By Against the Grain Radio
If the problem is violence against women, is the solution the criminal justice system? Many anti-violence activists look to the police, prisons, and stepped-up criminalization for help and protection. Beth Richie says that's a misguided approach, one that feeds the buildup of the prison nation. Richie describes the contours of the prison nation and the threats it poses to women on the margins.
Beth Richie is a professor of Criminal Justice and Gender and Womens Studies at the University of Illinois, and a leader in the movement to abolish prisons and roll back the prison state.
“We salute all peoples who are fighting/We honor all those who have died/For the cause of freedom.”
This lecture was delivered on February 3, 2026, at the University of British Columbia, Vancouver (Canada) for the monthly series “Black History and the Project of Black Studies.”
Dan Kovalik and Jeremy Kuzmarov’s Syria: Anatomy of Regime Change was published on September 1, 2025. What can it teach us now that the empire has pulled the trigger on three more nations…
"Everything they touch turns to rubble" is the latest from BAR's Poet-in-Residence.
Tennessee's claim of being "tough on crime" means racialized policing and incarceration, and profit making off of marginalized people.
