Abolitionist Social Work Toolkit
The purpose of this webpage is to serve as a repository for information and resources on abolitionist social work. It is a collective project with contributions from many different autonomous social service worker groups and individuals.
NYTimes article featuring long-time abolition activist Ruth Wilson Gilmore
A transcribed interview with abolitionist organizer and activist Mariame Kaba.
"This article is part of Abolition for the People, a series brought to you by a partnership between Kaepernick Publishing and LEVEL, a Medium publication for and about the lives of Black and Brown men."
A short pamphlet detailing the basics of prison abolition, alternatives to policing, and action steps.
A podcast interview with abolitionist organizer and activist Mariame Kaba.
A chart detailing the differences between reformist reforms and abolitionist reforms in policing.
A resource provided by the Institute for the Development of Human Arts which includes a large list of resources for decarcerating mental health care
Vogue article detailing the basics of abolition, alternatives to policing, and why police reform doesn’t work.
A guided curriculum developed by people with direct experience with the carceral system.
Vice article covering the basics of abolitionist alternatives to policing, including community accountability, restorative justice and transformative justice.
The Atlantic article about how “when people dismiss abolitionists for not caring about victims or safety, they tend to forget that we are those victims, those survivors of violence.”
TruthOut article about how social work must focus on “ending state violence, while supporting life affirming relationships, practices and organizations.”
Article about how “social workers are operating under the same racist and violent structures that are utilized to incarcerate, institutionalize, and strip freedoms away from Black and brown Americans” and abolitionist alternatives.
The Appeal article featuring social workers who are rejecting collaboration with police and radically rethinking the profession.
Slate article which explains why social workers cannot effectively and ethically work with police.
Bustle article detailing “what we can learn about police abolition from domestic violence activists.”
A short factsheet.
An abolitionist campaign that was originally formed in response to the reformist #8CantWait campaign. The website has resources regarding "abolitionist vision and transformation," including practical changes we can make towards abolition now.
Truthout article that shares lessons learned by three organizers working to collectively create safety using community-based strategies.
Rolling Stone article that describes “practicable, real-world alternatives to the modern police system.”
Truthout article that describes police reforms to oppose and support, while continuing to fight for abolition
"Recent calls to defund police and abolish prisons have raised the question: But what about rapists? In part one of two episodes exploring that question, prison abolitionist Maya Schenwar presents the case for looking outside the criminal justice system for safety and connects the dots between abolition and feminism.” This is a transcript of the podcast episode.
“Is it possible to combat sexual violence and support survivors without sending perpetrators to prison? Dr. Alissa Ackerman, a sex crimes policy expert and rape survivor, thinks so. In part two of two episodes reconsidering mainstream feminism's reliance on the criminal justice system, Dr. Ackerman outlines a powerful alternative to prison punishment called restorative justice and why she's living proof that it works.” This is a transcript of the podcast episode.
A practical guide to stop interpersonal violence using community-based practices.
A resource hub about ending violence with community-based practices.
A toolkit by Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Mariame Kaba. “This toolkit includes step by step instructions for how you can build your own mutual aid network while staying safe from the spread of COVID-19.”
Descriptions and resources for mutual aid by Big Door Brigade.
How to develop your pod, a group of “people in our lives that we would call on to support us with things such as our immediate and on-going safety, accountability and transformation of behaviors, or individual and collective healing and resiliency.”
A toolkit that links to various resources.
A zine by Abolition Action that shares “information, skills, and a collective vision of true public safety.”
A toolkit that shares information about the “strategy... to advance a long term vision of abolition of police through divestment from policing as a practice, dismantling policing institutions, and building community-based responses to harm, need, and conflict that do not rely on surveillance, policing and punishment.”
“The Harm Free Zone (HFZ) supports a community-centered vision that helps us repair the damage of racism, and the oppression of poor people of color by providing tools and trainings to both strengthen and develop our capacity to prevent, confront and transform harm. The Harm Free Zone emphasizes independent and self directing community autonomy as a necessary step towards creating shared collective accountability strategies and practice.” (Durham, NC)
“The Safe OUTside the System (SOS) Collective is an anti-violence program led by and for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Two Spirit, Trans, and Gender Non Conforming people of color. We are devoted to challenging hate and police violence by using community based strategies rather than relying on the police.” (Brooklyn, NY)
“We build peer-led communities of support, education & advocacy for folks with lived experience of mental illness, trauma, Disability, and/or neurodivergence. We believe that principles of Disability Justice are key components to supporting collective healing and our human rights.” (Multiple U.S. chapters)
“CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On The Streets) provides mobile crisis intervention 24/7 in the Eugene-Springfield Metro area. CAHOOTS is dispatched through the Eugene police-fire-ambulance communications center, and within the Springfield urban growth boundary, dispatched through the Springfield non-emergency number. Each team consists of a medic (either a nurse or an EMT) & a crisis worker (who has at least several years experience in the mental health field).” (Eugene, OR)
**Please note that CAHOOTS does note the potential to involve the police in some situations - “Any person who reports a crime in progress, violence, or a life-threatening emergency may receive a response from the police or emergency medical services instead of or in addition to CAHOOTS.”
