prison, prison industrial complex, transgender prisoners, gender variant prisoners, prisoner rights, prison abolition, Human Rights, zine 

As prisoner reform, prisoner rights, and/or prison abolition activists, we often find our energy and work going to preserve and fight for the rights and gains we've won, while the forces of oppression and punishment are constantly at work trying to tear them down. In many respects, our activism is often spent preserving the status quo instead of taking on the prison/punishment system in new ways and from new angles. We, for the most part, are continually on the defensive fighting to stip new attacks upon the rights of prisoners and those who care for them. Recently these attacks have consisted of the cancellation of visitations for certain prisoners, the assault on attorney/client privacy, and the banning of the media and human rights investigators to interview prisoners. But while it may seem disheartening to realize that preserving the inadequate status quo is what our struggle often revolves around, it still remains a necessary fight that we must undertake to block the further assaults upon prisoners' rights. However, not all hope is lost, and some activists are taking in the Prison Industrial Complex in new ways that are making gains.