BOOK REVIEW - Brick by Brick: How We Build a World Without Prisons by Cradle Community
This is a difficult book to write about.
It difficult because I'm writing about topics I've barely learned about. Brick by Brick is by Cradle Community, a collective of organisers whose goal is to educate about prison abolition and transformative justice. And whilst the book is emotionally affecting and presents clear arguments, it really only feels like a first step to understanding and implementing a system of justice free of prisons.
Which it's meant to be! Brick by Brick presents the arguments for prison abolition, and it does it in a wholly effective way, using emotional stories to tug at the heartstrings and giving you the vocabulary and talking points to argue against the status quo. But it doesn't have the data to back it up. Without hard evidence, it's a lot of anecdotal evidence designed to appeal to the reader's emotions.
It presents a lot of facts which are, on the face of it, difficult to argue with: that prisons are places of isolation and punishment which rarely, if ever, give those inside the tools to reform and reintegrate, at best using them as a source of cheap labour. This doesn't touch on the legacy of imperialism inherent in the British prison system, or the close ties between immigration and the justice system, or that police who commit crimes are often protected by their colleagues closing ranks and thus don't see the justice that they purport to uphold. This is all discussed within the first half of the book, along with myriad other ways in which the criminal justice system fails the people it is supposed to protect, and fails the people it incarcerates too. Frankly, I think my first issue with the book is that it spends a lot of time saying why prisons are bad. I understand - it gives us talking points for every facet of the argument, from the racial (the lengthy history people of colour's disproportionate persecution at the hands of the justice system, compared to relatively lighter or even non-existent sentences for white people) to the environmental (that prisons are often built on waste ground which is not safe for those living or working there, and little thought is put into them by the builders of proper ventilation, clean water, or prisoner health in general). But it also doesn't help the problem feel any more surmountable - prisons are not permanent structures, much though they feel that way, but they feel as permanent as capitalism and the two-party system.
The latter half of the book - parts 3 to 5 - are all about how we look at and begin to build a world without prisons. It should come as no surprise that it's all fairly similar: the ultimate solution is community-building and grassroots organisation, acting together to fight the construction of new prisons, to provide security of food and shelter for people, and to protest against the state violence the puts people in prison in the first place. It's such a simple step, and an admirable one, but it's one I struggle with as a person who has difficulty speaking to new people and making friends (perhaps I'll pick up a book about it). And - to heap another criticism upon the pile - the community initiatives Brick by Brick highlights are, for the most part, based in London or the South of England, with little focus on the North or initiatives in the wider UK (with one environmental group highlighted in Scotland). It's understandable to some extent - many of these prisons and justice systems have headquarters centralised in London - but it's also disheartening as someone who lives in the north that there is little focus on activism and solidarity outside of the Capital.
But as far as prison abolition goes, Brick by Brick is a good start. Whilst I wouldn't recommend it in a vacuum, with other resources and some research to find local anti-prison initiatives it's a solid starting point which provides a breadth of talking points to get you arguing for abolition. I'd recommend it for it's "suggested reading" page, which provides enough resources on transformative justice to back up the anecdotes in the book. Overall, whilst I might be down on it for being more propagandistic than evidence-based, as I'd hoped, as an introductory text it's a good place to begin, and it gives you enough material to look for activist groups and read up further on transformative justice in your own time.
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