There’s a lot of news and information related to prisons, policing, borders, and other facets of the prison state. In previous editions of the Weekly Abolitionist, I have tried to fit multiple stories into one theme or analytic frame. This week, however, I’ve encountered a diverse enough range of articles relating to these issues that…

I had my first experience with the Canadian state this week. The immigration authorities questioned me about my trip to Canada. One dicey moment was when the customs officer asked about whether I paid taxes or not. I replied that I only pay sales tax. I haven’t made enough money to pay income tax since…

A Tacoma, nello stato di Washington, gli immigrati detenuti nel Northwest Detention Center fanno lo sciopero della fame. Gli agenti dell’Immigration and Customs Enforcement stanno cercando di intimidirli, minacciando di alimentarli a forza. Parlando con americani, ho notato che molti di loro non hanno simpatia per i detenuti. Appongono agli immigrati il marchio di “illegali”…

If you oppose mass incarceration, you should oppose empire. If you oppose imperialism and militarism, you should oppose the prison state. Empire and incarceration are two related institutions of brutal state violence, and they are mutually reinforcing. A new article by my friend Henia Belalia argues that immigrants’ rights should be understood in a context…

Historien håller på att upprepa sig på ett fasansfullt sätt. Europas romska befolkning står inför ökad fientlighet, diskriminering, marginalisering och fattigdom. Jag har förut skrivit om den etniska registreringen av romer i Sverige, utförd av den svenska polisen. Vi som bor i Sverige har under de senaste månaderna också märkt en tillströmning av utfattiga romer…

These days, some policy makers are discussing rolling back America’s system of mass incarceration. Figures from Eric Holder to Rand Paul are proposing eliminating many mandatory minimum sentences. States like Colorado are legalizing marijuana. But while some policy makers talk about shrinking the prison state, prison expansion continues to be pushed and passed by legislators….

History is repeating itself in a terrifying way as Europe’s Romani population faces increased hostility, discrimination, marginalization and poverty. I have previously written about the ethnic registration of Romani people perpetrated by Swedish police. Those of us living in Sweden have in recent months also seen an influx of destitute Romani people making their way here…

In Tacoma, Washington, immigrant detainees held in the Northwest Detention Center are on hunger strike. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents are attempting to intimidate, and threatening to force feed, them. When I talk to many Americans about this hunger strike, many lack sympathy with the detainees. They brand immigrants as “illegals” and use this as…

It can’t be easy living in Russia’s shadow, and I envy no one in that position. Given its long history and, consequently, the temperament of its leaders (and a good part of its population), Russia for the foreseeable future will be a regional power with an attitude. Thus it will ever be concerned with what happens…

State violence thrives in the dark. This is why the state secrets privilege is so abused, it’s why the Obama administration has viciously persecuted whistleblowers, and it’s why states benefit from a  media climate where their legitimacy is assumed and radical ideas aren’t heard. So today I want to highlight some people both inside and…

A new report from the Swedish Prison and Probation Service claims that 46 percent of Sweden’s inmates are mentally ill, that 70 percent have severe drug problems and that these problems mostly have their origins in early life. As elsewhere, Sweden’s prison population is made up of the most disenfranchised, poorest and most vulnerable elements…

Libertarianism has nothing to do with national interests. Libertarianism is about individual liberty. The liberty to live your own life, to pursue your own livelihood, and to come and go as you please to anywhere that’s open to you or anywhere you’re invited to go. The implications for immigration policy are obvious: Everyone – not…

Immigration is an issue on which there logically should be very little daylight between factions of the libertarian movement. It’s not that complicated: “National borders” are imaginary lines drawn on the ground by over-grown street gangs, and no one owes them any recognition whatsoever. Alas, logic seems to have little weight in the argument, and…

Last Thursday, the US Senate passed an expansive “immigration reform” bill. The bill’s Hoeven-Corker Amendment would increase the US government’s “border security” spending to $46.3 billion. This money will be used to create what John McCain calls “the most militarized border since the fall of the Berlin Wall,” staffed by at least 38,405 Border Patrol agents….

Hummels: Open borders for people, not just product.

Knapp: Shiny badges and expensive offices notwithstanding, ICE is no less a criminal enterprise than Los Zetas or the Gambino family, and its abduction of Andiola’s family no less a crime.

Neste Natal, peço encarecidamente a você que mantenha as famílias juntas. Rogo que você se articule contra o complexo industrial prisional e o aparato do estado que já fizeram em pedaços tantas famílias.

This Christmas, I urge you to keep families together. I urge you to organize against the prison industrial complex and the state apparatus that have broken so many families apart.

When “progressive” Democrats profit from caging and abusing immigrants, the poor, people of color, transgender women, and LGBT youth, it’s time to leave the party.

Darian Worden doesn’t like the sound of “Your papers, please.”