“MH First Sacramento, a project of Anti Police-Terror Project, is a cutting-edge new model for non-police response to mental health crisis. The goal of MH First is to respond to mental health crises including, but not limited to, psychiatric emergencies, substance use support, and domestic violence situations that require victim extraction.” (Sacramento, CA)
“The Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective (BATJC) is a community group based out of Oakland, CA working to build and support transformative justice responses to child sexual abuse... Our work consists of securing safety and intervening in current violence, while also building long term spaces of accountability and strategies for healing and resilience for all survivors, bystanders, and those who have caused harm.” (Oakland, CA)
“Fireweed Collective offers mental health education and mutual aid through a Healing Justice lens. We help support the emotional wellness of all people, and center the needs of those most marginalized by our society.”
An organization that provides resources on alternatives to policing rooted in disability justice. “We are abolitionist psychiatric survivors, people with disabilities, and their accomplices. We believe in and work toward the liberation of all.”
Following the NASW's tweet supporting Executive Order on Safe Policing for Safe Communities and after announcing its support for social workers cooperating with the police in an editorial for the Wall Street Journal, clinical social worker Kim Young wrote a sample letter to the NASW demanding they take accountability for complying with oppressive systems. From the letter:
"We have an obligation to end white supremacy, supporting this Executive Order counters the core of who we are as social workers. I demand that the NASW rescind support of the Executive Order, acknowledge the role social work plays in upholding systems of oppression and publicly commit to deconstructing racist systems."
The NASW Instagram account blocked Young after she publicly criticized the institution demanding meaningful change and accountability, and only unblocked her after other social workers contacted the NASW. This is a perplexing response to demands from within the field for true reckoning and committed action.
On August 26th a petition was sent by Social Service Workers United-Chicago to the National Association of Social Workers demanding they take meaningful action to support abolition and address the white supremacist roots of social work. Although over 1,700 people signed on to support SSWU-Chicago, as of September 25th 2020 the NASW has yet to respond to the following demands:
Our Demands
On June 22nd 2020 Laura S. Abrams and Alan J. Dettlaff wrote an open letter to the NASW calling for them to embrace abolition and abolitionist social workers. The letter was signed by over 1,100 supporters, which led to another letter to the NASW reiterating the following demands:
On October 24th 2020, the American Public Health Association formally adopted a statement at their annual conference calling for steps to be taken "towards the abolition of carceral systems and building in their stead just and equitable structures that advance the public’s health." The statement was endorsed by over 30 organizations, and it lays out extensive rationale and evidence-based strategies for abolishing carceral systems and investing in preventative strategies. The APHA urges federal, state, tribal, territorial, and municipal governments and agencies to:
Further, APHA urges that Congress, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), and the National Institutes of Health (NIH) to:
Lastly, APHA calls on state and local health departments to:
A Youtube video of Democracy Now’s Amy Goodman interviewing activist and scholar Angela Davis on abolition. A transcript of the full interview is available here.
A panel hosted by the Institute for the Development of Human Arts that features "frontline organizers with a range of perspectives on how to maintain the safety and health of our communities in ways that are free from the police, rooted in survivors' experience, and designed to preserve the rights and autonomy of those in crisis. We will hear from panelists who have developed creative models across the country, both within and outside of the existing system. We seek to disrupt the notion that struggling community members are 'diseased' and 'disordered,' rather than in need of care and support. We will be asking the difficult questions about how to create community-based alternatives to cops in our neighborhoods and what it will take to lay the foundation for a new paradigm of engaging with what is called 'mental health crisis.'” A transcript of the event is available here.
"SWCAREs, whose mission is to dismantle white supremacy in social work education, was fortunate enough to be able to sit down with Rachel Cargle in May 2020. Facilitators, Sequoya Hayes and Sara Plummer, talk to Rachel about white supremacy in academia, the role of white womanhood in oppression, and how white saviorism harms the clients of social work practitioners." A transcript of the event is available here.
A panel hosted by Critical Resistance in which activists and organizers “discuss examples of prison industrial complex (PIC) abolition in practice now, bring context of abolitionist histories & framework, & discuss hard questions for abolition of the entire PIC.” A transcript is not available for this event. There are ASL interpreters visible on screen interpreting.
A panel discussion with #8toAbolition campaign organizers “about why abolishing the police and prisons can’t wait.” A transcript is not available for this event. There are ASL interpreters visible on screen interpreting.
"Critical Resistance presents “Breaking Down the Prison Industrial Complex,” a series of videos as part of our Profiles in Abolition initiative. The videos in the series explore the current state of the prison industrial complex (PIC) and how people are fighting back to resist and abolish it. As always, we feature abolition as a strategy to dismantle systems of harm and punishment in favor of systems that increase health, stability, and self-determination." This series features many prominent abolitionists, including Angela Davis, Mariame Kaba, Ruth Wilson Gilmore, and many more. Transcription and ASL interpreting are not available for this video series.
