School of Abolition

In early 2019, artist and curator Thomas Abercromby worked with the Springburn community council in Glasgow North to help conduct a design charrette. The charrette consisted of a series of hands-on workshops that brought people from different disciplines and backgrounds together over several months to explore the area's regeneration ambitions. The charrette assembled an interdisciplinary team consisting of city planners, community members, council officials, architects, creative practitioners, parks and recreation officials, and other stakeholders to create a design vision for Springburn. During this time, a community crime and safety meeting took place regarding an announcement by the Scottish Prison Service to build a mega-prison to replace HMP Barlinnie in the area by 2025. The consensus from the group was that the proposal was counterproductive at tackling crime. Instead, it would only further stigmatise poorer communities and offered those in power an easy 'solution' to deal with Scotland's ever-growing social inequality. The proposal was discussed at length. However, conversations never questioned the expansion of the prison industrial complex or the alarming incarceration rate in Scotland, the highest in western Europe.

The School of Abolition is a year-long action research project using contemporary art and activism to challenge Scotland's prison industrial complex and the ways in which we respond to harm and crime without resorting to further policing or imprisonment. Thomas has invited various artists, academics, writers, activists and other guest contributors to expand the sharing of abolition praxis as a way of reimagining our criminal justice system through a free public programme of readings, workshops, screenings and public art displays. The School will work in close collaboration with communities in Glasgow North, providing a support structure that recontextualises the very idea of policing and prisons towards community-based models of safety, support and prevention.