An Open Letter Demanding Community Services and An End to Pretrial Detention and Gender-Based Imprisonment in New York City
Read Below + Sign now + Press Release
As people committed to abolition, Black freedom, and ending racial and gender violence, we oppose New York City’s proposal to open a new jail for “women and gender-expansive people” in the Harlem-based Lincoln Correctional Facility, a New York State prison until 2019. In the context of our concern for all people incarcerated at Rikers, in conditions that desperately call for an alternative, we believe that this proposed jail is a continuation of carceral violence.
Rikers is, and has been, a site of torture for all who are incarcerated there. This dire situation urgently necessitates a real solution, namely, the immediate shuttering of all the jails on Rikers, the defunding of the NYC Department of Corrections, and investment in anti-carceral projects that do not create more suffering and harm. These solutions must not expand and legitimate a present and future of human caging. We urge that the people currently incarcerated on Rikers and in the Rose M. Singer Center — along with criminalized people, formerly-incarcerated people, organizers, and everyone committed to abolition — create and fight for an alternative plan that begins with universal pretrial release, investing in non-carceral, non-custodial community-based resources, and the decriminalization of survival.
Some of us became involved in this anti-carceral and racial and gender justice work after experiencing incarceration and detention in our own lives and the lives of loved ones. We invite community members, organizers, racial and gender justice advocates, abolitionists, and currently and formerly incarcerated people to stand in opposition to this jail construction plan, insidiously cloaked in the language of feminism, community-control, and decarceration.
Criminalized people, regardless of gender, need the support, resources, and freedom from violence and containment that only being in community, and having access to community-based/community-led resources can provide. We insist on the need to be free of the violence — which includes community separation — that defines incarceration and reject the contention that gender oppressed people are only deserving of a prison of their own. We know this plan, like other efforts to repackage incarceration as humane and progressive, does not chart us away from the prison industrial complex. We cannot rely on exchanging COs for social workers.The fight for non-carceral futures and community wellbeing is all the more urgent in the aftermath of the 2020 global rebellions, when municipal, state, and federal agencies have pursued projects to expand carceral capacity, often under the guise of reform.
We reject the rhetoric that a new jail could ever be a model for community development or criminal punishment reform. The plan treats historically Black, Latinx, and working-class neighborhoods as the ideal settings for jails. Most of those who would be sent to this “Women’s Center for Justice” are Black and Latinx survivors of gendered violence and systemic racism. The plan therefore perpetuates a racial geography and history of of violence at a time when the city and state of New York have pushed forward austerity measures despite residents of these neighborhoods calling for local, life-sustaining initiatives: access to affordable and quality food, housing, healthcare and childcare, funding for transportation and public education, and truly transformative and reparative responses to interpersonal harm.
Despite explicit acknowledgment that the WCJ would hold people who have experienced brutal forms of gender discrimination and violence, the proposed jail perpetuates violence in the lives of the Black and brown, working class, disabled, immigrant, trans and cis women and nonbinary survivors who will inevitably be caged here. From sexual violence on the plantations to forced sterilization in state prisons and ICE centers, punishment in this country has always been gendered and racialized. This latest gender-responsive “innovation” to cage people of color is more of the murderous status quo.
Some feminists are currently endorsing this jail construction plan, perhaps on the mistaken belief that a “feminist jail” is the best that criminalized, gender oppressed people can hope for. The rationale for this jail, which follows a plan that was recently shut down by a broad coalition in Austin, is similar to those regularly given for gender responsive prisons and jails: that they will protect women; provide services that women uniquely need; be less draconian; and that they will be more accessible to visitors, especially children. But as the long history of revolutionary feminist, anti-racist organizing teaches us, gender justice, racial justice, and abolition are incompatable with incarceration. From the rebellions that have continuously rocked Bedford Hills to the Free Joan Little and Free Angela Davis campaigns of the 1970s, to Families for Justice as Healing’s prison construction moratorium plan, feminists have long demanded and articulated visions of justice, repair, and healing for transformative futures.
