A Starting Place for Abolitionist Thinkers and Advocates for Radical Transformative Justice

Alternatives to Calling the Police

  1. Alternatives to Calling the Police
  2. What To Do Instead of Calling the Police” by Aaron Rose
  3. “Don’t Be a Bystander: 6 Tips for Responding to Racist Attacks”
  4. “12 Things to do Instead of Calling the Cops: A Zine”
  5. Deescalation and Intervention Webinar

Transformative Justice

  1. “What is/isn’t transformative justice?” by adrienne maree brown
  2. Transformative Justice examples + alternative practices via The Abolitionist Toolkit by Critical Resistance

Reading Lists

  1. Revolutionary Reading List
  2. Leftist Resource Sheet (Terms, Definitions, Theories)

Podcasts

  1. Revolutionary Left Radio
  2. Millennials Are Killing Capitalism
  3. The Red Nation
  4. The Practices We Need: #metoo and Transformative Justice Part 2

Radical Literature Audiobooks via Dessalines

  1. “Blackshirts and Reds” by Michael Parenti
  2. “Settlers: The Mythology of the White Proletariat from Mayflower to Modern” by J. Sakai
  3. “Friendly Feudalism: The Tibet Myth” by Michael Parenti
  4. “How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation” by Anne Helen Petersen
  5. “Women's Liberation: The Marxist Tradition” by Sharon Smith
  6. “The State and Revolution”

Abolitionist Reading List (most resources via Abolitionist Futures)

Introduction to Penal Abolition

  1. Are Prisons Obsolete?” By Angela Davis
  2. What is the PIC? What is Abolition?
  3. Nine Perspectives for Prison Abolitionists
  4. What Does Justice Look Like Without Prisons? By Oonagh Ryder
  5. “From Military Industrial Complex to Prison Industrial Complex” by Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore
  6. “Considering Abolition” by Mike Larsen
  7. “Prison Reform Misdirection: 5 Caveats About Private Prisons and Mass Incarceration” by Kay Whitlock
  8. “Imagining a Landscape Without Prisons” by City on a Hill Press

Why Reform Isn’t Enough

  1. “What Abolitionists Do” by Dan Berger, Mariame Kaba, and David Stein
  2. “Naomi Murakawa & #BlackLivesMatter: Liberals, Guns and The Roots of the U.S. Prison Explosion”
  3. “The Tension Between Abolition and Reform” by Liat Ben-Mosche
  4. “Police ‘Reforms’ You Should Always Oppose” by Mariame Kaba
  5. “Against Rehabilitation: For Reparative Justice” by Professor Pat Carlen
  6. “Don’t Reform Prisons, Abolish Them” by Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore
  7. “The Economy of Incarceration” by Dr. Ruth Wilson Gilmore
  8. “Protection Without Police” by Victoria Law
  9. “Prisons cannot be places of rehabilitation” by J M Moore
  10. “Punitive, Restorative, and Transformative Justice: The Basics”
  11. “Transformative Justice and Community Accountability”
  12. “Restorative or transformative justice?” by Howard Zehr

Feminist, Queer, and Antiracist Approaches to Abolition

  1. “The Critical Resistance Incite! Statement on Gender Violence and the Prison-Industrial Complex”
  2. “Rethinking Antiviolence Strategies: Lessons from the Black Women’s Movement in Britain” by Julia Sudbury
  3. “How Anti-violence Activism Taught Me to Become a Prison Abolitionist” by Beth E. Richie
  4. “Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex” by Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith
  5. “Navigating justice for sexual abuse survivors, when you’re a prison abolitionist and a survivor” by Joshua Briond
  6. “Decolonization Means Prison Abolition” from Because We Must
  7. “Vikki Law: Resisting Gender Violence Without Cops or Prisons”
  8. “The Violence of Incarceration” by Phil Scraton and Jude McCulloch
  9. “No One Is Disposable: Everyday Practices of Prison Abolition” by Reina Gossett, Dean Spade, and Hope Dector
  10. “Queering Prison Abolition, Now?” by Eric A. Stanley, Dean Spade, and Queer (In)justice
  11. “Beautiful, Difficult, Powerful: Ending Sexual Assault Through Transformative Justice” by The Chrysalis Collective
  12. “What Does It Feel Like When Change Finally Comes: Male Supremacy, Accountability, and Transformative Justice” by Gaurav Jashnani, RJ Maccani, and Alan Greig
  13. “Ending Child Sexual Abuse: A Transformative Justice Handbook”
  14. “The Revolution Starts At Home: Confronting Partner Abuse in Activist Communities”
  15. “Toward Transformative Justice: A Liberatory Approach to Child Sexual Abuse and other forms of Intimate and Community Violence” by Generation Five
  16. “Revolution and American Indians: Marxism Is As Alien To My Culture As Capitalism” by Russell Means

Community Organizing

  1. Resources for Organizing

Other Abolitionist Readings Lists via Abolitionist Futures

  1. “Black Perspectives: Prison Abolition Syllabus”
  2. “Prison Culture: Essential Reading”
  3. “Community Accountability and Transformative Justice Resources”
  4. “Thinking Through the End of Policing”
  5. “Alternatives to Policing”
  6. “Addressing Harm, Accountability, and Healing”
  7. “Abolish Policing” by Critical Resistance
  8. “Against Equality: Queer Challenges to the Politics of Inclusion”

Abolition in Minnesota

MPD150: A People’s Project Evaluating Policing

  1. A 150 Year Performance Review of the Minneapolis Police Department (PDF)
  2. A 150 Year Performance Review of the Minneapolis Police Department (Audio version)
  3. Frequently Asked Questions
  1. FAQs: PDF/Zine Version