The Language of Liberation: Exploring alternatives to mass incarceration
The latest guide from our Community Reporting Fellows looks at concepts and gathers local perspectives on prison abolition.
By Nijah Narcisse
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 the cohort’s larger reporting series on youth incarceration and abolition. It features definitions of abolition terms, as well as the perspectives of local abolitionists.
Our Community Reporting Fellows spent last fall speaking with key leaders in the local prison abolition movement to better understand alternatives to mass incarceration and how to address the painful impacts the criminal justice system has in Black and brown communities. The guide explores local efforts to keep youth out of prison, fund rehabilitation programs and dismantle the school-to-prison pipeline.
In the guide, our Fellows share their learnings and personal perspectives concepts like:
The guide also features perspectives from the following local abolitionists:
- Ernest Johnson, founder and director of Ubuntu Village
- Karen Evans, executive director of the New Orleans Children & Youth Planning Board
- Jeremiah Jones, organizer with Black Men Rising and Families and Friends of Louisiana’s Incarcerated Children
- Kai Werder, deputy director of the Center for Restorative Approaches
Click the term links above to read the full guide.
This project was a collaborative effort. The Fall 2023 Community Reporting Fellows — Elisha Davis, Donald Jacobs, Kennedy London, Morgan Love, Lavonte Lucas and Liza Montgomery — led research, interviewing and writing for the guide.
Fellowship Editors Carolina Murriel and Natalie James edited the project. Program Director Alexis Reed and Fellowship Coordinator Jay Marcano supported project management and multimedia production. Fellowship Producer Nijah Narcisse oversaw digital production of the guide with editing support from Executive Director Jennifer Larino.
The Community Reporting Fellowship at Lede New Orleans is a paid community journalism training program that equips creative professionals from underrepresented communities, age 18–25, with skills, tools and resources to meet information needs in their communities.
Nijah Narcisse is a New Orleans born-and-bred creative writer and journalist, and an alumni of the Community Reporting Fellowship at Lede New Orleans. She serves as Fellowship Producer 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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