Challenging mass incarceration requires us to revisit myths about the criminal-legal system. Particularly because prison issues are otherwise rendered invisible, the media plays a major role in perpetuating misconceptions about its history and present-day operations as well as potential avenues for change. For this exercise, identify one fictional character and one real-world person who has shaped your understanding of violence, accountability, and/or societal transformation. Reflect on the narratives about crime that have shaped your perceptions of the justice system prior to enrolling in our class. Which stories will you seek to “unlearn” in pursuit of Abolitionist Feminisms?
FICTION — For feminists coming of age in the early 2000s, few Figures of Justice can match Olivia Benson from Law & Order: SVU (exemplified by her namesake, Taylor Swift’s cat). Starring in one of network television’s highest-rated programs over 25 years, Mariska Hargitay portrays an investigator focused on sex crimes deemed “especially heinous” (*DUN DUN*).
Nonetheless, Benson’s character development over 500+ episodes illustrates a number of feminist themes, exploring Benson’s own conception via rape and her sexual victimization on the job. The show exemplifies the “copaganda” phenomenon, generally failing to address the fundamental problems with policing–though in the real world, Hargitay advocates for survivors via her Joyful Heart Foundation. As a queer-coded icon, Olivia Benson embodies both the potential and limitations of reform.
FACT — For more than two decades, Chicago Police Department Commander Jon Burge oversaw the systematic torture of more than 100 people, mostly Black men, in the course of official interrogations. As a result of these coerced confessions, multiple Burge victims were falsely convicted and spent years in prison before exoneration including from Death Row. Protected by an ongoing CPD coverup and a short statute of limitations, Burge was never held criminally responsible for his campaign of terror against the people of Chicago, ultimately serving only four years in prison for obstruction of justice.
In the years since, community members have organized a variety of responses to seek accountability from the city including more than $130 million in civil suits. Organizations like the Chicago Torture Justice Center focus on serving survivors and their families, while others like the #LetUsBreathe Collective organize spaces for protests, political education, and creativity. These efforts are further supported by initiatives like the Chicago Police Torture Archive as well as the Prison + Neighborhood Arts/Education Project, and plans for a memorial are underway.
For more on abolitionist feminism in Chicago, see The Long Term: Resisting Life Sentences, Working Toward Freedom.