Researching Mass Incarceration and Prison Abolition: Organizations, Partnerships & Toolkits

Abolitionist Law Center is a public-interest law firm "organized for the purpose of abolishing class and race based mass incarceration in the United States."

Beyond Criminal Courts "is a Digital Resource Hub for organizers, advocates and community members working together to build the organizing-power we need to defund, divest, and ultimately to dismantle criminal courts."

Common Justice "develops and advances solutions to violence that transform the lives of those harmed and foster[s] racial equity without relying on incarceration."

Communities Not Cages "is a grassroots campaign led by impacted people and families across New York State." Its members fight "to end mass incarceration and overhaul New York’s racist and unjust sentencing laws."

Community Justice Exchange "produces tools and resources for organizers to creatively tackle multiple drivers of criminalization and incarceration—including, but not limited to, money bail, court fees and fines, probation and parole, pretrial detention & supervision, and immigration detention & supervision."

CONNECT "works with NYC's communities to prevent interpersonal violence and promote gender justice."

Cradle Community "is a collective of organisers committed to radical education and building understanding of prison abolition and transformative justice."
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Creative Interventions began "in Oakland as a national resource center to create and promote community-based interventions to interpersonal violence."
BLS Library also provides 1 copy of Creative Interventions Toolkit in print (call no. HV6626 .C74 2021, location: Main).

"Critical Resistance’s vision is the creation of genuinely healthy, stable communities that respond to harm without relying on imprisonment and punishment."

Equal Justice Initiative is a private, nonprofit organization that "provides legal representation to people who have been illegally convicted, unfairly sentenced, or abused in state jails and prisons."

"Interrupting Criminalization is an initiative led by researchers Mariame Kaba and Andrea J. Ritchie. The project aims to interrupt and end the growing criminalization and incarceration of women, girls, trans, and gender nonconforming people of color for criminalized acts related to public order, poverty, child welfare, drug use, survival and self-defense, including criminalization and incarceration of survivors of violence." This site includes a "collection of resources to aid in evaluation and reflection." The resource compilers are Interrupting Criminalization, Project Nia & Critical Resistance.

Jailhouse Lawyers Initiative "aims to re-conceptualize the role of jailhouse lawyers as agents of empowerment."

The creators describe this as "a collection of tools, tips, lessons and resources developed through our own experiences."

This is an excerpt from the description of this policy plaftform: "The Movement for Black Lives (M4BL) launched the Vision for Black Lives, a comprehensive and visionary policy agenda for the post-Ferguson Black liberation movement, in August of 2016. The Vision, endorsed by over 50 Black-led organizations in the M4BL ecosystem and hundreds of allied organizations and individuals, has since inspired campaigns across the country to achieve its goals. After three years of consultations, writing retreats and Zoom sessions, research and outreach, we are relaunching the Vision for Black Lives 2020."

The National Council "works to end the criminal legal system's forced separation of women and girls from their communities and loved ones through hyper-local organizing, public awareness education, movement lawyering, and the national #FreeHer Campaign."

This document states (on p. 3) that it "is a plan, vision, and guide that can be used by anyone committed to the abolitionist vision of ending police, jails, immigration detention, prisons, and surveillance while making safety the responsibility of well-resourced communities organized for justice."

People's Campaign for Parole Justice is "a grassroots coalition started by 17 organizations across New York State that works to promote fair and meaningful release opportunities for incarcerated people in New York State prisons."

Prison Policy Initiative is a non-profit, non-partisan organization that "produces cutting edge research to expose the broader harm of mass criminalization, and then sparks advocacy campaigns to create a more just society."

Project NIA "is a grassroots organization that works to end the arrest, detention, and incarceration of children and young adults by promoting restorative and transformative justice practices."

The Sentencing Project's description: "State voter guides, toolkits to assist advocates and incarcerated voters, sample mailers and handouts, and reports on jail-based voting."

Survivors Justice Project "fights for decarceration through the New York Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act." Survivors Justice Project is housed at Brooklyn Law School and supported by funding from The New York Women’s Foundation, Vital Projects Fund, The Tow Foundation and ADCO Foundation.

This is a "guide for individuals seeking sentencing/resentencing under New York’s Domestic Violence Survivors Justice Act (DVSJA)."

Sylvia Rivera Law Project Is "a collective organization founded on the understanding that gender self-determination is inextricably intertwined with racial, social and economic justice." This organization works "to increase the political voice and visibility of low-income people and people of color who are transgender, intersex, or gender non-conforming."

"The selected resources in this guide are interdisciplinary and include peer-reviewed scholarship, policy change toolkits, videos, podcasts, and more."

Vera Institute of Justice is "a national organization that partners with impacted communities and government leaders for change."

Violence Intervention Program seeks "to lead Latina victims of domestic violence to safety, empower them to live free of violence and reach and sustain their full potential."

VOCAL-NY "is a statewide grassroots membership organization that builds power among low-income people affected by HIV/AIDS, the drug war, mass incarceration, and homelessness in order to create healthy and just communities."