This article argues that defunding the police is necessary in Britain. It responds to critics who suggest that defunding the police is US strategy that doesn’t translate well to the UK.

Read a full digital copy of this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1982) No. 12

Read a full digital copy of the first edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1979)

Abolitionist Futures is pleased to host a digital archive of ‘The Abolitionist’ a magazine that was published in Britain between 1979 and 1987 by the group Radical Alternatives to Prison (RAP).

Article by Rohan Rice drawing attention to the neo-liberal austerity measures already taken in relation to police funding that resulted in privatisation. Arguing that abolition of the police, rather than defunding, should be our demand

Sarah Lamble writes about the false promise of hate crime, arguing that longer sentences and widening criminalisation does not increase safety for women

This chart breaks down the difference between reformist reforms which expand the scope of policing, and abolitionist steps that reduce the scale of policing and its detremental impact. It is a UK-relevant resource adapted from a poster created by Critical Resistance in the US.

Campaigning against prisons and the police and attempting to build a just world, free of domination and an economy based on mutual cooperation are not new. Here is an overview of the long history of organisations and individuals in the UK working towards these goals, even if all were not explicitly abolitionist.

Opening Roundtable of the Abolitionist Futures Conference in 2018 with Beth Richie, Ruth Wilson Gilmore and Deborah Coles. Friday 15 June 2018

Sara Chitseko of 4Front writes that body cameras, community policing and police training are not adequate responses to police violence in the UK

Tom Kemp and Koshka Duff discuss what calls to ‘defund the police’ look could look like in the UK.