For the 2025 Week of Abolition (March 3-7), NLG law school chapters organized 100+ events and actions related to the abolition of prisons and police. This year, NLG students focused on building alternatives in our everyday lives, relationships, and institutions, guided by these words by abolitionist organizer and thinker Ruth Wilson Gilmore:
“Abolition is not absence, it is presence. What the world will become already exists in fragments and pieces, experiments and possibilities. So those who feel in their gut deep anxiety that abolition means knock it all down, scorch the earth and start something new, let that go. Abolition is building the future from the present, in all of the ways we can.”
For nearly a decade, NLG student chapters have been integral in bringing the framework of abolition into law schools and legal education! We are incredibly proud of the dozens of chapters that participated this year. Below you will find an overview of the many events planned by NLG students during WOC 2025!
2025 Week of Abolition
American Washington College of Law (WCL) NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Saturday: Social Change Ecosystem Mapping
- Monday: Free Minds Book Club & Writing Workshop
- Tuesday: Student Teach-In on the History & International Legal Context of Palestine
- Wednesday: Panel on Abolition Through Reproductive Justice
- Thursday: Panel on Disrupting the School to Prison Pipeline
Arizona State University NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Monday: What is Abolition?: Lunch and Learn
- Tuesday: Political Prisoners Panel
- Wednesday: Mass Incarceration and Immigration
- Thursday: Lawyers and Social Movements
- Friday: Incident at Oglala Movie Screening
Boston University NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Trauma Informed Lawyering
- Chill and Chat: Abolition and the PIC
- ICE Watch and Surveillance Tech Teach In
- Boba and Radical Crafting
- Know Your Rights While taking Action
Capital Law NLG
Cardozo NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Abolition 101 Event
- Film Screening of Time, followed by mixer
- Legal Observer Training
Case Western Reserve University NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Tabling for Abolition Action
- Redefining Rehabilitation with Education & Recreation, featuring Louis Fields from the @marshallproj
- Layperson Naloxone Training, hosted by the @cledph
- Voices of Justice: Federal Public Defense, with guests from the @federal_defender_ndoh
- Fights for Rights in a World of Wrongs, featuring @terrygilbert5
Chicago-Kent College of Law
- Tuesday – Abolitionist Lunch
- Wednesday – Beyond Abolition Panel
- All Week – Everyday Abolition Table (resources, mutual aid info, zines, book drive)
CUNY NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- March 4: Teach-in on Character and Fitness, presented by Unlock the Bar and the Abolition Law Org
- March 4: Beyond the Law with Molly Crabapple
- March 6: Youth Justice and Opportunities Act Panel
Denver Law NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Critical discussion on the deep interconnections between carcerality and factory farming
- Honorable Elisabeth Epps is joining DU NLG for an Intro to Abolition event
Fordham NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Monday: Day in the Life of a Public Defender
- Tuesday: Reimagining School Safety
- Wednesday: Screening of “The Black Power Mixtape”, Name Change Assistance with ATLS
- Thursday: Abolishing Migrant Detention and Guantanamo Bay
- Friday: A Night of Spoken Word
- Saturday: “Smash the Cis-tem” with ATLS
Georgetown Law NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Abolition 101 Luncheon
- How Lawyers Can Support Immigration Clients
- Prison Labor Lunch and Learn
- “Let’s Talk Abolition” Saloon
- Building Community Power by Changing Narratives
University of Georgia Law NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Moderated discussion with Josie Duffy Rice and Devin Franklin about abolition movements
Harvard NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Monday: Abolitionist Horizons
- Tuesday: Prison Break – Plea Strikes & jury nullification to crash the carceral system
- Thursday: Abolitionist Economy: From Carceral Capitalism to the Solidarity Economy
- Friday: Abolitionist Justice, alternative responses to harm
Michigan Law NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Alternatives to Incarceration
- Crisis of Mass Incarceration
- Public Defense and Abolition
- Direct Services and Imagining Abolition
- Restorative Justice
- Abolishing Cash Bail
University of Minnesota Law School NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Monday: Stop Cop City/Defend Atlanta Forest Panel Discussion with Peatmoss Ellis and Garrett Fitzgerald
- Wednesday: “Practicing Everyday Abolition” Panel with Professor Emmanuel Mauléon and Professor Liliana Zaragoza
- Friday: Bail Court Watch Training with Danielle Matthias of the Minnesota Freedom Fund
Mitchell Hamline NLG
Moritz NLG
- Know Your Rights & Know Your I.C.E. training
- Fundraiser for Community Refugee & Immigration Services
