The Library as Carceral Geography — 2023

The Library as Carceral Geography: How LIS Professionals Can Engage in the Work of Liberatory Place-Making

Presentation | Thursday, May 18, 2023 | 1:15pm – 2:15pm EST

Presenter slides / Resource and Links / View presentation recording HERE

The prison industrial complex (PIC) extends far beyond the physical site of detention centers and correctional facilities, extending its grasp to public spaces and institutions. This discussion examines the function the Library serves in sustaining the PIC and how the Library participates in the targeting of racialized, poor, oppressed communities for incarceration through an abolitionist lens. Presenters will discuss library policies that criminalize and dehumanize community members, making them more vulnerable to policing and state violence in addition to exploring how Library and Information Science (LIS) professionals can engage in anti-carceral praxis by disrupting and eliminating these processes of criminalization.

[This presentation will be recorded live.]

Presenters: lawrence maminta & Jeremy Abbott /

lawrence maminta (they/them) is a library worker from Puvungna (so-called “Long Beach, CA”). They are a member of the Library Freedom Project and graduated from UCLA’s MLIS program (2020). When they’re not working in or thinking about libraries, they’re playing video games.

Headshot of Jeremy Abbott

Jeremy Abbott (he/him) is a librarian and lawyer, currently pursuing a doctorate in UCLA’s Department of Information Studies where he researches the “public” in public libraries, examining spatial control, legal infrastructures of information, and how we can build more just and inclusive visions of both information access and the civic public. His other research interests include epistemic justice, the political economy of homelessness, and decarcerating libraries.