Prisons Must Fall

From Mariame Kaba, New York Times-bestselling author of We Do This Til We Free Us, and social worker Jane Ball comes a powerful book showing the harm that prisons cause and exploring alternatives, gorgeously illustrated by Olly Costello. Prisons, they do no good. They do not help. They do not teach. On a moonlit road, tucked away from prying eyes, a child sees a prison complexcinder blocks, watch towers, barbed wire. Page by page, we come to see the prison as a child sees it. Prisons hurt people and leave them lonely, without loved ones to comfort them or lend a listening ear. As dandelion stars float up in the air, this dreamscape becomes a hope-scape, where love transcends the prison walls. All the families and friends of the people in the prison march and protest in beautiful song, march together to a new way and a new dawnin this case a cooperative housing and community center, next to a neighborhood greenhouse for restoration and healing. A new world, where connection and repair are fundamental, and even tangible, as people around a table quilt messages, I hear you. Im sorry for what I did. How can I make it better? In Prisons Must Fall, Mariame Kaba, a longtime activist, together with co-author Jane Ball, present solutions that do not involve incarceration, such as meeting peoples basic needs, restorative justice, and community supportseeds for a safe world. Illustrator Olly Costello provides textured images of a global majority community and a grey, monotone backdrop that is overtaken by joyful colors. A gentle but effective addition to all social justice bookshelves and libraries. Discussion questions included. Perfect for: Parents, teachers, and librarians looking for books on the prison industrial complex and prison reform Kids who are interested in fairness and social justice Readers who love exceptional and sophisticated illustration