\nAdvocates for criminal justice reform are often caught between the immediate need to address the dehumanizing conditions people are subjected to and the need to make actual lasting reforms to the systems in which carceral harm is perpetuated. Sometimes, they are faced with reforms, often proposed by prison systems themselves, that fall under the label of “carceral humanism”. Carceral humanist reforms co-opt our compassion and use it to suggest minimal improvements to the carceral system without changing the dehumanization at the core of mass incarceration. Carceral humanist reforms are not genuine change, but rather a public relations strategy that seeks to remove the objection to harm rather than to remove the harm itself.\n<\/p>\n
\nOn February 25, the Prison Policy Initiative and guests James Kilgore and Mon Mohapatra discussed the new toolkit, Caging compassion: Recognizing and resisting carceral humanist narratives in criminal justice reform<\/a>, offering useful tips for advocates seeking to avoid superficial carceral humanist reforms in their quest to make genuine, lasting systemic change.\n<\/p>\n \nThis new guide:\n<\/p>\n \nThis guide is part of our ever-expanding Advocacy Toolkit<\/a>, a series of resources for criminal legal reform advocates.<\/p>\n \nWatch the full webinar:\n<\/p>\n\n