ABSTRACT
The chapter argues for building a bridge between critical disability studies and penal abolitionism. Doing so enhances our capacity to conceptualise and resist the intersecting forces that have created one of the fastest growing groups in the penal estate: people with cognitive disability and/or mental health problems. The chapter unfolds in four main arguments. First, we establish the key theoretical and analytic insights from abolitionism and critical disability studies which indicate the contribution each can make to the other. The rarely acknowledged existing parallels between both fields are also discussed. We then consider the key obstacles that may prevent an easy alliance between the two fields: sections of the disability-based rights movement who seek to better accommodate disability needs within prisons and the related obfuscation of the fundamental role of social-structural injustice in the creation of penal subjects (including those with and without disability). Finally, we discuss the theoretical and practical benefits of developing a reciprocal dialogue between the two fields and how such work benefits the praxis of penal abolitionism.
