Table of Contents

Acknowledgments

CHAPTER 1
Introduction—Prison Reform or Prison Abolition? 

CHAPTER 2
Slavery, Civil Rights, and Abolitionist
Perspectives Toward Prison 

CHAPTER 3
Imprisonment and Reform 

CHAPTER 4
How Gender Structures the Prison System 

CHAPTER 5
The Prison Industrial Complex 

CHAPTER 6
Abolitionist Alternatives
Resources 

Notes

About the Author

About the Author

Angela Davis, a long-time member of the Communist party and the Black Panthers, became only the third woman in history to appear on the FBI's most wanted list. Wrongly charged with taking part in a conspiracy to free George Jackson by arming prisoners in a California courthouse, Davis spent sixteen months behind bars, until her subsequent acquittal on all charges. A Professor of History of Consciousness at the University of California, Santa Cruz, Davis has been involved in prison activism for the last thirty-five years. She is author of many books, including Blues Legacies and Black Feminism: Gertrude 'Ma' Rainey, Bessie Smith, and Billie Holiday. Her new book, forthcoming from Random House, is Prisons and Democracy.

Reviews

"As useful an exposition of the current dilemmas of the women's movement as one could hope for." - Los Angeles Times Book Review