In July 2021, Critical Resistance released a new abolitionist organizing resource, On the Road to Freedom, a toolkit created in partnership with Community Justice Exchange, visually designed by Danbee Kim, and written by Mohamed Shehk, Pilar Weiss, Rachel Foran, Sharlyn Grace, and Woods Ervin. The goal of this tool is to provide organizers seeking to challenge pretrial detention with guidance–including examples, possible challenges, and best practices–for carrying out an abolitionist campaign, and ideally resulting in more wins! — PDF on Critical Resistance Website

Coffee Not Cops is a way to introduce strangers and friends to the basics of abolition! In this zine the UC Cops off Campus coalition shares on how to talk to people about: - what abolition is, why it is necessary and how to organize toward an abolitionist horizon! — Free PDF

A living digital library by Andrea Ritchie, Mariame Kaba, and others  providing data, model legislation, and infographics from cities that have cut police budgets, removed police from some functions (e.g., mental health crisis teams), or established restorative justice hubs. It’s designed for activists to use evidence in campaigns. — Website

A collection of Kaba’s essays and interviews offering concrete abolitionist campaigns and projects (e.g., Chicago’s We Charge Genocide, efforts to close youth jails, mutual aid projects). Emphasizes a “practical organizer’s lens”: each chapter has real scenarios like how a survivor-centered accountability process worked without police. Kaba’s accessible style and years of experience make this a go-to manual for praxis. — Purchase Online

In this podcast, Gilmore outlines practical pathways—grounded in abolitionist geography—for dismantling carceral systems and reallocating resources toward community resilience and liberation — Listen on Apple Podcasts

Reveals how European colonialism and racial capitalism violently underdeveloped Africa through slavery, exploitation, and extraction for Western profit. From an abolitionist lens, the text exposes racial capitalism as a global carceral system and calls for dismantling these structures to build liberatory, self-determined futures — Free PDF

Definitive history of how 1960s “Great Society” programs were gradually eclipsed by investment in policing and prisons, especially in Black communities. Hinton uses federal archives to show a bipartisan consensus built mass incarceration under the guise of crime control, even as deindustrialization gutted cities. Illuminates how economic abandonment and criminalization went hand in hand. — Read on archive.org

Introduces the concept of racial capitalism—how capitalism has always been racialized through slavery, colonialism, and anti-Blackness.

Short film (16 minutes) from the Antipode Foundation featuring Ruth Wilson Gilmore, who powerfully maps how racial capitalism organizes space through dispossession, extraction, and carceral control. Through storytelling and political analysis, Gilmore shows how abolitionist struggle is also a fight over land, life, and liberation. — Youtube

A classic (short) text where Davis connects the rise of prisons to racial capitalism—how the legacy of slavery, segregation, and capitalist exploitation necessitated new forms of racial control. She invites readers to imagine abolition by learning from past struggles (e.g., the end of slavery seemed “unthinkable” until it happened). Offers concrete examples of prison alternatives globally and is written in accessible language, perfect for study groups. — Free Online

Gilmore joins host Chenjerai Kumanyika to show how police and prison expansion are central to the American project. Through her sweeping analysis, she makes the case for prison abolition and defunding as essential political strategies —Listen on Apple Podcasts

Abstract: Panelists looked at the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which abolished slavery, and examined its relationship to issues of today's criminal justice system. They discussed policing, incarceration, the fight against drugs, and the role of prosecutors and grand juries. Speakers included an attorney with the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and the chair of Howard University's Afro-American Studies Department. The forum was part of the annual Benjamin Drummond Emancipation Day Celebration.— Available on C-Span site

Abstract: A deep dive into the origins and functions of U.S. policing. Covers colonial era slave patrols, urban police and strike-breaking, and COINTELPRO. Abstract: Williams dismantles myths (like “the police keep us safe”) by showing historical evidence that police were created to protect the propertied and racial order. It also touches on alternatives and community self-defense traditions, making it a good comprehensive primer. — Available via AK Press

Abstract: Traces the U.S. prison system from the 13th Amendment’s loophole (allowing forced labor for convicts) through convict leasing, Jim Crow, War on Drugs, to the current prison-industrial complex. Features interviews with Angela Davis, Bryan Stevenson, etc.

Abstract: A seminal geography of incarceration’s boom in California, coining “abolition geography.” Gilmore examines how surplus land, labor, capital, and state capacity converged to drive prison expansion in the 80s–90s. Abstract: It provides the economic and racial context behind mass incarceration’s rise, giving abolitionists a structural understanding that our struggle must transform these underlying conditions (e.g., invest in rural economies, not prisons).

Abstract: A broad historical analysis demonstrating that modern policing evolved to control working class and Black populations (e.g., slave patrols, strike-breaking). Vitale argues reforms (training, diversity) won’t fix policing’s core role and makes the case for shifting to alternatives in mental health, schools, housing, etc. Each chapter covers a different police function (drugs, sex work, gangs) and how to replace it — Available on Verso site

Abstract: In this powerful call to action, New York Times bestselling author Mariame Kaba and attorney and organizer Andrea J. Ritchie detail why policing doesn’t stop violence, instead perpetuating widespread harm; outline the many failures of contemporary police reforms; and explore demands to defund police, divest from policing, and invest in community resources to create greater safety through a Black feminist lens — Learn more on Interrupting Criminalization

Abstract: Project NIA — “nia” meaning “with purpose” in Swahili—is a grassroots organization that works to end the arrest, detention, and incarceration of children and young adults by promoting restorative and transformative justice practices — Website

Abstract: Hooker presents an important, stand-alone process, an excellent addition to the study and practice of strategic peacebuilding, restorative justice, conflict transformation, trauma healing, and community organizing. — Available on Skyhorse Publishing

Abstract: 500-page free toolkit (2012, updated 2021) offering step-by-step guidance on intervening in domestic or sexual violence situations through community networks rather than the criminal legal system. It includes worksheets for safety planning, facilitator scripts for family meetings, and real scenarios. Indispensable for anyone wanting to practice immediate abolition in cases of harm — Free PDF on creative-interventions.org