NYLS NLG
NYU NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Monday: Immigrant Detention System Abolition with Silky Shah
- Tuesday: Stop Cop City Reading Group with Tea Troutman x OUTLaw
- Wednesday: Public Interest Lawyering from Lived Experience x LSEJ
- Thursday: Abolition of the Family Policing System
- Thursday: Remembering Michael Brown: Reflecting on 10 years of body cameras
- Friday: Mutual Aid Workshop with Fab Socialism
Pace NLG
- Practicing Everyday Abolition with Professors Short and Mushlin
Pepperdine NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Prison Abolition 101: Imagining an Abolitionist Future
- Discussion of the Death Penalty Applied to Children
- Movie Night: Belly of the Beast
- Abolition as Queer Liberation
Rutgers Newark NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- BOOK DRIVE: “Books Behind Bars”
- FILM SCREENING: Join NLG and Crim Law Society for “In Prison My Whole Life”
- TRAUMA-INFORMED TRAINING: Resilient Advocacy Collective
- LETTER-WRITING: Help oppose Newark’s $49M police training facility
Stanford NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- March 3rd: Kick Off Conversation with Walter Dunn (sponsored by Stanford Decarceration Collective (SDC), see event description here)
- March 4th: Justice for Incarcerated Women with California Coalition for Women Prisoners (co-sponsored by Women of Stanford Law (WSL+), see event description here)
- March 5th: Impact of Incarceration on Youth with Legal Services for Prisoners with Children and Restorative Justice for Oakland Youth (co-sponsored by Youth and Education Advocates of Stanford (YEAS), see event description here)
- March 6th: Building People Power in the Bay Area with Critical Resistance Oakland and the Ella Baker Center (see event description here)
- March 7th: Letter Writing to Incarcerated LGBTQ+ Folks with Flying Over Walls (co-sponsored by OutLAW, see event description here)
- March 8th: Tour of A.B.O. Comix Art Gallery (see event description here)
Suffolk NLG
Temple NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Life After Prison panel
- Bake Sale for Amistad Law Project and Books Through Bars
- Film Screening: Long Distance Revolutionary
- Letter Writing: Human Right Coalition
UCLA NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Monday – “Practicing Everyday Abolition” Reading Discussion
- Tuesday – Eyes of the Rainbow and Sojourner Film Screening
- Wednesday – Incarcerated Letter Writing Event
- Thursday – Crisis Response Training with Community Alternatives to 911
- Friday – Community Mixer
University of Georgia NLG
University of Illinois- Chicago NLG
University of Las Vegas Boyd School of Law NLG
- Falling Through the Cracks: Recent Issues in Detention
- Legal Observer Training with a staff attorney from the ACLU of Nevada
UMass Law NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Monday Day: Lead Counsel for CPCS (public defense in Mass) Anthony Benedetti is coming to speak
- Monday Night: If/When/How and NLG are co-sponsoring Trivia night surrounding legal issues and women’s reproductive issues
- Tuesday: Immigration Law Clinic Professor Amit will speak on Immigration and the current political climate
- Wednesday: Honorable Robert Kane retired Justice of the MA Superior court who will talking about his career and the Changing Lives Through Literature
- All week: Book drive for the Prison Book Program in Quincy, MA
University of Minnesota NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Monday: Kickoff event, panel on Stop Cop City/Defend Atlanta Forest RICO prosecutions
- Wednesday: Panel on Abolition with professors
- Friday: Bail Court Watch Training with the Minnesota Freedom Fund
- All week: Legislative campaign for comment for the city of Minneapolis to end its contract with Zen City
University of North Carolina Law NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Monday: Family defense law panel w/ Emancipate NC, Operation Stop CPS, and Carolina Parent Defenders
- Tuesday: Trans Folk as a ‘Canary in the Coal Mine” panel with OUTLaw and Katie Jennifer from NCBA SOGI Name Change clinic
- Wednesday: “John Brown: Man on Fire” podcast listen with radical/abolitionist coloring sheets
- Thursday: Solitary Confinement and Disability Rights panel w/ Anti Death Penalty Project, OUTLaw, and Disability Rights NC; simulation solitary cell being brought into the law school
University of Oregon Law NLG
- Flier and Lineup
- Monday: Community Accountability Workshop #1
- Tuesday: Screening of Apart
- Wednesday: Community Accountability Workshop #2
- Thursday: Basic Needs Workshop (somewhat Oregon-specific)
- Friday: Keynote speaker + reception – Walidah Imarisha
University of San Diego NLG
- “Why Abolition?”
- Practicing Everyday Abolition: Housing
- KYR – Immigrant’s Rights w/ SD Public Defender’s Office, Crimmigration Unit
University of Washington NLG
- Abolition Panel ft. speakers from the ACLU, Northwest Bailfund, and the Seattle Solidarity Budget.
Wayne State NLG
William and Mary NLG
- Panel: “What Does State Custody Look Like?”
