Activating Anti-Carceral Archives in Scotland

Scotland’s reputation for progressive penal policy has persisted and evolved even in the face of exceptionally high rates of imprisonment, community supervision and harm across the Scottish penal system. Growing disillusionment with cycles of reform has renewed interest in abolitionist alternatives and critical carceral perspectives both within academia and beyond. But histories of prison resistance and abolitionism in Scotland have been largely neglected or unknown. My doctoral research explored the contemporary resonance of penal abolitionism and anti-carceral strategies in Scotland. I critically evaluated the 2016 reform of community justice in Scotland, and I extended and deepened this analysis by exploring campaigns and organisations seeking more radical transformations to the criminal justice system in Scotland. This included developing the first historical case study of Scottish prison resistance, activism and abolitionism. I also found that the reform of community justice continued with carceral practices under the guise of benevolent welfarism, and did not offer a much-needed alternative to imprisonment. Those campaigning for change faced challenges of tokenism, co-option and exclusion, heightened in the context of a small and purportedly progressive Scotland. Overall, in a landscape dominated by the state’s community justice strategy, the research highlighted the importance of peer-led, autonomous and historically informed campaigns, critiques and alternatives. Crucially, activists relied on their knowledge and experience of past campaigns and reforms to develop strategies in the present. In this fellowship I will share the histories and legacies of anti-carceral activism. I will contribute to the exploration and strengthening of critical and abolitionist interventions across campaigns, policy and research. I will do this by creating a public and accessible website, called ‘the anti-carceral archive’, which will display archival materials collected during my PhD and additional contributions generated during the fellowship. This includes activist newsletters and fragments of oral histories. To accompany this resource I will run in-person workshops and an online seminar series. These events will promote the collection and facilitate knowledge exchange between campaigners, policymakers, people with lived experience, archivists and activist-scholars. Additionally, I will develop and disseminate my PhD findings by producing academic papers, attending conferences and building a network of scholars interested in the intersections of abolitionist analysis and the role of the state in progressive and community focused initiatives. The project will be of interest and benefit to campaigners, policymakers and scholars; to community archive and activist history projects; and to the general public as a resource of Scottish history. In raising awareness and deepening understandings, the fellowship aims to strengthen the work of those seeking to challenge the harms and existence of the current system. The impact will be first, in supporting the development of anti-prison strategies and policies, resistant to co-option and exclusion. In the long term this will contribute to reducing the harms of imprisonment on individuals, families and communities. The findings and catalogue of archival materials from my PhD are extensive. Sharing them in the form of academic and non-academic outputs will ensure they can be drawn and built upon by the growing movement of people seeking meaningful alternatives to imprisonment.