Our capacity to see and understand the extent of carceral violence is thwarted by the language and narratives employed by the judicial system. As evidenced by the Supreme Court’s historicization of the factual record in Johnson v. California and other ancillary prison law cases, the judicial system mobilizes a language of mass incarceration: a language that dehumanizes people and criminalizes individuals by using terminology and narratives that appear neutral but fail to acknowledge structures of economic and social inequality. However, there is another way to understand the lives of criminalized and incarcerated individuals.

Drawing on Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s theoretical framework of organized abandonment and mining over a decade of research and community organizing, this Article tells the story of Rocky Rontal. Rocky’s life history demonstrates how segregation, poverty, and the systematic disinvestment of public institutions were inextricably linked to his incarceration, as well as how prison violence can be a form of institutional violence. The Article makes three contributions. First, it analyzes the Johnson decision and ancillary prison cases to demonstrate how judges are deferential to carceral actors such as prison administrators and rely on their narratives and insights to craft decisions. Second, it tells the story of Rocky Rontal. Rocky’s life was affected not only by the organized abandonment of his hometown but also by the organized abandonment of the prisons he lived in for thirty-two years, eighteen of which he spent in solitary confinement. Third, in looking forward, the Article mobilizes definitions of abolition that can address organized abandonment: Abolition as presence and abolition as care. With each definition, this Article gives descriptive examples of how Stockton advocates created spaces and collectives to address the fallout of organized abandonment.