Victoria Law: “We understood that prisons and police would not make us safer.”
Victoria Law’s new book, Prisons Make Us Safer: And 21 Other Myths About Mass Incarceration, exposes the contradictions of a carceral state that weds public safety to the violence of police and prisons. In less than 200 pages, Law explodes myths about the promise of prison reform, the root causes of crime, and the effectiveness of policing and incarceration. “Our reliance on prisons lulls us into ignoring the social, cultural, and economic factors that lead to violence and ultimately make us less safe,” she writes.
I first met Law — abolitionist, denizen of Manhattan’s Lower East Side and the author of several other books about prison including Resistance Behind Bars — through mutual friends at anarchist potlucks and book fairs. These were spaces that experimented, though imperfectly, with collective care and mutual aid beyond the state’s social order. In the early ’90s, Law was an integral part of the legendary ABC No Rio, a squat in the LES that did everything from host punk shows to run a Books Through Bars program that donated books to prisoners. Law’s work is informed by, and continues to inform, a social imaginary of community and compassion, challenging the racist carceral state’s structures of violence and social death. She has influenced how I think about all of those things, and how I understand the role of prisons.
After a year of uprisings, a pandemic that exposed the cruelty of a society built around essential yet disposable lives, and decades of movement building, the discussion of prison and police abolition has moved into the mainstream. In a shift rich with potential, these issues are no longer confined to classrooms or alternative spaces like ABC No Rio. Law’s voice affirms that we all deserve better than the current system.
Over Google Chat, Law and I spoke about the possibilities and challenges of abolition, resistance behind bars during the pandemic, and the joy of community gardens. Our conversation reaffirmed for me that prisons are neither inevitable nor permanent — they, and the system that upholds them, are more vulnerable than we think.
1. “We end up missing nuances.”
Sabrina Alli: You included a photo of unanswered letters; I am assuming they are from prisoners. How has communicating with people on the inside inspired your work?
I don’t think you can accurately report on prison conditions and
