Seems a lot of friends & acquaintances have been introduced to the concepts of police abolition & prison abolition in the past few days, given the protests in the US & globally in response to the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis - I just thought it might be useful to collect some good resources on the police & prison abolition, for anyone who is interested to learn more! It’s obvi a non-exhaustive list, but some good places to start! Disclaimer - I am not an expert and am still learning a lot myself, but these are things that I found useful as I came to this position! Huge huge thanks to everyone who has sent me any of the below!  (feel free to suggest any other good resources, would esp love to add some international stuff beyond the US & UK!)

+ Basic intros

- I always recommend this profile on Ruth Wilson Gilmore as a first introduction to prison abolition: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/04/17/magazine/prison-abolition-ruth-wilson-gilmore.html 

- This piece is also a great primer on prison abolition: https://www.jacobinmag.com/2017/08/prison-abolition-reform-mass-incarceration

- On the abolition of police specifically, this book is currently free to download as an ebook (i am in the process of reading it so can’t comment yet but I hear very good things) https://www.versobooks.com/books/2817-the-end-of-policing

- an article on police abolition https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/27/george-floyd-police-violence-minnesota-racist

- What is the Prison industrial complex / what is abolition? http://criticalresistance.org/about/not-so-common-language/

- this interview with Mohamed Shehk discusses the history and function of police and prisons

https://www.okayafrica.com/how-to-abolish-police-prisons/

- this podcast interview with Mariame Kaba about prison abolition, carceral thinking & transformative justice https://theappeal.org/justice-in-america-episode-20-mariame-kaba-and-prison-abolition/ 

- Angela Davis’ Are Prisons Obsolete https://www.feministes-radicales.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/Angela-Davis-Are_Prisons_Obsolete.pdf 

- This interview with Mariame Kaba is very thorough https://thenextsystem.org/learn/stories/towards-horizon-abolition-conversation-mariame-kaba

+ Some resources focusing on the issues and failures of reform, and on reform vs abolition

- This article by Alex Vitale (author of The End of Policing) makes the case for defunding the police instead of reforming them: https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2020/may/31/the-answer-to-police-violence-is-not-reform-its-defunding-heres-why

- This on why diversifying the police won’t end institutional racism (UK focused) https://www.redpepper.org.uk/diversifying-the-police-wont-end-institutional-racism/

- This contrasts police reforms with abolitionist demands, which is quite useful. https://static1.squarespace.com/static/59ead8f9692ebee25b72f17f/t/5b65cd58758d46d34254f22c/1533398363539/CR_NoCops_reform_vs_abolition_CRside.pdf

- This contrasts prison reforms with abolitionist demands: http://criticalresistance.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/02/jail-reform-chart.pdf

+ Some good resources on sexual violence, & the question many abolitionists are faced with often - ‘What about rapists/murderers/serial killers/predators?’

- This zine features the “Letter to the Anti-Rape Movement” authored by Santa Cruz Women Against Rape in 1977, with an introduction written by Mariame Kaba. It’s only 15 pages, and very coherently sets out the problems with seeking justice for sexual violence through the state, and the harm that the state and prisons do to victims and perpetrators. http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/2020/04/19/new-zine-letter-to-the-anti-rape-movement/

- Some good stuff on ‘what about predators/serial killers’ here: https://christiansforabolition.org/faq/ As they say: “Abolitionism is not about impunity, letting abusers and those who do violence continue without accountability. But we believe prisons are the wrong way to produce safety and accountability”.

- generation five are an organisation working to end child sexual abuse, they argue transformative justice is necessary for this http://www.generationfive.org/the-issue/transformative-justice/

- Mariame Kaba has collected further resources on community accountability and transformative justice here: http://www.usprisonculture.com/blog/transformative-justice/

+ Obviously a lot of these resources focus on police and prisons in the US, here are some more resources focused specifically on the UK

- Feminism, Interrupted by Lola Olufemi is a great book about feminism & grassroots organising which focuses particularly on Black British feminism, and has a brilliant chapter about prison abolition, it’s currently half price! https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745340067/feminism-interrupted/

- This article looks a bit at the racist history of the UK police: https://freedomnews.org.uk/from-minneapolis-to-london-who-polices-the-police/

- CAPE work to fight prison expansion in England, Scotland and Wales, more about their specific campaigns can be found on their website: https://cape-campaign.org/

- Cambridgeshire prisoner and detainee solidarity are abolitionists whose work focuses on prisons in and near Cambridgeshire and have some great resources on their website https://cpdsolidarity.wordpress.com/

- this piece on conditions in British prisons is useful, tho disclaimer that it’s framing is abt reform instead of abolition - in reality, prisons aren’t “broken” or “not working”, they function exactly as intended, and reform may expand them but it won’t address the harm and violence that they do. https://www.newstatesman.com/culture/books/2020/05/why-british-prisons-aren-t-working

- this piece by Carl Cattermole about COVID19 in British prisons https://freedomnews.org.uk/british-prisons-are-petri-dishes-for-this-pandemic-without-immediate-action-its-the-death-penalty-by-any-other-name/