Non-reformist reform
[20] Janet Newman states that "women's claims for equality [in the new social movements of the 1960s and 1970s] had been incorporated through processes of 'mainstreaming' that have served to bureaucratize and depoliticize feminism".
Marie Gottschalk cites three examples to illustrate how this occurs in relation to the prison system: (1) "opposition to the death penalty brought forth life sentences without parole, and helped strengthen the deterrence argument in crime control discourse, (2) LGBT activists fighting against homophobic and transphobic violence helped in creating hate crime legislation that incarcerated people for longer time frames, and (3) Moms against Gun Violence ushered in gun control measures that also increased the net effect of the penal system, including surveillance measures on communities of color".
[20] Anti-bullying legislation has been identified by scholars and activists as a reformist reform by enhancing the power "of school punishment programs to target students of color".
[25] Scholar Suleiman Osman identifies how these civilian police oversight agencies were widely supported by reformists who "were confident that they could allay the fears of white ethnic voters by organizing town hall meetings and open debates", but instead were met with opposition from "a populist conservative insurgency".
[27] Gay marriage laws have been identified as an example of a reformist reform because it "leaves intact institutions of state violence by 'rejecting those objectives and demands—however deep the need for them—which are incompatible with the system".
[28] The prison abolition movement and empowering of communities to engage in restorative practices function as an example of non-reformist reform by activists such as Mariame Kaba.
Kaba states that non-reformist reform in this regard would mean the creation of a new structure that "will allow people to feel safe, have their needs met, on our way to an abolitionist end".
[6] Individual and collectivist challenges to the hegemony of the private car have been proposed as examples of non-reformist reforms intended to create "a more socially just and environmentally sustainable world".
Expanding public transportation services and restricting individual automobile use has been proposed as an example of a non-reformist reform on a collectivist level.
[29] In a hypothetical example, scholar Brian Martin states "a strike for higher wages might simply buy off discontent and solidify capitalist control: it is a reform that strengthens the system.
