Stop a jail in your town
If you’re wondering whether your county really needs more jail cells – or if you’re already determined that it doesn’t, we have put together some resources to help you and your neighbors sort through what some of the key issues are, what the policy alternatives to jail expansion are and what you can do to move your county away from a disastrous jail expansion project.
RESOURCES
1 - Start here
Short and simple guides and fact-sheets from Community Alternatives to Jail Expansion (CAJE)
2 - Organizing Basics
A chapter from CPMP’s How to Stop a Prison in Your Town on organizing basics.
3 - Toolkit
Sample tools from recent jail fights in California
- CURB: 10 Razones Para Luchar En Contra De La Nueva Carcel En San Mateo (1 pg)
- CURB: 10 Alternativas A La Construccion De La Nueva Carcel En El Condado De San Mateo (1 pg)
- CURB: 10 Alternative to a New SMC Jail (1 pg)
- CURB: 10 Reasons to Fight the SMC jail (1 pg)
- CURB: San Francisco Jail Info Sheet (1 pg)
- CURB: Sample Press Release (2 pg)
- CURB: Jail Tax Flyer (1 pg)
- CURB: How to De-Bunk Your Sheriff’s Justification for Jail Expansion
- CURB: Jail Construction Funding Fact Sheet
- Critical Resistance: No New Jails Fresno Fact Sheet
4 - What to Read
Take a deeper dive into the talking points against new jails and jail expansion with these media pieces.
- The People’s Plan for Prison Closure: CURB’s 2021 in-depth report (48 pg)
- What California Could Do With $500 Million, Instead of Build New Jails
- A Reflection on the No More Jails Campaign in Champaign County
- Audio file: No More Jails Champaign County Talk 2.21.14
Summary on how and why to abolish bail, the simplest way to reduce the ‘need’ for more jail cells:
- Justice Policy Institute: Bail Fail: Why the U.S. should end the practice of using money for bail. Executive summary. (8 pg)
Great overview of what’s wrong with jail expansion & what the alternatives are:
- Amanda Petteruti & Nastassia Walsh: Jailing Communities: The Impact of Jail Expansion and Effective Public Safety Strategies (38 pg)
The human cost of holding people in jail because they can’t raise bail money:
- Albert Samaha: Barred from Freedom: How Pretrial Detention Ruins Lives (11 pg)
Additional Articles & Resources
- James Austin: Assessing and Managing Your Jail Population: a Toolkit for Practitioners – http://www.ca-ilg.org/sites/main/files/file-attachments/jailassessmentoolkit10_31_12.pdf
- Robert C. Boruchowitz/NACDL: Minor Crimes, Massive Waste: The Terrible Toll of America’s Broken Misdemeanor Courts – http://www.nacdl.org/public.nsf/defenseupdates/misdemeanor/$FILE/Report.pdf
- BJS: A Second Look at Alleviating Jail Crowding: A Systems Perspective – http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/bja/182507.pdf
- CPMP: How to Stop a Prison in Your Town (http://www.calipmp.org/documents (in English or Spanish)
- Craig Gilmore: Real Cost of Prisons Project: “Prison Towns: Paying the Price”
- Dana Kaplan/CAJE: Impacts of Jail Expansion in New York State: A Hidden Burden – http://www.ccr-ny.org/v2/reports/docs/CCR_NYS_Jail_Report.pdf
- Magnus Lofstrom and Katherine Kramer/PPIC: Capacity Challenges in California’s Jails – http://www.ppic.org/main/publication_quick.asp?i=1034
- Sarah Lyons and Nastassia Walsh/Justice Policy Institute: Money Well Spent: How positive social investments will reduce incarceration rates, improve public safety, and promote the well-being of communities – http://www.justicepolicy.org/images/upload/10-09_REP_MoneyWellSpent_PS-DC-AC-JJ.pdf
- Los Angeles Conservancy: Using CEQA to Protect Your Community – http://www.laconservancy.org/preservation/CEQA_english.pdf
- Vera Institute: Making the Transition: Rethinking Jail Reentry in Los Angeles County: fact sheet – http://www.vera.org/sites/default/files/resources/downloads/making-the-transition-fact-sheet.pdf