The Language of Liberation: Decarcerating Louisiana

Community Reporting Fellow Liza Montgomery explores the concept of decarceration as part of our series on youth abolition in New Orleans.

Behind This Story | Louisiana currently has the second highest imprisonment rate in the nation, but our communities don’t feel any safer. What are the alternatives to mass incarceration? The Language of Liberation is a community resource produced by the Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellows to make information on the prison abolition movement more accessible to community members so that we can begin to answer that question. This guide is part of a larger reporting series on youth incarceration and abolition. The guide features definitions of abolition terms, as well as the perspectives of local abolitionists. Have questions or comments? Email us at ledeneworleans@gmail.com.

By Liza Montgomery

I wasn’t familiar with the term decarceration or its meaning before starting research last fall. I quickly realized the concept is complicated and nuanced. I learned there are two ways to interpret and understand decarceration: as a set of practices and as a theory of change.

Decarceration as a practice refers to the act of reducing the number of people who are currently in jail or prison by releasing them through changes in policies, approaches or even how much tax dollars are directed toward incarceration. Sometimes prisons decarcerate on their own in order to decrease the amount of people who are incarcerated for minor offenses and make room for people convicted of committing more serious crimes. Other approaches that can lead to decarceration include decreasing the total amount of arrests police make, changing criminal sentences reducing parole and probation obligations for people who are formerly incarcerated, and changing what kinds of convictions require what is known as a “custodial sentence,” or a punishment that consists of holding the convicted person in a jail or prison.

You can also think of decarceration as a theory of change and a tool for abolition, separate from–but connected to and providing the foundation for–specific policies or actions. For me, talking about decarceration as a theory of change rather than a specific set of policies or practices gives us the freedom to think of more and better ways to support the New Orleans community.

Currently, dozens of New Orleans organizations, projects, communities and individuals are working together to pursue decarceration by challenging and dismantling the carceral system and the culture of punishment in New Orleans and the United States. These groups are working to build safe spaces for neighbors to discuss and work through the harm crime causes. They’re also investing in practices and advocating for policies that promote community well-being and healing, for example, pushing to redirect tax dollars invested in prisons to instead fund K-12 education or mental health care.

Decarceration isn’t just about releasing people from jail. It’s about recognizing what needs are unmet in the community and working collaboratively to develop solutions that prioritize people over institutions. It’s about reducing the stigma surrounding people who are formerly incarcerated and increasing support services available to them, as well as increasing community awareness of the impact of the carceral system and getting people involved in thinking of alternatives. It’s about centering healing and accountability in how we address crime.

Looking at decarceration through a systemic lens encouraged me to think about how healing can take deeper root in our communities. How can we build environments that encourage connection and transformation? The research and interviews I did affirmed what I know through my own lived experience: Our country’s vast criminal legal system has carved deep, painful scars in Black and brown communities and the people and families affected by it need to be seen, heard and supported.

Community Voice: Kai Werder

Last October, I spoke with Kai Werder, deputy director at The Center for Restorative Approaches in New Orleans, to learn more about decarceration and what it looks like in New Orleans. Werder noted that decarceration is a call to shift the ideas and principles that guide both how our communities and our criminal legal system think about justice. That looks like putting more energy into rehabilitation and less energy into thinking of more intense ways to punish individuals.

The first aspect of decarceration is getting people out of prisons and jails, Werder said. That can happen through actions like sentencing reform, parole or early release. The second aspect is to reduce the number of people locked away in cells to begin with, they added.

“The earliest we can intervene to prevent that from happening in the first place is a part of thinking about decarceration more as a theory of change, right?” Werder said. “We live in very carceral state. How can we shift our mindsets to reframe the way that we think about repair? The way that we think about healing?”

The Center for Restorative Approaches, founded in 2008, works with local schools, workplaces and other communities to provide training, consulting and facilitation in restorative justice practices. Those practices include dialogue circles, which bring people together to talk about experiences–including crime, harm and injustices–in a safe, facilitated environment. The goal, Werder said, is to build up methods for ensuring accountability and resolving conflict in the community.

In short, decarceration asks us as community members to value people, see their potential for change and explore alternatives to address the harm that results from crime and promote accountability.

A person who is convicted of a crime needs space and support in order to transform themselves and “make different decisions going forward,” Werder said. Life as a prisoner is about survival not self improvement. It’s challenging–if not impossible–for people to do that kind of work locked away in a cell, they said.

“Sometimes we see people advocating for incarceration because they think it is the only option. People can’t imagine outside of that,” Werder said. “That goes hand-in-hand with abolition being a creative practice, right? Abolition is about creating the world that we want to see, the world that supports decarceration.”

Liza Montgomery, 22, is a storyteller and a media creative from Chicago. She studies communications at Xavier University of Louisiana and grew up visiting family in New Orleans. She is a Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellow at Lede New Orleans.

Fellowship Producer Nijah Narcisse produced and edited this piece. She is a New Orleans born-and-bred creative writer and journalist, and an alumni of the Community Reporting Fellowship at Lede New Orleans.

This article is available to republish under a Creative Commons license. Read Lede New Orleans’ publishing guidelines here.

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