Transformative Justice
Books that provide solutions to navigating and resolving harm without / in opposition to the presence of carcerality (i.e. the interconnected systems of police, prisons, criminalization, punishment, surveillance, etc). In other words, it is a form of abolition and decolonization in practice re: accountability.
As an introduction, here is a primer to transformative justice: https://transformharm.org/tj_resource/transformative-justice-a-brief-description/
Feedback and recommendations welcome!
created by literatedyke
last updated June, 2026
Comments
I love this approach and would love to learn more about it, I read Are Prisons Obsolete? not too long ago and I have been looking for similar resources since! Excellent list
Oh yay, I'm glad this is helpful for you then! I actually didn't expect many people here to come across this list or find this lens to be very new to them, but I'm appreciative that it's useful in that way :) Would you like any further introductory resources to transformative justice that are not books? If not, I totally respect that and no pressure!
I would be especially interested in learning more about alternatives to the prison system. Restorative justice in particular was something that caught my attention in Are Prisons Obsolete? and that I had never heard of before. I have already saved a few Youtube videos on the topic but feel free to share if you have any other resources!
Disclaimer: this list and these books are not meant to be a definitive "guide" to transformative justice as a practice and lens; it's moreso an introduction, exploration, and collection of books written on this topic.
I wanted to be clear about this because from my own experience in doing political education work (and just living lol), these topics and practices are very expansive and not one-size-fits-all. I also have not read all the books listed.
If it would be helpful for me to add non-book resources on transformative justice here in the comment section too, that's something I can work on!
loooove!!
ooh i love this list!! thank you for putting it together đź’—
Love this!! Not a recommendation necessarily because I haven’t read it yet, but one I’m excited to read soon is Until We Reckon by Danielle Sered
Thanks! That sounds cool, btw! If/when you read it, I'd love to hear what you think and if you do recommend it, I can add it to the list :)
Oh I can’t wait to dive into these books! I’ve been struggling with the school to prison pipeline and the South’s (US southeast’s) hyper-punitive approach to juvenile crime, so the concept of transformative justice is quite alluring!
I hope the list is helpful for you! :) I remember We Do This 'Til We Free Us by Mariame Kaba (in this list) has at least one chapter dedicated to that topic. A good pairing that's also relevant there is @wednesdaymourning's list on the school-to-prison pipeline here: https://pagebound.co/lists/c07b7ce1-9aad-41c8-8003-dc8ff34fe9b8 (not sure how to hyperlink 🥲)
I'll definitely look into them! Thank you!
