BEYOND COURTS
STUDY GUIDE

BY STEVIE WILSON AND
COMMUNITY JUSTICE EXCHANGE

CHAPTER 1: CRIMINAL COURTS 101

1. Ruthie Wilson Gilmore writes: “The challenge is to keep the entirety of carceral
‘geographies- rather than only their prison and law enforcement aspects-
connected without collapsing or reducing various aspects into each other.”

While the violence of prisons and policing are becoming more apparent to
the public, why is the violence of courtrooms still hidden?

Whyis this component of the prison-industrial complex (PIC) left out of
defund/invest conversations?

2.What do most people think is the purpose for laws and the criminal court system?

3. Look at the graphic on page 3. What stands out to you? Why do you think the
author's lustrated criminal court ke amachine?

4. While you read through the steps ofa criminal case, reflect on your own
prosecution and experience of criminal court. Did anything make you think
differently or reveal something new about your own experience?

5. Throughout “Chapter 1: Criminal Courts 101" the author's include several
“illusions” versus “realities.” Did any of the realiies surprise you? If you could come
up with your own “illusion vs. reality” about criminal courts or the path of a criminal
court case, what would it be?

6. Which image i this chapter stood out to you the most? Why s0? What did it
capture about;the nature or workings of criminal court?

7. The authors assert that criminal courts, like cops and cages, are part of a system
designed to punish

8. What does this book reveal about the role of criminal laws, procedures and
courts n our society?

9.Who has been the main target of the US criminal legal system, and how do courts
and laws create and reinforce social hierarchies?

10. Why doesn't diversifying courts and prosecutors offices alleviate the harm
courts cause?
CHAPTER TWO: COMMON QUESTIONS
ABOUT CRIMINAL COURT REFORM

1. Why aren'

“crime” and harm synonymous?

2. Provide two examples of “crimes” that aren't harmful. Provide two examples of
harm that isn't criminalized.

3. What happens to a person or group once they have been deemed criminal?

4. Why do abolitionists say the court system isn't broken? What is one example
ofa reform described in this chapter that tries to fix the system? How does that
reform ultimately fail to provide a meaningful fix?

5. How have courts and laws been used to dominate and oppress people
historically in the United States? How have they been used to create and reinforce
social hierarchies? Share one historical example that stood out to you from this

chapter. Can you name other examples not included, from history or present day?

6. What is a reformist reform? Have you experienced any of the reformist reforms
described in this chapter? What did you think about it then? What do you think
about it now? What is an example, or two, of a non reformist reform?

7.Why isn't diversifying the bench or prosecutor's office a real solution to the
harms caused by the criminal punishment system?

8. According to Dylan Rodriguez, what is the purpose of diversity, equity and
inclusion efforts?

9. How do civil courts harm people? Provide two examples of how civilviolations
lead to incarceration.

10. What type of barriers have you or your loved ones experienced in your
interactions with the courts or court actors? What ideas do you have for
resolving them without increasing the courts resources?

11.Does prosecution of only the “real bad guys” eliminate the harm courts cause?
What purpose do these prosecutions serve?

12. Describe a time you or someone you know addressed or resolved harm without
the police or courts
CHAPTER THREE: PROBLEM CREATING
COURTS

1. Why do you think the authors call the programs described in this chapter “prob-
lem creating courts™?

2.What s a diversion program?

3. What do you thinkis the appeal about a diversion program or speciality court?
Why does the public believe these programs are good?

4. Why do defendants accept assignments to these programs?
5. How do people enrolled n diversion programs end up incarcerated anyway?
6. How do these programs entrench the legitimacy of the carceral state?

7. How do they evoke the long tradition of racial subordination in the US? How do
these programs enlarge the power of judges and prosecutors?

8. Howis diversion already built into the system?

9. What do abolitionists want instead of diversion programs? Why should you have to
be arrested to access services often provided through diversion programs?

10. Have you or anyone you know been assigned a diversion program? What was
your/their experience?
CHAPTER FOUR: COMMUNITY
INTERVENTIONS TO SHIFT POWER

1. Each stage of a criminal case is a potential site of contestation. Each stage can
become an arena to shift power away from the system and towards people and
communities. This chapter discusses interventions developed by individuals and
communities to shift and build power. List and briefly describe the interventions
mentioned

2. How would you respond to someone who argues that focusing on individuals while
all prisons need to be dismantled is a mistake?

