Transcend Incarceration

Incarceration and punishment for criminal offense presents one of the most challenging and complex ethical questions to individuals and societies, especially in the United States today. This is particularly true as the injustices of the American legal system are being opened up to scrutiny, possible reform—as well as arguments for abolition of police and prisons on the political left, and calls to overthrow election results on the far right.

This “opening up” of the legal system is in part due to massive digital media dissemination, from body-camera footage to coverage of the investigations of the former president.The “opening up” of the justice system is also the result of institutional reforms, like that of the Minnesota Department of Corrections and their increased emphasis on transparency and Restorative Justice.

As a result of this institutional shift, Stillpoint Magazine has a unique chance to speak with an incarcerated person, Will Anderson, whose life in prison has embedded them in this ethical complexity, an experience that most members of society have only seen depicted—and often fetishized—in film and television. In this conversation, we will be “staying with the trouble” as we participate in this “opening up” of the legal system in the United States to consider the complicated implications of calls for abolition—for those who experienced harm and for those who caused it, as well as for the societies in which both must continue to live.