How to End Family Policing

From Outrage to Action

Erin Miles Cloud, Erica R. Meiners, Shannon Perez-Darby , C. Hope Tolliver

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Hardback

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English

Haymarket Books
04 November 2025

Social discrimination; Ethnic minorities & multicultural studies; Child welfare; Social work; Central government policies

From leading abolitionist organizers, a much-needed intervention arguing that the systems that purport to protect children make them-and our communities-less safe.

argue that the child welfare system cannot build genuine safety. Rather than the misleading language of ""child welfare"" and ""child protective services,"" scholars and activists use the term ""family policing"" to name the fact that these institutions and practices are neither neutral nor benign. Black, Indigenous, and Latinx parents do not mistreat their children at higher rates than white parents. Yet 53 percent of all Black children in the United States will experience a child protective services investigation before the age of eighteen.

Offering first-person testimony and laying out visions for alternatives to family policing, this book is an urgent call to build flourishing communities.

With contributions from Corey B. Best, Annie Chambers, Noran Elzarka, Brianna Harvey, Shira Hassan, Shawn Koyano, jaboa lake, Elizabeth Ling, Leah Plasse, Margaret Prescod, zara raven, Ignacio G. Huta Xeiti Rivera, Dorothy Roberts, Arneta Rogers, Lisa Sangoi, jasmine Sankofa, Kylee Sunderlin, Jasmine Wali, Amanda Wallace, Eleni Zimiles, and the editors.

Edited by: Erin Miles Cloud, Erica R. Meiners, Shannon Perez-Darby, C. Hope Tolliver
Imprint: Haymarket Books
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 203mm, Width: 127mm,
ISBN: 9798888904978
Pages: 272
Publication Date: 04 November 2025
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Forthcoming

Introduction: From Outrage to Action 1. It’s Never Been about the Welfare of Children: The Origins of the Term Family Police by Brianna Harvey and Jasmine Wali 2. Who is Safe? Who is Protected? by Corey B. Best 3. Prevention, Reparations, and Reunification Black Families and Healing the Harms of Family Policing by jaboa lake 4. Young People Deserve Community Care by zara raven 5. Abolish the Family by Ignacio G. Hutía Xeiti Rivera 6. Who Do You Tell? by Shannon Perez-Darby 7. The Community Dimensions of State Child Protection by Dorothy Roberts 8. Beyond Mandated Reporting: Organizing from the Inside Out by Leah Plasse, LCSW, and E. Zimiles, LCSW 9. “I’m not an Organizer, I Just Organized” by Amanda Wallace, Annie Chambers, Charity Tolliver, Erin Cloud Miles, and Margaret Prescod 10. Change Everything? Notes on Abolitionist Strategies by Erica R. Meiners 11. What About Child Sexual Abuse? by Hope Tolliver 12. Bigger than Roe v. Wade by Arneta Rogers, jasmine Sankofa, Erin Miles Cloud, Noran Elzarka, Elizabeth Ling, and Kylee Sunderlin 13. Relationships not Reporting: The Transformative Justice Help Desk by Shira Hassan 14. Everyday People Build Extraordinary Possibilities: Parental Organizing as Key to Ending Family Policing by Shawn Koyano 15. Movement Building and the Experiment of Movement for Family Power by Erin Miles Cloud and Lisa Sangoi Contributors Acknowledgements Appendix Endnotes

Erin Miles Cloudis a mama, civil rights attorney, cofounder of Movement for Family Power, and a former family defense public defender. . is a queer, mixed-race Latina, founding member of the Accountable Communities Consortium, and a core member of the Mandatory Reporting Is Not Neutral project. is a Black poet, abolitionist, parent, and Chicago native who has been organizing for more than two decades.