Contesting the collateral damages of imprisonment from below

Abstract

The chapter explores a brand-new Argentinean grassroots initiative aimed at overcoming one of the hardest collateral consequences of punishment, i.e., unemployment. Understanding abolitionism as a social movement directly engaged in resisting and contesting the penal logic, policies, and practices, this chapter explores the possibilities to build grassroots counter-carceral strategies in a specifically dramatic context: re-entry. Overall, from a Southern perspective, contesting carceral logic demands the unearthing of the relationships between the carceral state, abolition, racial capitalism, settler colonialism, white supremacy, and patriarchy. Moreover, the existence of the Secretary encourages its members to acknowledge that they too can take part in the security debates that tend to rely on imprisonment as the only possible solution, instead of promoting non-punitive inclusive public policy. The chapter exposes the importance of contesting carceral logic from below and engaging in emancipatory politics and praxis within the specificities of the southern socio-economic context.