Tom's next guest is Derecka Purnell. She is an activist and human rights lawyer with a law degree from Harvard University. She's a scholar-in-residence with Columbia University's Initiative for Social Justice, and a columnist for The Guardian. She's also the author of a new book that challenges our long-held assumptions about policing and incarceration. In fact, she argues that police departments and prisons should be abolished.
![Published by Penguin/Random House Publishers.](https://npr.brightspotcdn.com/dims4/default/462d649/2147483647/strip/true/crop/1838x2775+0+0/resize/880x1329!/quality/90/?url=http%3A%2F%2Fnpr-brightspot.s3.amazonaws.com%2Fb3%2F0f%2Fa1cee7e542ea82d8045119554757%2Fbecomingabolitionsts-final-art-040821-rgb26.jpg)
She writes, "Abolition is not the mere absence of police and prisons. It’s a paradigm, aspiration and organizing practice to make those institutions obsolete,” and she links the abolitionist movement to decolonization, disability justice, Earth justice and socialism.
The book is calledBecoming Abolitionists: Police, Protests, and the Pursuit of Freedom.
Derecka Purnell will engage in an on-line conversation about the book on Thursday night (Nov. 11) with our good friend, D Watkins. To register for the free event, which is hosted by Charm City Books, click here.
Ms. Purnelljoins us now on our digital line from Washington, DC.