Prison Abolition and Mass Incarceration Resources

[thebiballerina]

Introduction

Recently, I discussed the topic of prison reform and prison abolition with some friends. So I decided I'd put together some resources I have saved on the topic. In the interest of full disclosure, this is not a topic that I consider myself especially well-read in. I know the basics, but most of these resources are coming from my "to read" list, so I haven't reviewed them in great detail. I'm mostly posting these publicly because that is easier than sharing them with every interested party, and I figure I can edit as needed. I did my best to review all these resources. As for those which I am not closely familiar with, they were most likely included because they were recommended by a person or group I consider reliable. That being said, feel free to let me know if something looks off with any of these.

Definitions

Here are some excerpts defining relevant terms, which I have pulled from the organization Critical Resistance (included in the list later in this post). To read the full descriptions, visit the Critical Resistance webpage on definitions.

The prison industrial complex (PIC):

The prison industrial complex (PIC) is a term we use to describe the overlapping interests of government and industry that use surveillance, policing, and imprisonment as solutions to economic, social and political problems.
Through its reach and impact, the PIC helps and maintains the authority of people who get their power through racial, economic and other privileges.

Abolition:

PIC abolition is a political vision with the goal of eliminating imprisonment, policing, and surveillance and creating lasting alternatives to punishment and imprisonment.

Disclaimer

These resources will focus on the United States. I have collected some resources for other countries as well, but at the moment most of those resources are not open access, and not worth posting at the moment. If that changes, I will edit this post. However, I am not really qualified to post a comprehensive guide for any other country, so if anyone knows of guides that others have posted, please let me know and I will link them. Given the incredibly political nature of prison abolition, and how closely it is tied with citizenship and national laws, prison abolition resources and movements tend to be rather specific to their nation of origin. In addition, while incarceration is certainly not a U.S.-exclusive issue, mass incarceration in the U.S. is dramatically greater than other countries, and thus the prison abolition movement which has developed in response to those conditions may not externalize well to other nations. Thus, if you want to delve into the movement outside the U.S., I would highly suggest that you seek out resources specific to your country (or region). General international resources will be listed first.

Resources

International

• Book (Open Access) - "The Routledge International Handbook on Decolonizing Justice", edited by Chris Cunneen, Antje Deckert, Amanda Porter, Juan Tauri, and Robert Webb (2023): "The Routledge International Handbook on Decolonizing Justice focuses on the growing worldwide movement aimed at decolonizing state policies and practices, and various disciplinary knowledges including criminology, social work and law." Analysis based on decolonial and Indigenous ideas. Focused on perspectives of Black, First Nations, and other racialized peoples. In particular, the third section focuses on "abolishing the carceral." Intended for "activists, students, academics, and those with an interest in Indigenous studies, decolonial and post-colonial studies, criminal legal institutions and criminology."

