Abolition and Social Work

Mimi E. Kim is assistant professor of social work at California State University, Long Beach and founder of Creative Interventions. Kim continues her political work through promotion of transformative justice and abolitionist visions and practices of community care and safety. Cameron Rasmussen is a social worker, educator and facilitator. He is an Associate Director at the Center for Justice at Columbia University, a lecturer at Columbia Social Work, a PhD student at the Graduate Center, and a Collaborator with the NAASW. Durrell M. Washington is an author, social worker, educator, facilitator, and socio-legal scholar from the Bronx, New York. He is a collaborator with the Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work and PhD Candidate at the University of Chicago.

Foreword

Introduction (Mimi E. Kim, Cameron Rasmussen, and Durrell M. Washington)

Society for Social Work and Research Keynote (Angela Y. Davis)

Section 1: Possibilities





Abolitionist Social Work (Network to Advance Abolitionist Social Work)

Abolition: The Missing Link in Historical Efforts to Address Racism and Colonialism Within the Profession of Social Work (Justin Harty, Autumn Asher BlackDeer, and Maria Gandarilla Ocampo)

Reaching for the Abolitionist Horizon Within White Professionalized Social-Change Work (Sophia Sarantakos)

Abolitionist Reform for Social Workers (Sam Harrell)



Section 2: Paradox





Is Social Work Obsolete? (Kassandra Frederique)

No Restorative Justice Utopia: Abolition and Working with the State (Wakumi Douglas)

Abolition, Social Welfare and the State (Mimi E. Kim, Cameron Rasmussen, and Durrell M. Washington)



Section 3: Praxis





Staying in love with each other’s survival: Practicing at the Intersection of Liberatory Harm Reduction and Transformative Justice (Shira Hassan)

Social Work and Family Policing (Joyce McMillan and Dorothy Roberts) 

Indigenist Abolition: Strategies for Decolonization, Healing, and Imagination in Social Work Practice (Ramona Beltran, Katie Schultz, Angela Fernandez)

Involuntary Commitment in Public Sector Mental Health Services: Anti-Carceral Strategies & Responses (Leah Jacobs and Nev Jones)

Queer Black Feminism and Social Work Practice (Interview with Charlene Carruthers)