A few resources for further study and organizations working in, or near, abolition.
Abolition Journal study guide — https://abolitionjournal.org/studyguide/
Prison Abolition Syllabus 2.0 (2018) — https://www.aaihs.org/prison-abolition-syllabus-2-0/
NOTE: This list is not exhaustive. Please advise of additions.
Groups and projects listed here take different approaches to organizing across prison walls. Those with a particular focus on inside-outside organizing are marked with bold asterisks *** below.
Canada Focus
Canadian Friends Service Committee
Among CFSC’s issues is penal abolition/restorative justice. “Canadian Quakers believe that justice must be compassionate and focus on how to heal rather than how to punish. This is what’s called “penal abolition” (PDF). The worldwide community of Quakers has worked on concerns related to criminal justice for over 350 years. These stem originally from experiences in the seventeenth century of being imprisoned for our beliefs.” — website: https://quakerservice.ca/our-work/penal-abolition-restorative-justice/
Canadian Prison Law Association
“The association is made up of lawyers, both practicing and academic, and paralegals, who work on behalf of prisoners in the provision of legal services, the research of prison law issues, and the making of representations to legislative and other government bodies.” — website: https://canadianprisonlaw.ca/about-us/
John Howard Society
“The John Howard Society fills an important role in public education, community service and in pressing for reform in the criminal justice area. Currently there are branches and offices in over 60 communities across Canada, provincial offices in all 10 provinces and the Northwest Territories and a national office in Kingston.” — website: https://johnhoward.ca/
US Focus
Abolish Slavery National Network ***
ASNN is a national coalition in the US, currently organizing in 20 states, “fighting to abolish constitutional slavery and involuntary servitude in all forms, for all people.” — website: https://abolishslavery.us/
American Friends Service Committee
“Guided by the Quaker belief in the divine light of each person, AFSC works with people of all faiths and backgrounds to challenge unjust systems and promote lasting peace.” Among AFSC areas of focus are Investigating Prisons and action on Prison and Policing. See also “Prison Watch.” — website: https://afsc.org/
The Bail Project
“The Bail Project strives for a more perfect justice system, one that works for all people no matter their race or wealth.” Effort is two-pronged: “advocating for better policies, we seek to take money out of justice and to create a pretrial system that is more just, equitable, and humane,” and “providing free bail assistance to those in need, we restore the presumption of innocence, reunite families, and gather evidence for change.” — website: https://bailproject.org/vision/
HEARD
HEARD is a cross-disability abolitionist organization engaged in grassroots advocacy, community organizing, peer support, mutual aid, education and research, with a focus on Deaf in Prison. HEARD “unites across identities, communities, movements, and borders to end ableism, racism, capitalism, and all other forms of oppression and violence. HEARD supports disabled people and others who experience ableism by rejecting disability hierarchies and rigid definitions of disability, and by recognizing deaf people as part of disability communities.” website: https://behearddc.org/
Human Rights Defense Center
“The Human Rights Defense Center is a 501(c)(3) non-profit organization that advocates on behalf of the human rights of people held in U.S. detention facilities. This includes people in state and federal prisons, local jails, immigration detention centers, civil commitment facilities, Bureau of Indian Affairs jails, juvenile facilities and military prisons.” Originally founded in 1990 in Washington state as Prisoners’ Legal News (later Prison Legal News); see also Reporting on/from Prisons. — website: https://www.humanrightsdefensecenter.org/
Jailhouse Lawyers Speak ***
“Jailhouse Lawyers Speak is the largest prisoner-led organization fighting for prisoners’ human rights and dignity in the United States….provide law books, courses and literature aids prisoners to educate themselves and encourages them to help teach and liberate other prisoners.” See 10 Demands. — website: https://www.jailhouselawyersspeak.com/
The Marshall Project
“The Marshall Project is a nonpartisan, nonprofit news organization that seeks to create and sustain a sense of national urgency about the U.S. criminal justice system. We have an impact on the system through journalism, rendering it more fair, effective, transparent and humane.” — website: https://www.themarshallproject.org/
Prison Activist Resource Center
