We cannot simply do away the police - we need to address the conditions in which people feel that police are the only or best option for responding to harm in their lives. We must build other means for preventing and addressing harm that will actually keep us safe.

On June 15th - 18th 2018, activists from around the world gathered in London for Abolitionist Futures: this year's International Conference on Penal Abolition. Over the weekend, there were over 100 presentations and workshops with contributions from 18 countries, bringing activists and community organisers together to plan for a future where prisons, policing and punishment are no longer used.

Writing for Amaliah, Hejera Begum outlines 3 abolitionist reforms for the UK: Banning police being posted in schools, ending stop and search, and abolishing Prevent.

Campaign Against Prison Expansion put on this excellent panel discussion on prison abolition in the UK.

The World Transformed hosted this excellent panel discussion on police, prisons and immigration enforcement with contributions from Blair Buchanan, Luke Hayes, Dr Tanzil Chowdhury, Rosalind Comyn, Rebecca Roberts, Divya Sundaram and Dr Patrick Williams.

In this video, Professor Ruth Wilson Gilmore examines what a society without prisons looks like. She examines the connections between slavery, racial capitalism and the prison industrial complex.

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.

We take prisons, or jails, for granted - but how effective are they? And are there better alternatives? In this video, Dr David Scott, explores what a world without prisons might be like.

Writing for 4Front, Sara Chitseko argues that prisons fail to tackle the causes of social problems.

Prisoner Solidarity Network’s John Bowden tours Britain’s Prisons: HMP Brixton, HMP Pentonville and HMP Wandsworth.

Sarah Lamble argues about the need to create stronger connections between struggles for gender and sexual justice and movements against mass incarceration

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.

These posters can help us think about what safety is and to imagine the infrastructure we need to keep safe. They were designed by Amber Hughson @conflicttransformation

By thinking about why you feel the need to contact the police, developing your own skills around conflict resolution and educating yourself on what alternatives are available, you can minimise police interference in your area and avoid further endangering those who might be put at physical risk by their presence.

Dr. Adam Elliott-Cooper and Adam Pugh talk to Vice to give their ideas on what defunding the police would look like in the UK.

Imani Robinson notes that harm reduction’s foundations in a radical critique of punishment provides a platform to build alliances between movements that seek to dismantle the ‘war on drugs’ and other other carceral systems.

In this excerpt from the panel entitled The Transmission Line: Empire & Abolition, Kojo Koram sheds light on how hegemonic approaches to drugs since the mid-19th century have served the expansion of the carceral state and imperialism.

The use of drug criminalisation as the legal basis for some 60% of all stops in England and Wales exemplifies the role of punitive drug policy in expanding the reach and harms of policing.

WHRIN and TalkingDrugs highlight how women and non-binary people who use drugs are developing responses to the harms at the intersection of gender and drug prohibition in ways that provide space to collectively heal and undermine systems of policing, punishment and surveillance.

Read a full digital copy of this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1983) No. 14

Read a full digital copy of this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1983) No. 13

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 this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1982) No. 11

Read a full digital copy of this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1982) No. 10

Read a full digital copy of this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1981) No. 9

Read a full digital copy of this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1981) No. 8

Read a full digital copy of this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1981) No. 7

Read a full digital copy of this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1980) No 6

Read a full digital copy of this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1980) No. 5

Read a full digital copy of this edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1980) No 4

Read a full digital copy of this double edition of Radical Alternative to Prison’s journal “The Abolitionist” (1979) No 2/3

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).

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.