Here are three of our favorite resources to get you started!
Below the video, the zine, and article – find more abolition resources by category to explore, share with friends and family, and help you start conversations in our community!
1) “Defund the Police” Animated Video
2) Zine: Police Abolition 101: Messages When Facing Doubts
In collaboration with Project Nia and illustrator Noah Jodice, Interrupting Criminalization is proud to share a new zine Police Abolition 101: Messages When Facing Doubts. The zine combines materials by MPD150 and from our report titled What’s Next?. Share with members of your communities who have questions about police abolition!
3) Article: “How I Became a Police Abolitionist”
by Derecka Purnell. July 6, 2020. The Atlantic
Websites/Orgs
Each of the sites below contain a wealth of resources for learning more about abolition.
TransformHarm.org
TransformHarm.org is a resource hub about ending violence. We are not an organization. This site offers an introduction to transformative justice. Created by Mariame Kaba and designed by Lu Design Studio, the site includes selected articles, audio-visual resources, curricula, and more.
Critical Resistance
“Critical Resistance (CR) is a grassroots organization building a movement to end the reliance on the interlocking systems of imprisonment, surveillance, and policing—what we call the prison industrial complex (PIC)—as a response to political, social, and economic problems. We run local and regional campaigns and projects to dismantle current structures of imprisonment and policing, change how communities and decision-makers understand punishment and safety, and build new institutions and practices to transform and prevent interpersonal, communal, and social harm.
As an organization, CR emerged from a conference held in Berkeley, California, in 1998. Over 3500 people —including formerly imprisoned people, advocates, prisoners’ families, organizers, and academics— attended the conference, which sparked a movement to abolish the prison industrial complex. We have hosted 4 national conferences since 1998, bringing together over 10,000 people.
In all our work we aim to make abolition common sense, shift who is recognized as a movement expert, and amplify abolitionist reforms to help shrink the system and bring us practically closer to our goal.”
Interrupting Criminalization
Interrupting Criminalization: Research in Action is an initiative at the BCRW Social Justice Institute led by researchers Woods Ervin, Mariame Kaba, and Andrea J. Ritchie. The project aims to interrupt and end the growing criminalization and incarceration of women and LGBTQ people of color for criminalized acts related to public order, poverty, child welfare, drug use, survival and self-defense, including criminalization and incarceration of survivors of violence.
Project NIA
Project Nia works to end the incarceration of children and young adults by promoting restorative and transformative justice practices.
One Million Experiments
A Virtual Zine Project c/o Project Nia & Interrupting Criminalization. Explore snapshots of community-based safety strategies that expand our ideas about what keeps us safe.
Defund the Police
A one-stop-shop for organizers and advocates looking for tools, resources, trainings, legislation and policies.
Movement for Black Lives
The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) formed in December of 2014, was created as a space for Black organizations across the country to debate and discuss the current political conditions, develop shared assessments of what political interventions were necessary in order to achieve key policy, cultural and political wins, convene organizational leadership in order to debate and co-create a shared movement wide strategy. Under the fundamental idea that we can achieve more together than we can separately.
ACRE – Action Center on Race and the Economy
The Action Center on Race & the Economy (ACRE) is a campaign hub for organizations working at the intersection of racial justice and Wall Street accountability. We provide research and communications infrastructure and strategic support for organizations working on campaigns to win structural change by directly taking on the financial elite that are responsible for pillaging communities of color, devastating working class communities, and harming our environment.
BYP100 – Black Youth Project 100
Founded in 2013, BYP100 (Black Youth Project 100) is a member-based organization of Black youth activists creating justice and freedom for all Black people.
Short Videos
- “Defund the Police” Animated Video and discussion guide (4 minutes)
- What Does Defunding the Police Look Like? CAHOOTS Finds Out | The Daily Social Distancing Show, January 26, 2021 (6 minutes)
- Dylan Rodriguez “It’s Not Police Brutality” , Sep 13, 2017 (6:43 minutes)
- Slave Patrols: The Birth of the Modern Police, Oct 4, 2017 (2:47 minutes)
- The Origins of Policing in America, Sep 24, 2020 (7 minutes)
- A Message from the Future II: The Years of Repair, Oct 1, 2020 (9 minutes)
Zines
Police Abolition 101
Police Abolition 101 is a collaborative zine made with Project NIA, Interrupting Criminalization, and illustrator Noah Jodice (https://noahjodice.com/). It’s a great resource for abolitionists and those curious about #DefundThePolice
Zine: A Community Compilation on Police Abolition
Racial Capitalism and Prison Abolition
Police Violence Zine
Download the police violence zine here (PDF). [You will need to rotate the zine clockwise in order to read it online.] You can also download the zine as a single page PDF here. [You don’t have to rotate the zine in this version].
The Prison Industrial Complex Is…
“The PIC Is…” ‘zine is designed to be an accessible introduction to the prison-industrial complex for youth and adults. It was created by the Chicago Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) Teaching Collective and illustrated by Billy Dee. 2012
Podcast Episodes
Police Abolition with Mariame Kaba – June 5, 2020. Call Your Girlfriend Podcast
Ep 270 – Angela Davis – January, 2021. AirGo Radio
Angela Davis discusses her experience this summer during uprising, the remarkable popularization of abolition, the significance of addressing gender violence and inequality in the fight for liberation, and much much more.
Making Revolution Irresistible – December 16, 2020. Louder Than a Riot.
We round out our finale with a conversation between Chicago rapper Noname and abolitionist Mariame Kaba about the potentials of abolishing prisons for good. Is reform a means to that end, or a hindrance?
