Ideas And Insights EP206 Shelby

The call for prison abolition emanates from communities inured to centuries of oppression. Mainstream society, however, tends to peremptorily dismiss these demands as impractical and unwarranted. Discrediting prison abolition as the quixotic claim of fringe, leftwing groups will not make the problem disappear. A new book, "The Idea of Prison Abolition", published by Princeton University Press this year, is a thoughtful engagement with the discourse of prison abolition. Its author, Dr. Tommie Shelby, is the Caldwell Titcomb Professor of African and African American Studies and of Philosophy at Harvard University. An African American scholar with an abiding commitment to the emancipatory project of his community, Prof. Shelby brings to his work the empathy of a fellow traveler and the disinterested discipline of a scholar.