Defund

"Praise for Purgatory Citizenship ""Calvin John Smiley simultaneously exposes the cruelty and injustice of the reentry system and the human struggles for redemption and stability of those caught up in it. In the end, we hear those voices demanding nothing less than a world beyond prisons."" —Alex Vitale, author of The End of Policing  ""Smiley's new book Purgatory Citizenship is a much-needed exploration of postincarceration reentry from the point of view of the people experiencing it firsthand, offering important insights into this often ignored and misunderstood part of our carceral system. This is an important addition to the growing canon of works trying to understand and dismantle the prison industrial complex."" —Hugh Ryan, author of The Women's House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison  ""Purgatory Citizenship powerfully juxtaposes the humanity of people navigating reentry with the inhumanity of the varying parts of the criminal legal system (e.g., police, courts, halfway houses). The narratives of individuals 'doing' reentry poignantly describe their lives prior to, during, and after incarceration, while placing them squarely in historical, legal, political, and psychological contexts and legacies. The multiple, overlapping, and often insurmountable quagmires Smiley documents explain to any reader why reentry is so difficult. Smiley closes with a detailed description of what abolition requires and would mean. This is ethnography at its best, addressing the harrowing, complicated, significant, and timely problem of reentry with stunningly beautiful writing."" —Joanne Belknap, author of The Invisible Woman: Gender, Crime, and Justice"