was sentenced to die for killing Amos Norwood in 1984. He was eighteen years old. After his sentencing, it was revealed that Williams had been routinely sexually abused by Norwood, and had been sexually and physically abused by family members and men in his community since he was a child. After his arrest, Williams was also convicted of killing Herbert Hamilton, another man who had sexually abused him. Evidence of Williams’ abuse was not presented at his trial, and numerous jurors have since stated that they would not have voted for the death penalty if they had known about the violence perpetrated against Williams. The case has been gaining national attention due to the large number of supporters for Williams’ clemency, including Amos Norwood’s widow. Despite the national spotlight, it is becoming clear that Pennsylvania, under the leadership of Governor Tom Corbett, is poised to restart an era of executions.

Terry Williams’ abuse history and the role that sexual assault played in the murders have become central to both the media coverage and Williams’ court appeals. At the time of his trials, Williams did not tell his lawyers or the court that he had been sexually abused by the men he killed. It should come as no surprise that given our culture of silencing and shaming sexual assault survivors, Terry Williams would not disclose his abuse history. Since then it has been revealed that numerous community members knew of other young people who had been abused by Norwood or Hamilton, both of whom were in positions of local leadership. Williams was failed by these communities, which, through their own silence, allowed his abuse to continue for years. And for Williams, as well as so many other survivors of abuse, the intervention of the state only escalated a cycle of violence rather than breaking it. This execution would not offer justice for Terry Williams. It would not provide justice for Amos Norwood and Herbert Hamilton, for their families, or for Terry’s family. And it does not show a path forward for all of us in Pennsylvania who are struggling to address and prevent sexual abuse.

When solutions to sexual assault are put in the hands of the state, survivors are not helped — they’re criminalized. Survivors who fight back against their abusers often face harsh penalties from the state. Marissa Alexander, a Florida woman who was sentenced to 20 years in prison for firing a warning shot towards her abusive husband, is just one recent example. We must recognize that state violence against sexual abuse and domestic violence survivors is also happening here in Pennsylvania. These cases demonstrate the urgent need for communities to develop solutions to violence and harm that support survivors rather than criminalizing them. Survivors of abuse do not and cannot receive justice through a court system that penalizes them. Likewise, incarceration does not address the systemic violence and trauma that leads people to engage in abusive behavior. People who go to prison for abusing others often leave prison with additional trauma and with few or no new tools to rejoin their communities. We must break these cycles of abuse and retribution and instead look for models that heal and transform us.

In Pennsylvania, many people are trapped at the intersection of policies of neglect and criminalization. Funding for institutions that keep people safe and healthy is being stripped away, while at the same time “tough on crime” policies funnel more and more young people into the prison system. Governor Corbett cut $840 million from public education in 2011 alone, while continuing to spend $685 million dollars on building more prisons. General assistance for low income Pennsylvanians has been cut while no additional job opportunities have been created. The loss of educational opportunities, health care and basic financial assistance is making it harder for all of us to survive and thrive in Pennsylvania. And while PA currently has 200 people on death row, over 4,500 more are serving “life without parole” sentences. “Life without parole” is often referred to as Pennsylvania’s other death sentence, because it condemns thousands of men and women to die in prison. Terry Williams’ case is making headlines due to the overt willingness of the state to execute a victim of violence, but thousands of Pennsylvanians are suffering slow deaths due to Corbett’s policies of neglect.

Right now, the state is breaking ground on two new prisons in Montgomery County. The prisons, which will cost over $400 million to build, include a brand new 100-bed death row. Just one year past the execution of Troy Davis, we are faced with the reality that Pennsylvania is one of a shrinking number of states still performing executions. These new prisons will expand Pennsylvania’s reliance on incarceration and capital punishment while diverting funding from basic human needs like housing, healthcare, and financial assistance for the poor. Governor Corbett is killing Pennsylvanians- by neglect because of lack of medical assistance, by closing schools and poisoning our water, by long prison terms and “life without parole” sentences that force people to die in prison, and, if he has his way, by the planned execution of Terrance Williams.

While Terry Williams no longer has a scheduled execution date, the state is still pursuing his death. Real justice for Terry Williams means fighting not just for a stop to his execution, but for his release. Terrance Williams should not die in prison, either from old age OR lethal injection. We believe that the interest of justice would be better served by an investment in funding life-sustaining programs like education, community mediation, healthcare, and general assistance. Now is the time to end capital punishment. Now is the time to end life without parole. Now is the time to stop building prisons and invest in a better future for all of us.

This statement is a collaboration between Decarcerate PA and the Philly Survivor Support Collective. It is an effort to broaden the conversation about capital punishment, state violence and sexual assault.

Sarah Small and Hunter McCorkel are members of Decarcerate PA, a grassroots campaign working to end mass incarceration in Pennsylvania. Hunter is also a member of Philly Survivor Support Collective, which supports survivors of sexual assault in directing their own healing, offers alternatives to the legal system for survivors seeking justice and safety and works to transform our communities to end sexual assault.

For more information about these groups, visit

http://decarceratepa.info/

http://phillysurvivorsupportcollective.wordpress.com/