3. Describe the power-shifting capacity of three of the interventions mentioned.

4. Have you ever participated in these kinds of interventions? What was your
experience?

5. Ifyou or aloved one has experience with the system, imagine what an intervention
would have looked like and its impact. Share your imagining.
CHAPTER FIVE: DEFUNDING COURTS

1. How are campaigns to defund police and defund courts connected? What are
their common goals?

2. The number of criminal cases prosecuted don's reflect the actual harm in our
communities. What do they reflect?

3. How did prosecutors across the country help fuel mass incarceration?
4. Explain how criminalization is a root; cause of mass incarceration?

5. What does Erica Perry mean when she says diversion programs are “coopting our
language"?

6.Why does the Seattle Solidarity Budget target municipal courts?
7.What do budgets reflect? Why is contesting them important?

8. Consider yourself as the decisionmaker of a community. Instead of courts, po-
lice, prosecutors and s, where would you like to see money spent? What would

your top five budget, priorities be?

9.Who could you partner with in your community to shift budget priorities and
create safety?
CHAPTER SIX: NO SUCH THING AS
PROGRESSIVE PROSECUTORS

1. Why do abolitionists place the term “progressive prosecutor” in quotations?
2.What does the "progressive prosecutor” electoral strategy seek to do?

3.Besides decarceration, what metric do abolitionists suggest we consider when
assessing *progressive prosecutor” office?

4. What s the measure of abolitionist change?

5. How have "progressive prosecutors” expanded the reach of the criminal punish-
ment system into our communities?

6.Can you identify a way prosecuting offices in your community have increased
their legitimacy by claiming to provide care, support or services?

7.How do “progressive prosecutors” use diversion programs?

8. What has been the relationship between prosecutors and activists/organizers
inunder-resourced communities?

9. How does targeting only one component of the PIC stymie abolitionist goals?

10. How do prosecutors, even so-called progressive ones, seek to uphold the
legitimacy of the office?
CHAPTER SEVEN: ABOLITIONIST
PRINCIPLES AND CAMPAIGN STRATEGIES
FOR PROSECUTOR ORGANIZING

1. Whyis electing a new or different prosecutor never the goal of abolitionist;
prosecutor organizing?

2. Instead of focusing on an individual or personality, what does abolitionist
prosecutor organizing focus on?

3. Why don't abolitionists cal for the prosecution or incarceration of *kiler cops™

4.What is the best thing a prosecutor could do for people in need of social
services?

5. Provide an example of resource shifting from carceral prosecution to carceral
social services.

6. Have you experienced or witnessed any of the baseline tactics mentioned on
page 937 If 0, share your experience.

7. How are the two strategies * shrinking systems of harm” and "boosting resources
for community” linked?

8. Select a demand from the example demands. Which strategies and tactics would
You use to obtain your demand goal?
HOW TO USE THIS GUIDE

This guide was written by imprisoned organizer and
educator, Stevie Wilson, in collaboration with Community
Justice Exchange, to support people inside prisons and
jails in their collective study and discussion of Beyond
Courts. Inside the guide you'll find prompts and questions
to think about what is written in each chapter. We offer
you these questions as a starting place for discussion and
as one way to navigate the content of the book.

NOTE FROM STEVIE WILSON

Every imprisoned person has lived experience(s) with the
criminal court system. We know firsthand the processes and
procedures. We know firsthand the harms inflicted. We know
firsthand the failed promises of reform. To people without
lived experiences with the criminal courts, these reforms,
so-called efforts to make court processes and procedures
fair, sound good and promising.

But imprisoned peaple know better We have lived through
multiple attempts to reform the courts. And the more things
change, the more things stay the same. We continue to
experience harm and oppression. We know courts cannot be
reformed. They must be abolished. They were never meant
to produce justice or safety for everyone. If we want real
healing, justice and safety, we must abolish the courts.
FOR MORE INFORMATION, IF YOU HAVE ACCESS TO EMAIL, |
CCONTACT COMMUNITY JUSTICE EXCHANGE AT
BEYONDCOURTS/@COMMUNITYJUSTICEEXCHANGE.ORG.

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