SPEAR members educate, advocate, and agitate against our carceral system through legislative campaigns, campus activism, direct service, and community education. Our projects address many of the consequences of the carceral state, including the disenfranchisement of formerly incarcerated people, juvenile justice, prison conditions and oversight, pervasive post-incarceration barriers to re-entry, solitary confinement, and more. SPEAR meets every Monday from 8 to 9 p.m. in Campus Club, where you can start working on any of these projects!

SPEAR hosts an annual conference on campus for anti-carceral academics, organizers and students. The 2019 conference will take place April 12th-13th and center around the theme of "Tracing the Violence," which addresses how those convicted of “violent” offenses are excluded from the justice movement.

You can find information about all past conferences here.

The Admissions Opportunity campaign (Ban the box) advocates for the removal of the box from Princeton’s application that asks about conviction history.

Learn more about our ban the box campaigns here.

The re-entry working group is partnering with formerly incarcerated activists and local organizations to better understand the persistent challenges of re-entry post-incarceration and create sustainable resources grounded in the needs articulated by the community.

SPEAR students have supported the work of solitary survivors and activists across the state to end the use of solitary confinement in the state of new Jersey. We hold the annual 7x9 performance protest to raise awareness about the continued use of isolation as torture in the U.S.

Find more information here.

In collaboration with community partners in Newark and Trenton, this team seeks to engage local youth in education about the carceral state and the imagination of alternatives to prisons, with the goal of eventually developing a legislative proposal to divert funds appropriated for the construction of new youth detention facilities towards generative projects that invest in the communities affected by mass incarceration and in line with community needs. 

FISAP works with the University administration and the Prison Teaching Initiative to produce a college application workshop series within New Jersey Department of Corrections facilities to guide incarcerated students through the process of applying to New Jersey colleges and universities.

The education committee organizes events that educate Princeton students and beyond about the criminal (in)justice system through speakers, written pieces, and collaboration with established community organizers. In 2019, the education team focus on the continued incarceration of political prisoners in New Jersey and continuing our work against solitary confinement.

the prison oversight team researched and drafted legislation in conjunction with local activists and movement lawyers to establish robust, community-based oversight of new Jersey prisons.

“Who Do Will Kill?” is a student-run protest against the use of the death penalty in the United States.

Find more information here.