Students for Prison Education, Abolition and Reform (SPEAR) is a student organization that educates, advocates, and agitates against the carceral state on Princeton’s campus, in New Jersey, and beyond. Founded in 2012, SPEAR engages in anti-carceral campus activism, legislative advocacy, community education, and direct engagement with currently and formerly incarcerated peers. SPEAR is committed to centering and uplifting the voices of those directly impacted by the carceral state and all of its intersections with racism, transphobia, classism, homophobia, sexism, ableism, and other systems of oppression and dehumanization. 

For 2020-2021, SPEAR's virtual work involved campus-centric campaigns on divestment from prisons and policing and the abolition of policing on campus. We also collaborated with a statewide coalition of formerly incarcerated activists to support important legislation to dismantle the carceral state and support the large number of people set to be released because of the public health emergency. We will try to continue our correspondence program with those currently incarcerated, collaborate with other campus groups on education seminars about the Prison-Industrial complex, and continue to host events that bring directly impacted speakers to campus to share their stories.