In progressive circles, many people say they support abolition. After George Floyd’s murder in 2020, the word moved from the margins into mainstream discourse—appearing in hashtags, op-eds, city council debates, and donation pages. But saying the word and understanding what it asks of us are very different things.

For some, abolition is imagined simply as the disappearance of prisons and police. In progressive spaces, it can also function as a kind of political shorthand, signaling agreement without fully understanding the ideas underneath it. But abolition is not only about removing institutions. It is about transforming the culture that made those institutions seem necessary in the first place. As Angela Davis reminds us, abolition is not only about changing institutions—it’s about changing our ideas.

Drawing on contemporary data and original research with people working within the criminal legal system, as well as those who have been directly impacted by it, this Olio will complicate the stories we tell about harm, safety, and accountability. We will examine how these narratives operate at an institutional level, but this is also an opportunity to look at how we have internalized them and may be unconsciously enacting them in our day-to-day lives. For instance, we’ll explore how the category of the “bad guy” is constructed, how carceral culture shapes even progressive movements, and why many of us struggle to imagine accountability beyond punishment.

Using Dr. Henson’s Eight Acknowledgements of Abolition, this lecture moves beyond slogans to ask harder questions about justice, responsibility, and safety, and explores what abolition might actually look like in practice.

Following the talk, we’ll move into a social hour for a chance to meet others in the room. Through prompts and questions, we’ll continue the conversation together, creating an opportunity to form connections within community and to carry some of the evening’s insights into our daily lives.

Our teacher:
Abigail Henson, Ph.D., strives to reshape how we talk about criminal justice. As a scholar, researcher, and podcast host, she explores the human stories behind the statistics, examining how the criminal legal system affects real people, their communities, and their sense of self. Her work spans interviewing criminal legal agents and analyzing how language shapes law enforcement culture, as well as writing about and teaching abolition by exploring what it means to imagine justice beyond punishment. Her mission is to challenge outdated narratives and break down stigma by putting people at the center of the conversation and shining a light on systemic injustice.

Abolition, Misconceptions, and the Myth of the “Bad Guy”

Abolition, Misconceptions, and the Myth of the “Bad Guy”