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Syracuse University’s Anthropology Department hosted Justin Helepololei, a Colgate University professor, on Wednesday for an exploration of corruption in the prison system, where he argued against its necessity in modern society.

The lecture, titled “Abolitionist Realities of the Northeast,” argued that prisons are deeply problematic due to their history of forced labor and their dominant presence in American society and history. Helepololei said reform isn’t enough to combat the broken system. Instead, he pointed to a time in which incarceration systems weren’t central to civilization, so therefore they’re not needed in modern society.

“Abolitionist politics require us to think expansively about what’s possible; we’re imagining what doesn’t already exist,” Helepololei said. “There are communities without prisons. Historically, most human communities have been that way.”

At first interested in social activism, Helepololei said he began studying anthropology because he was told that it would allow him to continue to be involved in social movements, while also engaging in the academic world.

Helepololei’s work now primarily focuses on the prison systems and criminal justice reform in Western Massachusetts’ Pioneer Valley. He said that although reforms and rehabilitation-based programs may have a positive effect on the surrounding community and inmates themselves,the presence of incarceration in the first place isn’t a societal necessity.

Throughout the talk, he explained the complex relationship between police officers — who oversee prisons and potential reforms — and their personal connections to the local community.

“Abolitionists demanding more care from the state … does not seem to be threatening the jail or policing. It continues to and has always helped justify its existence,” Helepololei said. “The jail exists to take care of people, albeit in a very violent and disruptive way.”

In 2020, Helepololei worked on a case study titled “COVID-19, Care, and Incarceration in Massachusetts,” which dove into the internal issues that arise within prisons when circumstances such as the pandemic allow for disease transmission. Within this work, he also discussed how people of color and people in the working class were disproportionately affected.

While Helepololei said he supports abolishing the incarceration system, he also referenced areas where positive reforms have occurred and past histories of civilizations that existed for thousands of years without a prison system.

He specifically referenced the Haudenosaunee people and their history of living without a system of incarceration for tens of thousands of years, until they were introduced to the current prison system by colonization, he said. Before European arrival, many Indigenous cultures focused on rehabilitating rule breakers, not punishing them.

“That’s about 200 years with prisons,” Helepololei said. “That’s a blip. There’s a reframe of imagining a world without prisons, when really a world with prisons is the new weird thing.”

Max Yogeshwar, a senior at SU studying international relations, reflected on Helepololei’s points, admitting he hadn’t ever imagined a world where prisons didn’t exist.

He said that although he isn’t an anthropology major, the topics discussed at the event aligned with some of the work he did while studying abroad in Brazil, particularly regarding what he observed about the country’s complicated history with incarceration.

“From this event, I realized that it’s not impossible to live in a world without prison,” Yogeshwar said. “It’s so part of our lived reality, that we don’t know what life is like without them. ”

Helepololei said it’s difficult to work as an abolitionist and activist when he wants to help provide the best circumstances for the people incarcerated, while also eliminating the system that they are imprisoned in.

“I think that while people can be trying to bring about change, it can also be kind of messy,” said Lauren Woodard, an SU anthropology professor and event organizer, referencing the abolitionist work Helepololei advocates for.

Woodard said she met Helepololei in graduate school, while he was working in Spain. She said she was interested in seeing how his work had developed.

Helepololei closed by challenging the audience to consider how universities and other academic institutions work to keep students out of prisons. He said many students in higher education are protected by their status and the institution they belong to, therefore protecting them from unjust incarceration.

“Studying abolition from the perspective of people who are incarcerated or formerly incarcerated is important and makes a lot of sense for understanding the perspective of people most impacted by the thing, especially as abolitionists who are trying to get rid of it,” Helepololei said.

The lecture is part of a larger series hosted by SU’s Anthropology Department, Woodard said. The department will host speakers every other Wednesday through April.

Published on January 30, 2025 at 12:31 am

Contact Arabella: akklonow@syr.edu