FAQs — Our Working Definitions
What does decarcerate mean?
Decarceration is the opposite of incarceration. It can mean reducing the number of people in prisons or confinement. More broadly, we mean it to involve reducing, or eliminating, our dependence on systems, ideologies, and logics that cage and confine.¹
What is the carceral state?
According to Nora Krinitsky, a historian of the modern United States, the carceral state refers to “…institutions of confinement like jails, detention centers, prisons, but… it also comprises a wide range of policies, practices, and institutions that scrutinize individuals and communities both before and after their contact with the criminal justice system.”²
What is clemency?
Clemency is when a governor, president, or administrative board may commute (reduce)
a defendant’s sentence or grant a pardon.³
Watch the video here to learn more about clemency in North Carolina:
What is prison abolition?
Abolition is about re-envisioning and rebuilding, daring to create a more perfect union by curating a new system of community safety where civil rights and liberties are entrenched in our society.