Abolition with Rajean Hoilett

The prison system is entrenched in capitalism’s need to divide the working class and suppress resistance. In Canada, prisons function as an extension of the settler-colonial nation-building project. For socialists fighting for an alternative, abolition is the only way forward. But what does it actually mean to abolish prisons? How can socialists achieve this? And what does the world without prisons look like?

We spoke to Rajean Hoilett, community organizer and member of the Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project to understand what abolition means in the Canadian context and why socialists need to center an abolitionist framework in our movements for social justice.