Author: Bernard Harcourt

By Bernard E. Harcourt Abolish the police. #DefundNYPD. #AbolishICE. Never before has the country been engaged in such a genuine conversation about abolishing police departments. Of course, there were earlier flashpoints that raised serious challenges to the police—in the wake… Continue Reading →

By Bernard E. Harcourt What does it mean for an institution like the prison, founded on the very notion of reforming the delinquent, to constantly be defective, deficient, or deviant itself, and constantly in need of reform? How should we… Continue Reading →

By Daniele Lorenzini & Bernard E. Harcourt “The punitive society”: the central idea at the core of the critique of our contemporary society as being a “punitive society” is perhaps the thread that unites all of the sessions this year… Continue Reading →

By The Abolition Collective This summer we created a non-hierarchical collective to interrogate and educate ourselves about the current abolitionist movement. Although we started in April, we now have 250 members from across the nation. Our collective is composed of… Continue Reading →

By Bruce Western In times and in communities in which incarceration has become pervasive, relations between local residents and state officials can be contentious. And state institutions come to lack legitimacy. The institutions lack legitimacy because their stated objectives of… Continue Reading →

By Bernard E. Harcourt After a brief period of Reconstruction following the Civil War (1866-1877), the conservative white supremacist forces in this country began to rebuild, brick-by-brick, a social system of racial hierarchy and oppression comparable to American slavery during… Continue Reading →