Resources

The primary purpose of this guide is to serve as a pragmatic tool for individuals and communities organizing and advocating for non-police mental health crisis responses, and to offer key considerations for what can be a complex, costly, and long-term intervention strategy.

This guide highlights considerations for real, meaningful shifts away from law enforcement and towards autonomous, self-determined community-based resources and responses to unmet mental health needs. It also takes into account a range of knowledge and expertise among the intended audience: community members, advocates, organizers, activists, mental health professionals, policymakers, and other change agents working towards the selection and implementation of mental health crisis responses.

May 25, 2020 was a both a personal tragedy for the Floyd family and a community tragedy. But it was also a watershed moment locally and nationally in people’s understanding of police violence, the racism and classism that underpins it, and the systems that enable it. This document seeks to provide specific recommendations for addressing police brutality, misconduct and abuse of authority in the state of Minnesota. Many of these recommendations are not new—our organization has presented them many times over the years. Prior failures by leaders at the city, county and state level to adopt these evidence-based solutions are what brought us to this place.

A collection of common questions related to abolition, policing, and incarceration and links to find resources for further education and organizing.

A collection of disability justice webinars that intersect with abolition, incarceration, policing, and more. This list includes notes on accessibility (e.g., ASL, captioning, passwords, etc.).

Everyone loses when we criminalize a person with a mental illness. People with mental illnesses experience trauma and mental health treatment is rarely adequate in jail or prison. In addition, they find it more difficult to get a job and find housing when they have a criminal record. Families suffer when their loved ones are imprisoned. Law enforcement resources are diverted when people with mental illnesses are arrested and tax dollars are misspent. Ultimately, the Bazelon Center aims to end incarceration of individuals with mental illness by diverting them away from jails and into community-based programs.

The call “we keep us safe” reminds us that solutions should empower all people, including Disabled and Neurodivergent people, to exercise our self-determination with care and understanding. We all deserve the resources, support, training and education we need to love and protect ourselves and one another. This resource divides into three sections: Cripping Abolition, Guiding Principles Based on Disability Justice, and Reforms to Oppose.

Many of the worst features of mass incarceration — such as racial disparities in prisons — can be traced back to policing. Prison Policy Initiative (PPI) research on the policies that impact justice-involved and incarcerated people therefore often intersects with policing issues. Now, at a time when police practices, budgets, and roles in society are at the center of the national conversation about criminal justice, PPI has compiled key work related to policing (and discussions of other researchers’ work) in one briefing.

This page is a hub for this year’s session materials, as well as additional resources related to the topic of PIC abolition, organizing, and healing justice. Click through for more information on the event.

This list is by no means comprehensive. It was compiled by the volunteers at HEARD over a span of several years and last updated in June 2020. HEARD has been working tirelessly to bring an end police brutality against deaf/disabled people. HEARD created this English & Spanish Log of Police Violence Against Deaf People, and we are looking to collect more stories of police brutality against deaf/disabled people. If you want to add your or another person story to this list, please email us at hearddc@gmail.com.