United States

• Organization - Critical Resistance: Organization working to abolish the prison-industrial complex, with a US national organization and local chapters. Chapters currently in LA, New York, Oakland, and Portland. Has an extremely comprehensive resources page, including multiple media types and comprehensive toolkits.
• Organization - Black & Pink: Prison abolitionist organization with special focus on LGBTQIA2S+ people and people living with HIV/AIDS. U.S. grassroots organization with local chapters. Focused on "advocacy, support, and organizing." Associated with several local projects, post-incarceration transitional programs, a penpal program for incarcerated members, the Sex Worker Liberation Project, and a criminal legal reform working group.
• Organization - Survived & Punished (S&P): National coalition. Also has affiliates in New York, Chicago, and California. "S&P organizes to de-criminalize efforts to survive domestic and sexual violence, support and free criminalized survivors, and abolish gender violence, policing, prisons, and deportations." I recommend perusing the comprehensive resource pages , particularly the organizing resources page.
• Organization - Love & Protect: Supports incarcerated survivors of color who have been criminalized for defending themselves against violence (particularly domestic violence). Across the U.S., most frequently in the Midwest.
• News Organization - The Marshall Project: Journalism about criminal justice. Non-profit. Has won the Pulitzer Prize twice.
• Database - Civil Rights Litigation Clearinghouse: Information from large-scale U.S. civil rights cases. Has several categories relevant to prison abolition: "prison conditions", "jail conditions", "juvenile institution conditions", "policing", "indigent defense" (definition of the term from the NIJ), "criminal justice (other)", and "mental health (facility)". Relevant special projects include a criminal justice document repository and a repository of prison and jail grievance policies.
• Organization - Scrutinize: Focuses on data regarding U.S. state judges and mass incarceration. "An organization that advocates to hold accountable the most powerful actors in the criminal legal system – state judges – by using innovative, scalable, and data-informed tools." Project is still in the early stages, with one paper currently on the website.
• Database - JUSTFAIR (Judicial System Transparency for Fairness through Archived/Inferred Records): Database of U.S. criminal sentencing decisions (currently only federal). "JUSTFAIR is the first large scale, free, public database that links information about defendants and their demographic characteristics with information about their crimes, their sentences, and, crucially, the identity of the sentencing judge." If you like visuals, try the Interactive Data Explorer under the Quick Links. Project by QSIDE.
• Organization - QSIDE (Institute for the Quantitative Study of Inclusion, Diversity, and Equity): Institute focused on data science and mathematical modeling to further social justice and equity. Active research and networking across disciplines. "Our work encompasses: research-to-action projects addressing education equity, diversity and inclusion in arts/media, criminal justice, environmental justice, health equity, human trafficking, and more; and education and community-building programs to grow our nation’s capacity for informed and careful work at the interface of data science and social justice."
• Scholarly Journal - Abolition: A Journal of Insurgent Politics: Research journal and community focusing on abolitionism, both theory and practice.
• Scholarly Journal - Social Justice: A Journal of Crime, Conflict & World Order (NOT open access): This journal has several issues and many articles relevant to incarceration, criminal justice, and prison abolition. Unfortunately, it is a paid access journal (the only paid resource on this list), but it has some great articles, so I highly suggest checking if you have access through your library. Specific issues I recommend:
  • Vol. 41, No. 3 (137), 2014 (contains special section on "Penal Abolition and Prison Reform")
  • Vol. 45, No. 4 (154), 2018, topic of "Penal Abolition: Challenging Boundaries"
  • Vol. 43, No. 4 (146), 2016
  • Vol. 48, No. 1, 2021
• Guide - "If You’re New to Abolition: Study Group Guide" - from the Abolition journal: Comprehensive introduction to the topic, designed for a six-week study group.
• Guide - "Felon Voting Rights" - from the National Conference of State Legislatures (NCSL): Summary, comprehensive tables, and changes (from the last 10 years) regarding voting rights for felons (whether incarcerated, paroled, or released) in each U.S. state and the District of Columbia.
• Historical Event - 2016 U.S. prison strike: The Wikipedia page is a decent primer, but I recommend doing more research if you are interested in recent history of the prison abolition movement. This strike was the largest ever recorded in the U.S., and it focused on prison labor, wages, and living conditions.
• Article - "Paths to Decarceration: Enhancing Community Safety and Justice", by Aaron Chalfin and Brittany Street (2023-09-22) - Available on the QSIDE webpage for Data2Lift (Data for Accountability, Transparency, and Advancement to Lower Incarceration for Transformation): "This paper reviews and distills a wide array of recent social science literature and offers an evidence-based vision for how public safety can be maintained while relying less on the use of incarceration." This has much in the way of quantitative statistics, but the paper itself doesn't require any special mathematical knowledge.
• News Article - "Pennsylvania Seeks to Close Books on 'Kids for Cash' Scandal", by Jon Schuppe (2015-08-12) - from NBC News: Article about the kickback scheme where the owners of private juvenile justice facilities bribed judges to deny children legal representation, find them guilty of crimes, and then incarcerate the children in those for-profit facilities.
  • Leverage (TV 2008) fans may find this idea familiar! This is the scheme that the season 3 opener was based on, except the show altered it to affect adults. But the toned-down version still seemed unbelievable to some, such as an agent and friend of John Rogers who was present at the episode screening. As John Rogers wrote in a blog post from June 2010:

    One of my favorite moments concerning 301 was when we were screening the episode, and I was sitting next to a very conservative friend. (Yes, I have those.) When the corporate prison pay-for-prisoners scam was explained in the episode, he threw a sidelong glance at me. I shrugged. "We didn't change that much from the real case, sadly."

    A beat. "Wait, that really happened?"

    "A little tweaked, but yeah."

    A longer beat. "In America?"

    (Some of you may have also seen this anecdote on John Rogers' Twitter. See this entry for details and archival screenshots.)