scholars and activists have failed to seriously engage with alternatives to prisons. This is a fundamental issue. If we are committed to the abolition of prisons, then we must engage rigorously with how to reach that goal. Indeed, without a serious account of what could come after prisons, we limit the possibilities of a community-led, activist, scholarly and political movement. The state of abolitionist thought Prison, penal, carceral abolitionAlthough many Christian abolitionists trace their understandings of abolitionism to the teachings of Christ, 2 in the modern era the term "prison abolition" gained currency with the publication of Thomas Mathiesen's The Politics of Abolition in 1974. 3 Early definitions of prison abolition involved a moral, political, and pragmatic commitment to ending or significantly reducing the use of imprisonment as a response to social harm. 4 In context of the United States, prison abolition is often interpreted as a commitment not only to ending imprisonment, but also to ending the conditions that make prisons possible. 5 For abolitionists such as Angela Davis, this means that prison abolition is also a feminist, anti-racist,