ABOLITION IN PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE

ABOLITION IN PUBLIC HEALTH PRACTICE

In “Policing is a Threat to Public Health and Human Rights”, abolitionist public health practitioners put forth the following definition: “We define abolitionist public health as work directed towards at the dissolution of the PIC, recognition of its discriminatory roots, and the implementation of interventions that tackle the social, economic and political determinants of health at the root of societal problems, thus making policing obsolete.”

It may seem difficult for public health practitioners, students, researchers, and government employees to advocate demands like defunding the police or abolishing prisons. However, as you have explored through this guide, there are many ways that we can challenge the prison industrial complex by working against harmful collaborations between public health and law enforcement, offering public health strategies that legitimize or expand police and prisons, and advocating against ineffective reforms. Just as much as it is about about tearing down harmful systems, abolition is about building health and life affirming networks of care that we know create public health: accessible and safe housing, a living wage, a healthy environment, a strong public education system, well-funded and ongoing national, state and local pandemic preparedness programs. It is crucial that what we are building works against and repairs how previous systems have caused harm, particularly towards Black, Indigenous, people of color and other marginalized communities. The following selected resources provide insight into health equity, reparations, and eliminating policing from public health institutions.

Selected Resources

Liberation is Essential: Leveraging Governmental Public Health Tools to Address the Harms of the Criminal Legal System, Human Impact Partners
Why is There More Funding for Police than Public Health? Questions & Actions, Northwestern University Feinberg School of Medicine
North Carolina Survivor's Union Ethical Research Manifesto, Urban Survivors Union 
Health Equity Tip: Establish Community Engagement Guidelines that Advance Power Sharing​, Human Impact Partners
Alternatives to sharing COVID-19 data with law enforcement: Recommendations for stakeholders​, Health Policy Journal
Policing is a Threat to Public Health  and Human Rights, BMJ Global Health
Reparations as a Public Health Priority — A Strategy for Ending Black–White Health Disparities, New England Journal of Medicine
Vaccination plus Decarceration — Stopping Covid-19 in Jails and Prisons, New England Journal of Medicine
A Call for the Inclusion of Social Theories of Health Inequality Within U.S.-Based Public Health Pedagogy, Pedagogy in Health Promotion
To Protect Public Health, Don’t Police It, PolicyLink
Research Across the Walls: A Guide to Participatory Research Projects and Partnerships to Free Criminalized Survivors, Survived and Punished
Housing is the Cure: National Briefing, Right to the City Alliance
Our Public Health Infrastructure Is Losing a Fight With Capitalism, Jacobin Magazine
Dialogical action: moving from community-based to community-driven participatory research, Qualitative Health Research Journal
Allying Public Health and Abolition: Lessons from the Campaign Against Jail Construction in Los Angeles, American Journal of Public Health
Advice to New Abolitionists, Critical Resistance

Discussion Questions

How can public health ensure that people receive the help they need without being exposed to coercive systems? Is replacing a police officer with a similarly trained but unarmed responder enough, or do we need to rethink our responses to mental health, housing, sex work, and substance use? What could this look like? 
How can your institution rectify health inequities and begin to work towards reparations for impacted people in your community? 
What are the barriers to abolition work within your public health institution, and what are the opportunities you can leverage to move your organization towards abolition?

Who To Follow

Human Impact Partners @HumanImpact_HIP 
Chicago Health Coalition for Black Lives @CHC4BL 
White Coats for Black Lives Coalition and chapters @natlwc4bl 
Public Health Awakened @PHAwakened 
Frontline Wellness Network @FrntWellNetwork 
#AbolitionIsPublicHealth 
Do No Harm Coalition 
Bernadette Lim @bernielim 
Zoë Julian @doczo1 
Lawrence D. Brown @BmoreDoc

For Further Learning

The Real Cost of Prisons Comix by Lois Ahrens 
Abolition Medicine 
We Do This Till We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice 
Medical Apartheid by Harriet Washington 
Research 101 : A Manifesto for Ethical Research in the Downtown Eastside

TAKE ACTION

Read the End Police Violence Collective’s Pledge of Non-Collaboration for Public Health and decide if you would be able to take those steps in your work. Engage colleagues in this discussion. Is this a pledge you can take?

Start conversations at your workplace about the ways in which you can eliminate policing of marginalized identities. Work with already existing coalitions (or consider starting your own) to prioritize conversations of abolition within your institution.

In what ways can public health professionals help abolitionists meet their goals? Based on 8 to Abolition’s defined criteria of: accessibility, broad regional application, city and municipal implementation, shrinking the policing and prison industrial complex, creating the conditions for a world without prisons or police, where does Public Health fit in? How can you and your colleagues use the public health platform to advocate for local and national abolitionist policy?

Find ways to incorporate abolitionist perspectives and goals into strategic plans to ensure your organization meaningfully invests in abolition in the long term.

Learn about cities working on alternative responses to policing like Mental Health First Oakland, CAHOOTS in Portland, and STAR in Denver and imagine models that might be possible where you practice public health.

Take a look at “9 Solidarity Commitments to/with Incarcerated People for 2021” What steps can you take immediately? What steps can you commit to taking throughout this year?