Join the Abolitionist Movement (with Mariame Kaba) – Summer, 2020. Rebel Steps
Abolition has been a huge topic in the wake of the uprising sparked by the police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor. Calls to defund or abolish the police are now experiencing a surge of interest, in the form of street art, protest signs, op eds, and more. In this episode, I’ll be exploring things to consider as you take your first steps toward joining the abolitionist movement, especially in this tumultuous moment of a pandemic and global uprising, in a conversation with Mariame Kaba.
Ruth Wilson Gilmore Makes the Case for Abolition – June 10, 2020. Intercepted Podcast
EP 64: Abolishing the Prison Industrial Complex (Feat Mariame Kaba – 2020. Hella Black Podcast
Abolition and Democracy – June 4, 2020. The Death Panel Podcast
Features interview with K Agbebiyi @SheaButterFemme from Survived and Punished about their work and why the goal is abolition, not reform. (Interview at 1:22:10)
Democratic Leadership’s Predictable Scapegoating of ‘Defund the Police’ – December 16, 2020. Citations Needed. Transcript
How Liberal Meta-Demands for “Investigations” and “Studies” Are Used to Silence Activists – November 18, 2020, Citations Needed. Transcript
The abolitionist horizon / Mariame Kaba – March 9, 2021, This is Hell! Manufacturing Dissent Since 1996
Marc and Mariame Kaba discuss Mariame’s book; We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice – March 15, 2021, Coffee and Books hosted by Marc Lamont Hill
We Do This ‘Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice w/ Mariame Kaba & more – March 4, 2021, Haymarket Books
Mariame Kaba and Prison Abolition – March 20, 2019, Justice in America
Hope Is a Discipline: Mariame Kaba on Dismantling the Carceral State – March 17, 2021, Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill
Podcast Shows
Rustbelt Abolition Radio
Rustbelt Abolition Radio is an abolitionist media and movement-building project based in Detroit, MI. Each episode broadcasts the voices of those impacted by incarceration and explores ongoing work in the movement to abolish the carceral state (that is, prisons, police, courts as well as racial domination and capitalist exploitation).
The show seeks to strengthen community collaboration and undermine the common sense that putting people in cages and shackling them with electronic devices solves the problems produced by racial capitalism. As such, we aim to expand our ability to struggle against the ways in which the carceral state impacts our daily lives and to create a space where we can both imagine and remake our world anew.
Beyond Prisons
Beyond Prisons is a podcast that explores incarceration from an abolitionist perspective. We amplify the voices of people directly impacted by the system and seek to tell stories that push us to imagine and work toward a world without prisons.
Launched in 2017 by Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein, Beyond Prisons is an educational and political resource for those new to abolition and those long engaged in movement work.
Airgo
AirGo is a weekly podcast and cultural media hub in Chicago, showcasing the artists, rappers, poets, musicians, organizers, and changemakers reshaping the culture of the city and country for the more equitable and creative. Through longform conversations, AirGo puts Chicago’s reimaginers in conversation, documenting Chicago’s radical renaissance and creating a living archive of humanizing dialogue telling the stories of our creative communities and social movements.
Webinars
Policing Can’t Be Reformed: Why Defunding and Abolishing is the Common-Sense Approach, July 13, 2020
On the Road With Abolition: Assessing Our Steps Along the Way, June 12, 2020
Online Abolition Syllabi
Let’s Talk About Abolition Community Syllabus by Nikkita Oliver
If You’re New to Abolition: Study Group Guide
Toolkits
Abolition Toolkit Compilation
Articles
Abolition For the People Article Series, Oct 2020
“Abolition for the People,” a project produced by Kaepernick Publishing in partnership with LEVEL, published 30 stories from organizers, political prisoners, scholars, and advocates.
Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police by Mariame Kaba. June 12, 2020. New York Times
Prison Abolition is a Feminist Struggle by Marlihan Lopez. November 23, 2020. Canadian Broadcast Corporation
How I Became a Police Abolitionist by Derecka Purnell. July 6, 2020. The Atlantic
How Do We Change America? by Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor. June 8, 2020. The New Yorker
Alternatives to Calling the Police for Domestic Violence Survivors by Claudia Boyd-Barrett. Dec 11, 2020. California Health Report
A Harm Reductionist’s Case for Abolition by Abdullah Shihipar. January 11, 2021. Filter Mag
An Alternative to Police That Police Can Get Behind by Rowan Moore Gerety. December 28, 2020. The Atlantic
What’s Abolitionist Housing Policy? by Krystle Okafor and Sophie House. January 14, 2021. Shelterforce
Anything is possible: toward an abolitionist vision by Marc Lamont Hill. January 23, 2021. ROAR
The Fantasy of Community Control of the Police by Ricardo Levins Morales , Zola Richardson , Jonathan Stegall , and Woods Ervin. February 4, 2021. The Forge
Books
- Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
- “Invisible No more: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color” by Andrea J. Ritchie (The Invisible No More Study Guide)
- The End of Policing by Alex S. Vitale
- Beyond Survival: Strategies and Survival from the Transformative Justice Movement ed. Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Peipzna-Samarasinha
- Prison by Any Other Name: The Harmful Consequences of Popular Reforms by Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law
- Until We Reckon by Danielle Sered (Find audio book here.)
- Who Do You Serve, Who Do You Protect A Truthout Collection (PDF can be found here on “The Anarchist Library.”)
- Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter ed. Jordan D. Camp and Christina Heatherton
- Color of Violence The INCITE! Anthology edited by INCITE! WOmen of Color Against Violence
- Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis (PDFs can be found here on “The Anarchist Library” and here for a more book like version.)