ckaihatsu
14th May 2017, 14:02
Mama's Day and the Fight to Abolish Bail
An intervention on the long road to abolition
View this email in your browser (http://mailchi.mp/criticalresistance/mamas-day-and-the-fight-to-abolish-bail?e=f269152a76)
Across the US, Black-led groups are organizing as a part of Mama's Bail Out Day (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=24967382dd&e=f269152a76), drawing attention to the need to work for freedom for all Black mamas - all kinds of mamas: caregivers who are trans, femme, queer, masculine of center - while we walk the long hard road towards abolition of the prison industrial complex.
Critical Resistance stands with this effort to advance the abolition of bail and we are inspired to see this conversation gaining ground nationally with such spirit! We encourage you to watch this video to learn (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=91b52b5219&e=f269152a76) about Mama’s Bail Out Day and hear about the origin of this creative idea and how, as Mary Hooks of Southerners On New Ground (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=96fd83ab62&e=f269152a76) says, “Everyone is impacted…and there is something for everyone to do!” This national effort draws attention to the need to end the harshly punitive, racist, and classist bail system and the ways that imprisonment interrupts daily life.
Due to years of organizing from formerly imprisoned people, their loved ones, organizations, lawyers, and advocates, states and municipalities across the country are now exploring reforms to cash bail systems. In recent years, Critical Resistance has joined this work through our No Jails campaigns in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and statewide in California. A staple demand of our No Jails campaigns is to eliminate bail as both a practical and long-term lever to undermine jail expansion efforts. It is also a demand that, if enacted nationally, would win immediate relief for up to 700,000 people who are locked in cages and can't afford bail.
As the bail reform conversations move into the halls and offices of decision-makers, we must collectively hold onto our abolitionist vision. We must push back against reforms that replace cash bail with electronic monitoring and challenge the use of “public safety assessment tools” that exacerbate the inherent racism of policing and the courts systems. The potential limits of reforms cannot however keep us from demanding abolitionist solutions that move us closer to freedom. In the spirit of the struggle to abolish slavery in the US, we must chip away at the prison industrial complex and fight to end the war on Black people.
If you have not yet donated to the Mama's Bail Out Day, you can support the work here (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=d391838291&e=f269152a76) and learn about these incredible actions for liberation. Read below to learn about key ways to think about bail reform.
In Los Angeles we will be participating in our annual Mother's Day Commemoration at Lynwood Women's Jail (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=8e55d29d2c&e=f269152a76) as a part of our effort to stop jail expansion in LA. Join us if you are local or donate (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=f42112d4a7&e=f269152a76).
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686/images/1e85743e-d51f-41de-a5f6-aac8ed07fac1.png
As we work to end cash bail, it must be integrated into our larger work for abolition. To that end, we offer some key ways to think about bail reform:
Many impacted by the need for bail reform are arrested for lower level charges - making up the large numbers held pre-trial in jails - however we cannot turn our backs on community members with more serious charges. We should work for the greatest impact for all people in jail, recognizing also the harsh reality that bail reform may lead to a spike in over-charging by police and district attorneys.
Bail reform must be combined with closures or downsizing of jails so that cages that are emptied are not filled again.
Local communities must work towards radical rethinking of how to resource fundamental needs in our communities that will reduce jailing in the longterm. These include quality and permanent housing, health and mental health care, food, and jobs/education. Whole families and whole communities need to be served through investments. Solutions should not only address an individual's “need” but rather overturn systems and logics of criminalization, policing, and imprisonment.
Solutions must address how loved ones of imprisoned people (including women, children, caregivers, trans and queer people, and dependents) are impacted by policing, jails, prisons, and detention. Solutions must address and change other punitive systems that impact women, children, caregivers, and families such as domestic violence courts, family courts, or agencies such as Dept of Children and Family Services.
Reforms must work to invest in pre-arrest and pre-trial diversion programs that are non punitive, but instead connect people voluntarily to social services, health and mental health care, substance use support, or other wrap around services. We must ensure that these programs are not financed by and operated under law enforcement to the greatest extent possible.
Bail reform must be used as yet another way to expose the white supremacist foundations of policing and work to abolish policing and the use of fines and fees that force people into jail in the first place. We must address and reduce the impact of policing, in particular as targeting poor and working class people of color, immigrants, queer people, and people with mental health needs. Dismantle and defund the police.
Together we must build localized and community based capacities for transformative and restorative justice.
Facebook (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=5593160093&e=f269152a76)
Twitter (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=4a76143543&e=f269152a76)
Website (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=bb916d4f10&e=f269152a76)
Forward (http://us4.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=50db8a3fc9&e=f269152a76)
Copyright © 2017 Critical Resistance, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you have provided your contact info to Critical Resistance.
Our mailing address is:
Critical Resistance
1904 Franklin St.
Suite 504
Oakland, CA 94612
Add us to your address book (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage2.com/vcard?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=14702ff0eb)
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DonateNow (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=a5b7bea078&e=f269152a76)
An intervention on the long road to abolition
View this email in your browser (http://mailchi.mp/criticalresistance/mamas-day-and-the-fight-to-abolish-bail?e=f269152a76)
Across the US, Black-led groups are organizing as a part of Mama's Bail Out Day (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=24967382dd&e=f269152a76), drawing attention to the need to work for freedom for all Black mamas - all kinds of mamas: caregivers who are trans, femme, queer, masculine of center - while we walk the long hard road towards abolition of the prison industrial complex.
Critical Resistance stands with this effort to advance the abolition of bail and we are inspired to see this conversation gaining ground nationally with such spirit! We encourage you to watch this video to learn (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=91b52b5219&e=f269152a76) about Mama’s Bail Out Day and hear about the origin of this creative idea and how, as Mary Hooks of Southerners On New Ground (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=96fd83ab62&e=f269152a76) says, “Everyone is impacted…and there is something for everyone to do!” This national effort draws attention to the need to end the harshly punitive, racist, and classist bail system and the ways that imprisonment interrupts daily life.
Due to years of organizing from formerly imprisoned people, their loved ones, organizations, lawyers, and advocates, states and municipalities across the country are now exploring reforms to cash bail systems. In recent years, Critical Resistance has joined this work through our No Jails campaigns in San Francisco, Los Angeles, and statewide in California. A staple demand of our No Jails campaigns is to eliminate bail as both a practical and long-term lever to undermine jail expansion efforts. It is also a demand that, if enacted nationally, would win immediate relief for up to 700,000 people who are locked in cages and can't afford bail.
As the bail reform conversations move into the halls and offices of decision-makers, we must collectively hold onto our abolitionist vision. We must push back against reforms that replace cash bail with electronic monitoring and challenge the use of “public safety assessment tools” that exacerbate the inherent racism of policing and the courts systems. The potential limits of reforms cannot however keep us from demanding abolitionist solutions that move us closer to freedom. In the spirit of the struggle to abolish slavery in the US, we must chip away at the prison industrial complex and fight to end the war on Black people.
If you have not yet donated to the Mama's Bail Out Day, you can support the work here (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=d391838291&e=f269152a76) and learn about these incredible actions for liberation. Read below to learn about key ways to think about bail reform.
In Los Angeles we will be participating in our annual Mother's Day Commemoration at Lynwood Women's Jail (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=8e55d29d2c&e=f269152a76) as a part of our effort to stop jail expansion in LA. Join us if you are local or donate (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=f42112d4a7&e=f269152a76).
https://gallery.mailchimp.com/b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686/images/1e85743e-d51f-41de-a5f6-aac8ed07fac1.png
As we work to end cash bail, it must be integrated into our larger work for abolition. To that end, we offer some key ways to think about bail reform:
Many impacted by the need for bail reform are arrested for lower level charges - making up the large numbers held pre-trial in jails - however we cannot turn our backs on community members with more serious charges. We should work for the greatest impact for all people in jail, recognizing also the harsh reality that bail reform may lead to a spike in over-charging by police and district attorneys.
Bail reform must be combined with closures or downsizing of jails so that cages that are emptied are not filled again.
Local communities must work towards radical rethinking of how to resource fundamental needs in our communities that will reduce jailing in the longterm. These include quality and permanent housing, health and mental health care, food, and jobs/education. Whole families and whole communities need to be served through investments. Solutions should not only address an individual's “need” but rather overturn systems and logics of criminalization, policing, and imprisonment.
Solutions must address how loved ones of imprisoned people (including women, children, caregivers, trans and queer people, and dependents) are impacted by policing, jails, prisons, and detention. Solutions must address and change other punitive systems that impact women, children, caregivers, and families such as domestic violence courts, family courts, or agencies such as Dept of Children and Family Services.
Reforms must work to invest in pre-arrest and pre-trial diversion programs that are non punitive, but instead connect people voluntarily to social services, health and mental health care, substance use support, or other wrap around services. We must ensure that these programs are not financed by and operated under law enforcement to the greatest extent possible.
Bail reform must be used as yet another way to expose the white supremacist foundations of policing and work to abolish policing and the use of fines and fees that force people into jail in the first place. We must address and reduce the impact of policing, in particular as targeting poor and working class people of color, immigrants, queer people, and people with mental health needs. Dismantle and defund the police.
Together we must build localized and community based capacities for transformative and restorative justice.
Facebook (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=5593160093&e=f269152a76)
Twitter (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=4a76143543&e=f269152a76)
Website (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage1.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=bb916d4f10&e=f269152a76)
Forward (http://us4.forward-to-friend.com/forward?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=50db8a3fc9&e=f269152a76)
Copyright © 2017 Critical Resistance, All rights reserved.
You are receiving this email because you have provided your contact info to Critical Resistance.
Our mailing address is:
Critical Resistance
1904 Franklin St.
Suite 504
Oakland, CA 94612
Add us to your address book (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage2.com/vcard?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=14702ff0eb)
unsubscribe from this list update subscription preferences
DonateNow (http://criticalresistance.us4.list-manage2.com/track/click?u=b64cbc94231b3bae71ab83686&id=a5b7bea078&e=f269152a76)