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NEW & FEATURED: See the compelling columns of San Quentin Prisoner Dean Carter, Dead Man Talkin', thanks to the Kaua'i Net News.
Abolition Road was co-founded by Charla Greene and Tish Rojas with the idea of taking the message of abolition of the death penalty on the road, literally, with a tour to all of the 38 death penalty states in order to educate the people on the real picture of what the death penalty is: an arbitrarily used, irreversible state sanctioned murder that is racially and economically biased and kills innocent people.
We also feel it's important to be aware of all prison issues because they are all connected: the threat to take away visiting by family and friends to their loved ones in prison; the lack of adequate medical care especially as it impacts women's prisons and those with HIV/AIDS; the treatment of battered women in the system; and the growing tendency to be "tough on crime" by taking away privileges and rehabilitation/education from those already incarcerated. These are people we should be helping to become contributing citizens rather than warehoused non-beings.
We haven't taken to the touring road yet, but we are now traveling the electronic highway and hope to bring ideas from both inside and outside the prison walls that can add to the discussion of "justice" and non-violent solutions. Prison as we know it, and the death penalty in particular, are violent ways that don't work. Through communication and compassion we, as thinking and caring human beings, can find a way that does work and that will also rebuild the lives of both the victims and the perpetrators of violent crime. We need something that is better than the rut we are now in where we match violence with violence, hate with hate, and offer only revenge as an acceptable way for victim's families to heal.
For our society to survive, we all have to reconnect with the humanity within ourselves, and then understand the humanity within everyone else, so we no longer find it desirable or necessary to torture or dispose of a particular group of humans in a legalized blood ritual.
For ongoing updates, see the "Welcome to Hell" column, written by one of Abolition Road's founders.
Contact us at:
Abolition Road
P.O. Box 3055
Rohnert Park, CA 94927-3055
onderoad@firstworld.net