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On March 26th of 2018, a group of students from Dr. Mary Jo Klinker\u2019s WGSS 374: \u201cQueer Theories and Politics\u201d travelled to Madison, WI to send books to LGBT prisoners and gain first-hand experience of advocacy work, putting their studies of queering Prison abolition to practice. For the purpose of this blog, I\u2019ve introduced some key concepts of our analysis:<\/p>\n
LGBT Books to Prisoners is an organization from Madison, WI that sends books and educational materials to LGBT people that are incarcerated. The organization is volunteer and donation based with the mission to \u201cacknowledge, and work against, the oppressive functions of the prison system.\u201d<\/p>\n
The Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) is a social institution that is used to systematically police and enforce violence against people with intersecting and oppressed identities. Identities can include being a racial minority, queer, and gender non-conforming. Policing of these people are much higher than that of other identities. Queering prison abolition movements are not meant to reform the PIC, but aim to abolish these systems of oppression and violence. CeCe McDonald, a transgender woman from Minneapolis, MN was incarcerated in a men\u2019s prison after being charged with murder for a crime of self-defense. In an interview about prison abolition McDonald states, \u201cA true abolitionist, while thinking of reform, would think of ways to: first, free prisoners, second dismantle the prison industrial complex and third, find alternative solutions and other ways to deal with crime and punishment and justice, knowing that we won\u2019t all have the same idea of what that is.\u201d<\/p>\n
Research from Coming Out of Concrete Closets reveals, even while incarcerated LGBTQ people, especially of color, are constantly subjected to violence, not only by other prisoners, but also by police and staff. The research is clear and the numbers reveal startling statistics such as, \u201cBlack and Latin@\/Hispanic respondents were more likely to have their first arrest occur when they were under 18 compared to white respondents (66% versus 51%, respectively).\u201d and \u201cBlack, Latin@\/Hispanic, mixed-raced, and Native American\/American Indian respondents were twice as likely to have been in solitary confinement, at the time of the survey, than white respondents.\u201d These numbers from the survey express the systematic and disproportionate violence that is enacted upon bodies of color and LGBTQ people. Prisoners can benefit greatly from receiving outside materials such as books, newspapers, and letters to keep them connected to the outside and that relate to themselves and their interests.<\/p>\n
Paperbacks and Pieces is a local bookstore here in Winona that partnered up with the Queer Theories and Politics class to promote community outreach and social change. The bookstore allowed students to create an LGBTQ books display featuring some of the books that could be and were donated to LGBT Books to Prisoners Project. Paperbacks and Pieces also hosted a donor drive for LGBT Books to Prisoners so that students could take these books with them to donate in Madison.<\/p>\n