Artwork by Eileen Jimenez. Learn more.
Join us in our learning journey!
Is there an abolition resource you’d like to share? Rise would love to hear from you!
“Abolition is about presence, not absence. It’s about building life-affirming institutions.”
– Ruth Wilson Gilmore
*Indicates resources with a focus on the child welfare / family regulation system.
Articles, Papers, Essays and Interviews
Envisioning Abolition Democracy by Allegra M. McLeod, Harvard Law Journal.
Is Prison Necessary? Ruth Wilson Gilmore Might Change Your Mind by Rachl Kushner, NY Times Magazine
Ten Years After ‘The New Jim Crow’ — interview with Michelle Alexander by David Remnick, The New Yorker
Toward the Abolition of the Foster System* by Erin Miles Cloud, The Scholar & Feminist Online
“Abolishing Policing Also Means Abolishing Family Regulation”* by Dorothy Roberts, The Imprint
An Open Letter to Our Friends on the Question of Language by Eddie Ellis
Best Interests: How Child Welfare Serves as a Tool of White Supremacy* by Heron Greenesmith
Videos and Films
New Justice: A World Beyond Prisons, The Laura Flanders Show, featuring Esteban Kelly, Kerbie Joseph and Kenyon Farrow
Video by Dorothy Roberts*, Made for National Council and Movement for Family Power jointly organized conference, Fighting for Families
We Came to Heal H.O.L.L.A! documentary
Podcasts
Black Families Matter: Ending the Family Regulation Systems.* with Dorothy Roberts and Lisa Sangoi, We Be Imagining Podcast, Hosts: J. Khadijah Abdurahman and Stanley Muñoz
“Ruth Wilson Gilmore Makes the Case for Abolition” — Ruth Wilson Gilmore interviewed by Chenjerai Kumanyika from The Intercept (two-part episode)
What would a world without prisons be like? The New Yorker
Books
The New Jim Crow by Michelle Alexander
Stamped from the Beginning. by Ibram X. Kendi
Healing Resistance: A Radically Different Response to Harm by Kazu Haga
Beyond Survival: Strategies and Stories from the Transformative Justice Movement. Ejeris Dixon (Editor); Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha (Editor)
Emergent Strategy by adrienne maree brown
The Little Book of Restorative Justice by Howard Zehr
Websites
aboltionjournal and If You’re New to Abolition: Study Group Guide
The NYC Transformative Justice Hub
The Social Justice Institute, Barnard Center for Research on Women
Social Media
No White Saviors (Instagram)
Tools
Pods and Pod Mapping Worksheet, written by Mia Mingus for the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective