Episode 96: Dr. Calvin J. Smiley on putting reentry out of business

~ Kathleen Collins

Dr. Calvin John Smiley, Associate Professor of Sociology at Hunter College, has an abolitionist vision for prisoner reentry into society and believes this can be done in pragmatic ways that amount to a “chipping away.” Abolition, in this context, refers to the dismantling of the prison industrial complex. “We should aspire as a system to be better than we are as individuals,” he says, and “move away from systems of vengeance.”

He and Dr. Sarah Hoiland, Associate Professor in the Behavioral & Social Sciences Department at Hostos Community College, discuss the content of Calvin’s book, Purgatory Citizenship: Reentry, Race, and Abolition (UC Press, 2023), how his death penalty work intersects with what he does now, and about how his forthcoming book, Defund: Conversations Toward Abolition (Haymarket Books, May 2024), came into being.

In addition to being the CUNY Academy Budget and Grants Director, Sarah is also deeply involved with prison education, teaching in a variety of New York State prisons with Hudson Link and John Jay’s Prison-to-College Pipeline and previously with the Bard Prison Initiative (2021-2023), and so she has experiences to share, too.

This episode marks the start of a collaboration with CUNY Academy for the Humanities and Sciences, aka the CUNY Academy, where, from time to time, we’ll feature some of the authors who participate in the Academy’s book talk series. Learn more about the mission and activities of the CUNY Academy here.

A special thanks to Dr. Ria Banerjee for getting this all going and arranging for this recording session to take place in the studio at Guttman Community College.

Related resources:

Related Indoor Voices episodes:

  • Sarah Hoiland on bikers, women and media (E22)
  • Second chances at Queensboro Correctional (E94)

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