Q&A with Decarcerate PA
So who is Decarcerate PA? What are they doing and why are we raising money for them? Check out this Q&A with my buddy Layne from Decarcerate.
Layne, please tell me a little about Decarcerate, PA.
Decarcerate PA began in 2011 to challenge a proposed $685 million expansion of Pennsylvania’s prison system amid drastic cuts to public education, social services and health care. The campaign formed as a coalition of smaller groups who were involved in anti-prison work, mostly based in Philadelphia. We set out to build a campaign to shrink the prison system and expand the community institutions that actually keep us safe—education, employment, housing, reentry, and health care.
In few years since our founding, we have launched our three-point platform demanding: 1) no new prisons, 2) decarceration, and 3) community reinvestment. Our platform has been endorsed by 85 organizations across the state, and thousands of individuals have signed on in support. We have worked to build public consciousness about the problem of prison expansion in Pennsylvania and to develop a statewide movement to end mass incarceration. This work has included creative protests, civil disobedience, and direct actions that have garnered attention both in the media and in political circles:
In the last year, we held a People’s Hearing on Prison Expansion, successfully mobilized to stop or stall six anti-prisoner bills that would extract additional costs and fines from people convicted of crimes, met with dozens of legislators about issues relating to mass incarceration, led the outside support efforts for the 1,300 men at SCI Coal Township who staged a week-long boycott of the dining hall to protest food cutbacks and violations of their human rights, hosted our first statewide network gathering, and began laying the groundwork, along with two of our partner organizations, for a campaign to abolish Life Without Parole sentencing in Pennsylvania.
How many people are organizing with Decarcerate on the inside and rely on newsletters/ mail? Can you talk about the realities of phone calls, email, internet access for people who are in prison?
Right now there are over 50,000 people in the state prison system in Pennsylvania. And that’s just the state system; once you add in county jails, immigrant detention centers, the Federal prisons, juvenile facilities, and secure halfway houses there are thousands and thousands more. Pennsylvania prisoners do not have access to the internet, and phone calls are costly and cannot exceed 15 minutes in length. This means mail is still the primary tool of communication for people who are locked up.
Building a movement that can transcend prison walls is at the core of Decarcerate PA’s work and mail plays a crucial role in making that happen. This inside/outside correspondence is one of the most powerful ways for us to maintain and deepen our connection to people who are incarcerated. It is an opportunity to engage with the wisdom, experiences and organizing expertise of our allies on the inside, a way to bear witness to their experiences, and embodies our commitment to grounding our work in the vision of those most directly impacted by the prison industrial complex.
If a main function of the prison system is to isolate people from their communities and prevent movements from growing in response to racist policies that perpetuate an unjust social order, the postage stamp is one of our most important weapons for breaking down that isolation and for building together towards a system that invests in collective well being rather than confinement.
My personal goal for Carnation Day this year is to raise $1000. What will $1000 for Decarcerate cover?
2040 first class stamps!
How many mailings do you usually do, and what are they?
Decarcerate PA sends a lot of mail! We put out a quarterly newsletter, which we send for free to our members and supporters who are incarcerated. That goes to about 200 people. We also have monthly letter writing nights where we respond to the 50 or so letters we get every month from people on the inside. This correspondence ranges from simple requests for newsletters or information to much longer dialogues about strategies and tactics for ending mass incarceration in PA.
In addition to the mail we send into the prisons, we also engage in write-in campaigns, both to legislators and to the Department of Corrections. That’s probably another few hundred mailings annually.
Speaking of campaigns, are there any current ones you’d like to highlight? What are some easy ways to support them?
Decarcerate PA has a few different campaigns in the works. Along with our allies from the Human Rights Coalition and Fight For Lifers, we are preparing to launch a campaign to abolish Live Without Parole (more accurately called Death By Incarceration) sentences in Pennsylvania. We are also planning for a major demonstration in Harrisburg in the spring to protest a law that was recently passed to limit the free speech of prisoners.
We also have been coordinating outside support for the 1,300 people at SCI Coal Township who staged a week long boycott of the prison dining hall to protest violations of their human rights. One concrete and easy way people can take action to support our work is to sign this petition, addressed to the Department of Corrections, asking them to respect the prisoners’ demands: http://bit.ly/22demands
Decarcerate works with a lot of other organizations and campaigns. Can you name some other orgs or projects doing similar work, in case people want to learn more about the prison abolition landscape in PA?
There are lots of amazing organizations in Pennsylvania who are doing work to end mass incarceration and build strong communities. There are too many to list them all here, but a few that we have worked closely with include Reconstruction Inc., the Human Rights Coalition, the Youth Art & Self-empowerment Project, The Center for Returning Citizens, EXIT-US, Ex-Offenders for Community Empowerment, One Love Movement, New Sanctuary Movement, Books through Bars, Address This, and Let’s Get Free: the Women and Trans Prisoners Defense Committee.
What is Decarcerate PA’s financial situation? What sort of impact will $1000+ have on your bottom line?
Decarcerate PA is an all-volunteer organization with very few traditional sources of funding. We operate on a small budget and the hard work of our many members and supporters. A lot of our money goes to mailing and travel costs, along with creative direct action and occasionally technical equipment for our media work. So $1000 can go a long way for us!
And there you have it. Send a flower, support communities of resistance. Thanks so much to Layne for taking the time to answer these questions for Carnation Day. Do you want to stay in touch with Decarcerate PA after Carnation Day? Some handy links!
web: http://decarceratepa.info
facebook: https://www.facebook.com/DecarceratePA
twitter: https://twitter.com/decarceratepa