Resources

Our work was grounded in the goal of abolishing the prison system, supporting those harmed by it, and building sustainable collective alternatives. The following materials and resources provide an introduction to this set of ideas and goals, if you are unfamiliar with the principles of abolition or looking to expand your existing knowledge:

  • This masterpost provides a list of links to free .pdf versions of books exploring race, gender, sexuality and class, including Angela Davis’ book Are Prisons Obsolete?
  • Smash IPP was a collective of people fighting for the release of IPP (Imprisonment for Public Protection) prisoners, and the abolition of life licenses. An archive of their work can be found here.
  • ‘What can I do?’ resources from Angela Kirwin can be found here.
  • Abolitionist Futures provide resources and run abolition reading groups.

Support for people in prison

The following organisations do valuable work supporting incarcerated people:

  • The Bent Bars Project is a letter-writing project for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, transsexual, gender-variant, intersex, and queer prisoners in Britain. The project was founded in 2009, responding to a clear need to develop stronger connections and build solidarity between LGBTQ communities inside and outside prison walls.
  • Borderline Books redistributes second hand books to under-served and marginalised communities in the UK, including people in prison.
  • Haven Distribution aims to provide practical support to prisoners within the UK in the form of educational literature and dictionaries.
  • The Nejma Collective is a UK-based collective of Muslim volunteers who work in solidarity with people in prison by sharing resources and mutual support. People inside can write to them for free at: Freepost – NEJMA COLLECTIVE.

Campaigns, organisations and activist networks

  • Community Action on Prison Expansion (CAPE) is a grassroots coalition of groups fighting prison expansion in our own communities and in solidarity with others.
  • The Solidarity Apothecary materially supports revolutionary struggles and communities with plant medicines to strengthen collective autonomy, self-defence and resilience to climate change, capitalism and state violence.

Books Beyond Bars UK, Registered company number: 11762572