Break Every Yoke

Break Every Yoke's contribution to the current moment is hard to overstate ... this book provides the kind of intervention into the conversation that scholars from many disciplines studying the prison have needed for some time, crushing the secular approaches that so easily play handmaid to state carceralities; meanwhile they successfully bring religious language and theological concepts face-to-face with the failed theological social experiment of the modern prison. * Jason S Sexton, Punishment & Society *
Break Every Yoke is groundbreaking in its call to unite religious and abolitionist resources against this system and for human dignity and repair. If readers approach it with an open mind and sincerely ask what components they can take into their work, the agenda the book envisions can begin to grow. * Cara Curtis, Journal of Law and Religion *
The book is valuable for its passionate invitation to religious ethicists and citizens to open themselves to a radical reimagination of justice, and to risk disruptive activism to help transform our society. In the graduate or upper-level undergraduate classroom, the book, and especially the final chapters, could spur useful discussion about the definition of religion as well as the ways in which religious institutions, theologies, and practices shape/are shaped by other social structures. * Sandra Sullivan-Dunbar, Theological Studies Journal *
Break Every Yoke makes important contributions by illuminating the religious dimensions of mass incarceration, by inviting especially its religious audiences to "riskier and more exacting, but also more comprehensive, movements toward justice", and by clarifying the possibilities of religion in the work of justice. It is a suitable text for university libraries as well as for classroom use, particularly in graduate or seminary settings. * Amy Levad, Horizons *
Break Every Yoke unsparingly illustrates how religion has contributed to mass criminalization while also making a convincing case that religious people can be mobilized in the fight to transform the carceral state. The authors remind us that making a moral case against incarceration is essential to the struggle to abolish prisons. If you are new to the idea of prison abolition, the book offers a valuable primer. It pushed me beyond my comfort zone, agitated me in the best sense, and left me asking more questions. How much more effective could prison industrial complex abolition be if organizers more explicitly and intentionally incorporated religion and spirituality into our work? How should we do it? Im grateful for these provocations. I cant wait to talk to others about this book. Lets get the conversations going. * Mariame Kaba, founder of Project NIA *
Spirituality without structure is not easily sustained in hostile, authoritarian environments. Although religions have historically been practitioners of organized predatory violence,Break Every Yokeillustrates how we can counter violence with religion that supports resilience and a healthy spirituality to resist: school to prison pipelines, foster care, residential homes for special needs children, detention centers, mental asylums, solitary confinement, death row, political imprisonment and mass incarceration. * Joy James, Ebenezer Fitch Professor of Humanities, Williams College *
One of the critical moral and political issues facing Americans today is our system of mass incarceration. With this thoughtful and inspiring book, Joshua Dubler and Vincent Lloyd present a powerful indictment of this moral abomination and an inspiring mandate to create a new and radical abolitionist movement rooted in the Bible. * Susannah Heschel, Eli Black Professor of Jewish Studies, Dartmouth College *