Thanks to NetGallet and Fernwood Publishing for providing me with an ARC of this book!

I absolutely devoured this book. Personally, I found it to be more a commentary versus basic education on the topics covered so if you are someone who is new to reading this type of book, you may want to start with some more educational material before diving in. If you've been learning about prison abolition for a little while and feel solid with the terminology and ideology, GO READ THIS NOW!

This was the first time I'd read El Jones and I cannot wait to read more! I love that she approaches this work through a place of intersectionality because everything truly is connected and if we can explore the systems of oppression, examine how they impact all other areas of live, we can start to untangle the webs and work on real change.

The stories and prose of this book are so powerful. I recommend to everyone! Available now!

Abolitionist Intimacies by El Jones is a timely and important read. Intimately poetic and a must have for all libraries. I felt so lucky to get a copy for myself! I have shared on my goodreads, bookstagram, and booktok!

Abolitionist Intimacies by El Jones is not an easy book to read. But it is excellent and I can't recommend it enough.
This book is a combination of first hand stories of incarcerated people's experiences, essays, research, as well as the powerful poetry that I have come to love and appreciate from Jones.
What makes El Jones such a great writer is her intersectionality. This book is about the prison industrial complex, but it's not just about that. It's a critical look at race and social constructs, at the police and colonization, at politics and the criminal justice system, among so many others. Because it's not possible to look at one of these issues by itself; everything is interconnected and there can be no change in one of these spheres without change in all of them.
So, yes, this is a heavy read, but it is important to understand why there is a call for an end to prisons and why showing solidarity with people who are incarcerated is important. As someone who thought they knew quite a bit about this issue, I learned A LOT, and realized that I really didn't know that much at all.

Canadian poet, professor, journalist, and activist El Jones has written a terrific book, Abolitionist Intimacies, that examines the Canadian prison system and exposes the systemic racism that informs incarceration and other related aspects of the so-called justice system, including racial profiling, surveillance of BIPOC Canadians, and Canadaʻs seamy historical underbelly marked by internment camps. Canadaʻs tolerant, multicultural, and diverse veneer, argues Jones, also masks racism in other aspects of Canadian life, including de facto segregation; education, including the now-infamous residential schools for indigenous people; exclusionary and discriminatory legislation and practices; the child welfare system; immigration and deportation policies, and continuing race-based oppression and white resentment of BIPOC people. Jonesʻ work distinguishes itself from the plethora of recent non-fiction works examining racism, via the notable genre-mixing in this book, ranging from first-person vignettes gathered from interviews, to poetry, to academic social commentary. I appreciated the first-hand conversational, personal connection and emotional investment that she brings to her topics, from the perspective of a black woman who has conducted interviews with the incarcerated and defendants involved in immigration court battles, but who has also experienced racism herself. Recommended reading!

I've never read a book like this before, and didn't really take too much notice of the title until I got further into it. Plainly, it makes incarceration and all that goes along with it intimate, especially for people with no first hand knowledge of it. I hope it finds its way into the hands of people who are opening their minds to abolition.

Thanks to Netgalley for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

Abolitionist intimacies might be the most important and most moving essay I have read this year. I don’t know much about abolitionism, and I am happy it got to be one of the first books I read on the subject.
As stated from the beginning, El Jones’ essay is deeply rooted in her everyday practice as an abolinionist and commnutiy activist. And it shows. This book is an impressive work of (re)collecting stories and voices that we too often choose to ignore and silence. By giving a space to these voices and stories she makes it hard to ignore the violence the carceral insitution perpetuates and inflicts upon the bodies of those imprisoned.
But while El Jones uncompromisingly denounces a capitalist, racist, violent system, the most striking part for me was the ongoing and radical love she show throughout the whole essay. It’s a praise for community work and for those who stay to fight and to care for each other.
I was impressed by El Jones’ commitment to this fight against injustice and how she articulates it in a way that is vibrant and at times very personal. Her testimony as a community worker and activist intertwined with her poetry makes this essay a very singular and powerful one.
I am very grateful to Fernwood Publishing and NetGalley for allowing me to read an advanced copy of this essay. Living in France, I don’t know if and when it would be translated but I’m really hoping it will.

It's not often that I come across a book I wish I didn't have to articulate my feelings about and in this particular instance I really wish I didn't have to be the first to review it here because I feel that my review cannot possibly do any justice to this book. I've read 160 books this year and there hasn't been one I felt the urge to go out and get a physical copy of until this one, this is how strongly I feel about this book. Alas, I received this book as an ARC from Netgalley and Fernwood Publishing in exchange for an honest review so review it I will!
On a technical level this book isn't a 101 on abolitionist thought nor a plea for people to adopt abolitionist mindset and practices, so I wouldn't recommend it to someone who is just discovering the idea of abolitionism. I would, however, highly recommend this book to people who struggle to put words on concepts they intuit regarding forced proximity/contact (intimacy) and the inherent violence of it (if you're the same brand of neurodivergent I am you might find it especially cathartic to have someone validate what you feel on the topic in words that just make sense) and people who have given some thought to concepts of forced intimacy and are looking to for another angle on them.
El makes a bounty of valuable points regarding the carcerality of Canadian society, we like to see ourselves as the good ones but she really doesn't let us get away with it, there's no room for the Canadian brand of exceptionalism here (don't get me wrong though the lense proposed is NOT limited to Canada in its applicability or even specific to Canada). While the approach is thorough the language and rhythm with chapters flowing into one another in a very organic way make the book uniquely approachable and easy to read.