PARC is a prison abolitionist group committed to exposing and challenging all forms of institutionalized racism, sexism, able-ism, heterosexism, and classism, specifically within the Prison Industrial Complex (PIC) — website: https://www.prisonactivist.org/
Prison Policy Initiative
Materials include state profiles, advocacy kits, and a variety of reports. “The non-profit, non-partisan Prison Policy Initiative produces cutting edge research to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization, and then sparks advocacy campaigns to create a more just society.” Links to other resources. — website: https://www.prisonpolicy.org/about.html
Project NIA
“Project Nia works to end the incarceration of children and young adults by promoting restorative and transformative justice practices.” Many useful resources and action tools. website: https://project-nia.org/tools-for-action
Sentencing Project
“The Sentencing Project advocates for effective and humane responses to crime that minimize imprisonment and criminalization of youth and adults by promoting racial, ethnic, economic, and gender justice.” — website: https://www.sentencingproject.org/
Study and Struggle ***
“A collective concentrated in Mississippi that organizes towards abolition through political education, mutual aid, and community building across prison walls. We believe that study and struggle are necessary, complementary parts of any revolutionary movement, and that dismantling the prison industrial complex (PIC) requires centering criminalized people.” — website: https://www.studyandstruggle.com/about
SWOP Behind Bars ***
Sex Workers Outreach Project Behind Bars “is a national grassroots social justice network dedicated to the fundamental human rights of sex workers, victims of trafficking, and their communities with a focus on those currently incarcerated or seeking re-entry.” — website: https://www.swopbehindbars.org/
Vera Institute
Materials include extensive reports, such as Examining Prisons Today (2020). “Founded in 1961 to advocate for alternatives to money bail in New York City, Vera is now a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change. With offices in four major cities, and a team of hundreds of advocates, researchers, and policy experts, we work to transform the criminal legal and immigration system so that money doesn’t determine freedom; fewer people are incarcerated; and everyone behind bars is treated with dignity.” website: https://www.vera.org/
Regional/Local
DC/DMV Area
Close Central Cell Block (DC/National)
National coalition to close “Central Cell Block.” Located in Washington, DC, this facility houses demonstrators and other visitors arrested in the capital as well as locals — website: https://closeccb.org/coalition/
Interfaith Action for Human Rights (DC, Maryland, Virginia)
IAHR represents people of faith and allies who educate and advocate in Maryland, DC, and Virginia for corrections systems to abolish unnecessarily punitive practices such as solitary confinement and to instead focus on rehabilitation and successful reentry of our citizens. — website: https://www.interfaithactionhr.org/
Neighbors for Justice (DC)
Neighbors for Justice was founded in August 2020 by neighbors who live a few blocks from the DC Jail and wanted to do more to support our neighbors at the jail during COVID and beyond. — website: https://neighborsforjusticedc.org/
Who Speaks for Me? ***
“Who Speaks For Me? aims to create a more effective and humane justice system by creating gender-specific problem-solving operating programs. While WSFM became incorporated as a 501c3 organization in 2020, we have over ten years of experience planning and implementing innovative community-based projects in the District, Maryland, and Virginia (DMV) communities.” — website: https://whospeaks4me.org/about/
Ontario
Toronto Prisoners’ Rights Project
“We are a volunteer organization of former prisoners, people with loved ones inside, activists, front-line workers, artists, researchers, educators and students. We engage in direct action, public education, and mutual aid to shed light on the harms caused by incarceration and connect prisoners with social, financial, legal and health supports. We are committed to abolition and building sustainable communities rooted in community care, transformative justice, and accountability.” — website: https://www.torontoprisonersrightsproject.org/
American Civil Liberties Union — website: https://www.aclu.org/issues/prisoners-rights
Canadian Civil Liberties Association — website: https://ccla.org/
Amnesty International: detention — website: https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/detention/
Amnesty International: torture — website: https://www.amnesty.org/en/what-we-do/torture/
Human Rights Watch: torture — website: https://www.hrw.org/topic/torture
World Prison Brief Database — website: https://www.prisonstudies.org/world-prison-brief-data
See also “Care, Advocacy, and Re-Entry” and “Reporting on/from Prisons. More coming soon.
Virginia Avniel Spatz 