A Youtube video lecture series that follows “Discipline and Punish” by Michel Foucault. A transcript is not available for this video series.
A podcast interview with abolitionist organizer and activist Mariame Kaba. Here is a link for a transcript of this episode.
A two part Intercepted Podcast interview with abolitionist Ruth Wilson Gilmore (this link includes a transcript of the podcasts).
An interview with abolitionist Mariam Kaba about how to join the abolitionist movement (this link includes a transcript of the podcast).
A podcast hosted by two social workers which is “a conversation about social work, oppression, and liberation.” There are several episodes covering police violence, the child welfare system, and mutual aid. Full transcripts of episodes are available on each episode page.
”Recent calls to defund police and abolish prisons have raised the question: But what about rapists? In part one of two episodes exploring that question, prison abolitionist Maya Schenwar presents the case for looking outside the criminal justice system for safety and connects the dots between abolition and feminism.” Here is a link for a transcript of this episode.
“Is it possible to combat sexual violence and support survivors without sending perpetrators to prison? Dr. Alissa Ackerman, a sex crimes policy expert and rape survivor, thinks so. In part two of two episodes reconsidering mainstream feminism's reliance on the criminal justice system, Dr. Ackerman outlines a powerful alternative to prison punishment called restorative justice and why she's living proof that it works.” Here is a link for a transcript of this episode.
”With her characteristic brilliance, grace and radical audacity, Angela Y. Davis has put the case for the latest abolition movement in American life: the abolition of the prison. As she quite correctly notes, American life is replete with abolition movements, and when they were engaged in these struggles, their chances of success seemed almost unthinkable. For generations of Americans, the abolition of slavery was sheerest illusion. Similarly, the entrenched system of racial segregation seemed to last forever, and generations lived in the midst of the practice, with few predicting its passage from custom. The brutal, exploitative (dare one say lucrative?) convict-lease system that succeeded formal slavery reaped millions to southern jurisdictions (and untold miseries for tens of thousands of men, and women). Few predicted its passing from the American penal landscape. Davis expertly argues how social movements transformed these social, political and cultural institutions, and made such practices untenable.
In Are Prisons Obsolete?, Professor Davis seeks to illustrate that the time for the prison is approaching an end. She argues forthrightly for “decarceration”, and argues for the transformation of the society as a whole.”
”Activist journalists Maya Schenwar and Victoria Law reveal the way the kinder, gentler narrative of reform can obscure agendas of social control and challenge us to question the ways we replicate the status quo when pursuing change. A foreword by Michelle Alexander situates the book in the context of criminal justice reform conversations. Finally, the book offers a bolder vision for truly alternative justice practices.”
”Afraid to call 911, but not sure what to do instead? Here are strategies for accountability beyond the criminal justice system. Transformative justice seeks to solve the problem of violence at the grassroots level, without relying on punishment, incarceration, or policing. Community-based approaches to preventing crime and repairing its damage have existed for centuries. However, in the putative atmosphere of contemporary criminal justice systems, they are often marginalized and operate under the radar. Beyond Survival puts these strategies front and center as real alternatives to today’s failed models of confinement and “correction.” In this collection, a diverse group of authors focuses on concrete and practical forms of redress and accountability, assessing existing practices and marking paths forward. They use a variety of forms—from toolkits to personal essays—to delve deeply into the “how to” of transformative justice, providing alternatives to calling the police, ways to support people having mental health crises, stories of community-based murder investigations, and much more. At the same time, they document the history of this radical movement, creating space for long-time organizers to reflect on victories, struggles, mistakes, and transformations.”
”This book attempts to spark public discussion by revealing the tainted origins of modern policing as a tool of social control. It shows how the expansion of police authority is inconsistent with community empowerment, social justice—even public safety. Drawing on groundbreaking research from across the world, and covering virtually every area in the increasingly broad range of police work, Alex Vitale demonstrates how law enforcement has come to exacerbate the very problems it is supposed to solve. In contrast, there are places where the robust implementation of policing alternatives—such as legalization, restorative justice, and harm reduction—has led to reductions in crime, spending, and injustice. The best solution to bad policing may be an end to policing.”
”That's Revolting! is a queer intervention in the culture wars. It is both blueprint and call to action, bringing the post-identity politic of a new generation of queer visionaries to a wider audience. The anthology consists of personal histories, rants, interviews, conversations, activist struggles, practical advice and glamour. Contributors include early gay liberation rabble-rousers, counterculture demons, fringe artistes, renegade academics, the dispossessed, the obsessed and various other enemy combatants. In other words, That's Revolting! is a book by a bunch of freaks, fruits, perverts and whores who are dedicated to resisting homogenization, globalization and all the other evils of this ravaging world.”