Anti-Oppressive Social Work Practice and the Carceral State

Abstract

Abstract This book attempts to chart a path toward transformative justice by using an anti-oppressive social work approach to resist the expansion of the carceral state. It critically examines strategies to shift punishment-centered practices to build collaborative partnerships and possibilities toward decarceration, health, and community power. We argue that it is crucial for social workers to recognize the unjust and ineffective logics of the criminal legal system, from violent policing to inhumane detention and imprisonment, to community surveillance, and including the loss of civil rights. The book offers a social work practice framework that encompasses an anti-oppressive stance, including antiracist and feminist principles, and a public health orientation. It centers anti-oppressive social work practice in and against the carceral state within its sociopolitical context, including structural racism, economic inequality, and the criminalization of mental illness. Methods for assessment and intervention and strategies for implementing diversion from the criminal legal system are described across both custodial and community settings. Recommendations advance anti-oppressive research and avenues to community accountability and safety. The book concludes with a critical discussion of transformative justice, including decarceration/abolitionist organizing and policy initiatives.