Books on Abolition and Prison Reform for Your Reading List

Check out our selection of abolitionist books covering topics such as mass incarceration, capitalism, prison reform, and racial discrimination, written by or including the work of BIPOC editors and authors. You can purchase any of these titles from the local New York bookseller Books Are Magic both on their website and at their Brooklyn locations:

Dismantling Mass Incarceration: A Handbook for Change by Premal Dharia, James Forman Jr., and Maria Hawilo

A collection of diverse perspectives, this book features the works of advocates, experts, and formerly incarcerated people. To learn more and purchase this book, click here.

Abolition Geography by Ruth Wilson Gilmore

Collecting Ruth Wilson Gilmore’s work from over thirty years, this book covers the connections between racism, geography, and incarceration, drawing from Gilmore’s career as an abolitionist and lifetime of work in carceral geography. To learn more and purchase this book, click here.

Abolition. Feminism. Now. by Angela Davis, Gina Dent, Erica R. Meiners, and Beth E. Richie

This call-to-action showcases the efforts of grassroots organizers who helped to define abolitionist feminist practices and recognizes women-of-color-led feminist movements. To learn more and purchase this book, click here.

Chain Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah

This dystopian novel, a National Book Award finalist, explores how mass incarceration and capitalism go hand-in-hand through the story of incarcerated gladiators. To learn more and purchase this book, click here.

Somebody’s Daughter by Ashley C. Ford

This memoir explores the author’s relationship with her incarcerated father during her adolescence, tackling difficult issues such as sexual assault, poverty, and familial relationships. To learn more and purchase this book, click here.

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness by Michelle Alexander

Winner of the NAACP Image Award and a long-running New York Times bestseller, this tenth-anniversary edition of abolitionist literature includes a preface by Michelle Alexander discussing the book’s impact and a current perspective on the criminal justice reform movement. To learn more and purchase this book, click here.

Are Prisons Obsolete? by Angela Davis

In this comprehensive work, Angela Davis argues for decarceration and offers solutions and strategies that reshape our relationship to crime, incarceration, and the expectation of punishment. To learn more and purchase this book, click here.

WPA’s mission is to make incarceration of women obsolete. To learn more about our programs and services, click here.