Further Foundational Learning

Here are some highly recommended websites and resources to take your education further—there are SO MANY, these are just a few of our favorites. 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"