In order to maintain the true definition and study of Prison Industrial Complex abolition—which Critical Resistance describes as “PIC abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment. From where we are now, sometimes we can’t really imagine what abolition is going to look like. Abolition isn’t just about getting rid of buildings full of cages. It’s also about undoing the society we live in because the PIC both feeds on and maintains oppression and inequalities through punishment, violence, and controls millions of people. Because the PIC is not an isolated system, abolition is a broad strategy. An abolitionist vision means that we must build models today that can represent how we want to live in the future. It means developing practical strategies for taking small steps that move us toward making our dreams real and that lead us all to believe that things really could be different. It means living this vision in our daily lives. Abolition is both a practical organizing tool and a long-term goal”—for people who are newly interested in the belief, I wanted to create a collection of resources such as abolitionists to follow, websites, books, podcasts, and articles they can use in development of abolitionist praxis. This collection is by no means fully comprehensive, but it’s a small place to turn to if you decide that abolition is your end goal in fighting for true justice.
People to follow:
- Ruthie Wilson Gilmore
- Angela Y. Davis
- Mariame Kaba @prisonculture
- Derecka Purnell @dereckapurnell
- K Agbebiyi @sheabutterfemme
- Nnennaya Amuchie @TheAfroLegalise
- Mon Mohapatra @cemicool
- Micah Herskind @micahherskind
- Yves Tong Nguyen @yvesandthemoon
- Rachel Kuo @rachelkuo
- Eli Dru @BlackTransFutures
- Jamie Tyberg @jtbrg
- Heena Sharma @heenasharma_
- Nathan @n_th_n_
Websites:
- Transform Harm
- Critical Resistance
- Resource Guide: Prisons, Policing, and Punishment (by Micah Herskind)
- 8 to Abolition
- Survived and Punished
Books:
- Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Y. Davis
- We Do This ‘Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba
- “Black Prisons and Punishment in a Racist/Capitalist State,” in How Capitalism Underdeveloped Black America: Problems in Race, Political Economy, and Society by Manning Marable
- From Slave Ship to Supermax: Mass Incarceration, Prisoner Abuse and the New Neo-Slave Novel by Patrick Alexander
- Freedom Is A Constant Struggle by Angela Y. Davis
- The Panopticon and Other Prison Writings by Jeremy Bentham
- The Prison and the American Imagination by Caleb Smith
- The Rise of the Penitentiary: Prisons and Punishment in Early America by Adam Jay Hirsch
- Buried Lives: Incarcerated in Early America by Michele Lise Tarter and Richard Bell
- The Crisis of Imprisonment: Protest, Politics, and the Making of the American Penal State, 1776-1941 by Rebecca McLennan
- Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II by Douglas Blackmon
- Chained in Silence: Black Women and Convict Labor in the New South by Talitha Leflouria
- No Mercy Here: Gender, Punishment, and the Making of Jim Crow Modernity by Sarah Haley
- Worse Than Slavery: Parchman Farm and the Ordeal of Jim Crow Justice by David Oshinsky
- Slaves of the State: Black Incarceration from the Chain Gang to the Penitentiary by Dennis Childs
- W.E.B. Du Bois on Crime and Justice: Laying the Foundations of Sociological Criminology by Shaun L. Gabbidon
- The Prison and the Gallows: The Politics of Mass Incarceration in America by Marie Gottschalk
- First Civil Right: How Liberals Built Prison America by Naomi Murakawa
- Ain’t Scared of Your Jail: Arrest, Imprisonment, and the Civil Rights Movement by Zoey Colley
- Jailhouse Lawyers: Prisoners Defending Prisoners v. the U.S.A. by Mumia Abu-Jamal
- If They Come in the Morning: Voices of Resistance by Bettina Aptheker and Angela Y. Davis
- When the Prisoners Ran Walpole: A True Story in the Movement for Prison Abolition by Jamie Bissonette
- Soledad Brother: The Prison Writings of George Jackson by George Jackson
- The Politics of Punishment: A Critical Analysis of Prisons in America by Erik Olin Wright
- Arrested Justice: Black Women, Violence, and America’s Prison Nation by Beth Richie
- Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California by Ruth Wilson Gilmore
- The Challenge of Crime: Rethinking Our Response by Henry Ruth and Kevin R. Reitz
- Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement by Ejeris Dixon and Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha
- From Education to Incarceration: Dismantling the School-to-Prison Pipeline by Anthony Nocella, David Stovall, and Priya Parmar
- Policing the Black Man: Arrest, Prosecution, and Imprisonment by Angela J. Davis
- The End of Policing by Alex Vitale
- Policing the Planet: Why the Policing Crisis Led to Black Lives Matter by Jordan T. Camp and Christina Heatherton
- Invisible No More: Police Violence Against Black Women and Women of Color by Andrea Ritchie
- Disability Incarcerated: Imprisonment and Disability in the United States and Canada by Chris Chapman, Allison C. Carey, and Liat Ben-Moshe
- Beyond Walls and Cages: Prisons, Borders, and Global Crisis by Jenna M. Loyd, Matt Michelson, and Andrew Burridge
- In the Belly of the Beast: Letters from Prison by Jack Henry Abbott
- Writings on the Wall: Selected Prison Writings by Mumia Abu-Jamal
- The New Abolitionists: (Neo)Slave Narratives and Contemporary Prison Writings by Joy James
- Becoming Mrs. Burton: From Prison to Recovery to Leading the Fight for Incarcerated Women by Susan Burton
- Abolition Now: Ten Years of Strategy and Struggle Against the Prison Industrial Complex by CR10 Publications Collective
- Decarcerating America: From Mass Punishment to Public Health by Ernest Drucker
Podcasts:
- Beyond Prisons by Kim Wilson and Brian Sonenstein
- Justice in America with Josie Duffy Rice and Clint Smith
- Intercepted with Jeremy Scahill: Ruth Wilson Gilmore Makes the Case for Abolition
Articles:
- “What Abolitionists Do” by Dan Berger, Mariame Kaba, and David Stein
- “How I Became a Police Abolitionist”by Derecka Purnell
- “Towards the Horizon of Abolition: A Conversation with Mariame Kaba” by John Duda
- “Abolition Cannot Wait: Visions For Transformation and Radical World-Building” by K. Agbebiyi, Sarah T. Hamid, Rachel Kuo, and Mon Mohapatra
- “The Police Can’t Solve the Problem. They Are the Problem.” by Derecka Purnell and Marbre Stahly-Butts
- “Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind” by Rachel Kushner
- “Yes, We Mean Literally Abolish the Police” by Mariame Kaba
- “The Case for Abolition” by Ruth Wilson Gilmore and James Kilgore
