Further Foundational Learning

Here is our curated list of recommended sites and resources to take your education further. This is by no means complete. Feel free to message us or add your suggestions in the comments.

National Network & Advocacy Organizations

Abolish Slavery National Network

• Parent organization with state-by-state constitutional language tracking

• Resources on organizing and legislative advocacy

• URL: https://abolishslavery.us/resources/

  
  

Abolition Today Radio Program

• Weekly show hosted by Max Parthas and Yusuf Hassan

• Airs Sundays 7PM EST

• URL: abolitiontoday.org

  
  

Freedom United Campaign

• International perspective on ending prison slavery in the U.S.

• Petition and advocacy tools

• URL: https://www.freedomunited.org/advocate/amendthe13th/

  
  

Worth Rises

• Coordinates #EndTheException campaign and collects letters from incarcerated workers

• URL: https://worthrises.org

Interrupting Criminalization (IC)

• Movement resource hub led by veteran Black feminist abolitionist organizers Mariame Kaba and Andrea J. Ritchie

• Launched in 2018 through Barnard Center for Research on Women (BCRW)

• Creates resources, develops containers, and weaves cross-movement networks

• Building capacity for organizers working to end criminalization of women, LGBTQ, trans, and gender non-conforming people of color

• URL: https://www.interruptingcriminalization.com

Critical Resistance

• Building international movement to abolish the prison industrial complex

• Publishes "The Abolitionist" newspaper

• Organized historic 1998 "Critical Resistance: Beyond the Prison Industrial Complex" conference

• URL: https://criticalresistance.org

  
  

Incarcerated Workers Organizing Committee (IWOC)

• Prison-led section of the Industrial Workers of the World

• Organized the largest prison strike in U.S. history (September 9, 2016, with 24,000 prisoners)

• Works to abolish prison slavery and end exploitation

• URL: https://incarceratedworkers.org

  
  

National Equal Justice Association (NEJA)

• Provides aid to prisoners' rights organizations and families

• Covers prison strikes and advocates against prison gerrymandering

• URL: https://www.nationalequaljusticeassociation.com/prisoner-justice

  
  

Black & Pink

• Prison abolitionist organization for LGBTQIA2S+ people and those living with HIV/AIDS

• Provides penpal programs connecting LGBTQI individuals

• Founded in 2005

• URL: https://www.blackandpink.org

  
  

Prison Activist Resource Center (PARC)

• Provides directory of resources mailed directly to prisoners

• First point of contact for connecting with prisoners' rights organizations

• Publishes comprehensive resource guide updated regularly

• URL: https://www.prisonactivist.org

  
  

Research & Documentation

The Marshall Project - Prison Labor Coverage

• Investigative journalism on prison economics and labor

• Features first-person accounts from incarcerated workers

• Documents underground prison economies

• URL: https://www.themarshallproject.org/records/764-prison-labor

  
  

Prison Policy Initiative Reports & Data

• Comprehensive reports, briefings, and data visualizations

• State profiles and advocacy toolkit

• Created "The Abolitionists Handbook"

• URL: https://www.prisonpolicy.org

Bolts Magazine

• In-depth reporting on criminal justice and democracy

• Features historian interviews on prison labor history

• URL: https://boltsmag.org

  
  

Essential Books & Reading

Foundational Texts:

• "Are Prisons Obsolete?" by Angela Y. Davis (2003) - foundational text for prison abolition movement

• "The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness" by Michelle Alexander (2010)

• "Abolition. Feminism. Now." by Angela Y. Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie

• "Abolition: Politics, Practices, Promises, Vol. 1" by Angela Y. Davis - collection of essays over 50 years

• "Women, Race, & Class" by Angela Y. Davis

• "Abolition Democracy" by Angela Y. Davis

  
  

Recent & Additional Works:

• "The Prison Industry: How It Works and Who Profits" by Bianca Tylek (Worth Rises)

• "Abolition Labor: The Fight to End Prison Slavery" (NYU researchers, 2024)

• "We Are Not Slaves" by Robert T. Chase (2020) - 20 years of research on Southern prison systems

• "Becoming Abolitionists" by Derecka Purnell

• "We Do This 'Til We Free Us: Abolitionist Organizing and Transforming Justice" by Mariame Kaba

• "Waiting For an Echo" - connection between mental health care and prison industrial complex

• "Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California"

• "Understanding Mass Incarceration: A People's Guide"

• "Slavery by Another Name: The Re-enslavement of Black Americans from the Civil War to World War II" by Douglas A. Blackmon

• "Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and Prison Industrial Complex"

• "Challenging the Prison-Industrial Complex: Activism, Arts, and Educational Alternatives"