Resources

This interview with Bilphena Yahwon, abolitionist and restorative practices specialist, provides a primer on what police abolition means, as well as links to further resources to begin exploring alternatives to relying on police within your community.

In this time of the COVID-19 pandemic, as Black people we fight to prepare and save ourselves and our communities. We know, like in all other crisis, that Black people will be hit hardest. We often suffer the worst because of the state’s failure to protect us and oftentimes the states targeting of us—like during Hurricane Katrina and many other atrocities. Everyday, we are still recovering from the tragic and unnecessary theft and loss of Black life. These demands are a product of collective work and reflect demands made by numerous other groups.

The National Security Police State always uses crisis like this to expand oppression, to expand surveillance, accumulate new weapons, push boundaries and justify its violence. Part 1 will address questions around public health and movement solidarity. Part 2 will examine the historic and current expansion of police powers in times of crisis.

Longtime abolitionists, thinkers, writers, activists, militants: Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Kim Wilson, and Amanda Alexander discuss revolutionary survival amidst pandemia and how abolitionist struggle is making the ‘impossible’ become possible.

A webinar that discusses the following topics as it relates to the pandemic:

1) How criminalization is manifesting and evolving in the context of “stay at home,” “shelter in place,” quarantine and other orders imposed in response to the COVID19 pandemic, 2) how people are responding and organizing to prevent growing surveillance and criminalization, and 3) how we can envision and implement strategies to build community safety and solidarity around prevention and treatment of COVID19 without increased surveillance, policing, fines, incarceration, and punishment.

A collection of resources regarding supporting peers in crises or more general information (in Chicago and the US).

Jurisdictions across the country are working diligently to address the complications of the coronavirus on their criminal justice systems. To assist cities and counties in adopting useful policies and practices, the National Network of Criminal Justice Coordinating Councils (NNCJCC) and the Justice Management Institute have gathered information on the responses being implemented by state, city, and county justice agencies to the epidemic as well as resources and guidance from various national organizations.

During the COVID-19 pandemic, local and state governments are key actors in protecting the United States’s most vulnerable residents. They run jails and state prisons, which are key to “flattening the curve,” they oversee court systems, they provide homelessness services, they decide whether to enforce evictions and utility shutoffs, and more. This interactive tool tracks developments of the coronavirus response in local and state governments, with a focus on what is being done — and what’s not done — to protect vulnerable populations.

A webinar about the history and principles of Mutual Aid–with examples from the Global South and US South–from folks on the frontlines.