Columbia University’s and University of Texas at Austin’s support for jail expansion misappropriates university resources to entrench structural violence. In this case, the plan for the new jail also contradicts the Women’s Community Justice Association’s mission to ameliorate the lives of system-impacted women and the Columbia University Justice Lab’s mission to further community healing, justice, and abolition democracy. We invite you to join us in rejecting this plan and stand on the side of the growing abolitionist movement for collective liberation.
We, the undersigned, demand the academic and nonprofit organizations currently planning and lobbying for the WCJ to immediately rescind their support to realign with their abolitionist mission, principles, and grant allocations. We demand that these organizations make the allocation of any abolition-named funds transparent to the broader community.
We demand that Governor Hochul, Mayor Adams, and the New York State Legislature reject the current jail construction plan.
We demand an alternative plan that begins with universal pretrial release, investing in non-carceral, non-custodial community-based resources, and the decriminalization of survival. We urge that the people currently incarcerated on Rikers and in the Rose M. Singer Center — along with criminalized people, formerly-incarcerated people, community members, organizers and others committed to abolition — create and fight for a present and future without confinement.
The organizers of this letter recommend the following resources. For more information on the borough based jails, visit nonewjailsnyc.com. For more information on the history of failed women’s incarceration in NYC, visit Jarrod Shanahan and Jack Norton’s online writing and book. For what we might build instead, visit Interrupting Criminalization.
Signatories
(affiliations listed for identification purposes only)
* indicates directly impacted, currently, or formerly incarcerated
A. Naomi Paik, University of Illinois, Chicago
AB McDade, Coach
Abby McLain, Educator
Abigail Barefoot, Northwestern University
Abigail Boggs, Wesleyan University
Abigail Everett, Barnard College
Abou Farman, The New School
Addi
Adom Getachew, Author and professor
Adam Hite
Aerin Abrams, Student Collective for Abolitionist Learning, Master’s Student in Public Affairs and Social Work, University of Texas- Austin
Agatha Slupek, Ph.D., University of Chicago
Ai Miller, University of Minnesota
Aine Pierre
Aisha Finch, Emory University
Alainna Lynch, Researcher
Alaina Hohnarth
Alex Graff, Medical Student (Emergency Medicine), Musician
Alli Antar
Alysia Reiner Actress, Artivist, Harlem resident
Ajshe Sulejmani
Aleena Hanson
Alex Lubin, Penn State University
Alex C. Valin, Graduate Worker, Columbia University
Alex van Biema, Vassar College
Alex S Vitale, Policing and Social Justice Project
Alex Zucker
Alexa Lee-Hassan
Alexander Weheliye, Professor
Alexandra H. Smith, Public Defender, member of HALT and JAC coalitions
Alexis Marcoux Rouleau, PhD Candidate in Criminology, Université de Montréal
Alexis Soterakis
Alfredo Morales, Free Grocery Store
Alice Rivers, Abolitionist and survivor mutual aid organizer
Alise Mackey, Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow — Wesleyan University
Alissa Norton, Universal College of Learning, LN
Alycia Castillo, Texas Center for Justice and Equity
Alyshia Gonzalez, Anti-Oppression Education*
Alisa Bierria, Ph.D., Assistant Professor, UCLA; Co-founder, Survived & Punished
Alisa Gayle-Deutsch
Allison Corbett
Allison Watkins, Graduate of the University of Texas- Austin
Ally
Alyosha Goldstein, Professor of American Studies, University of New Mexico
Alyshia Gonzalez, Anti-Oppression Education*
Alexios Rosario-Moore, University of Illinois Chicago
Amanda Alexander, Detroit Justice Center *
Amanda Kreider, Postdoctoral Fellow at the University of Pennsylvania
Amber Rogers
Amelia Goldber, NYU Law
Amelia Kirby
Amelia Yankey
Amita Swadhin, Mirror Memoirs
Amy Herzog, City University of New York
Amy Tong, Columbia College Class of 2018
Amrita Chakraborty, Graduate Student, Cornell University
Ana Noriega, Library Worker
Ana Maria Rodriguez
Ana Vuk-Pavlovic, Attorney
Anaheed Mobaraki, Columbia Law School
Anna Fernandez, PhD Student, University of Washington
Ananya Roy, Director, UCLA Luskin Institute on Inequality and Democracy
Anastacia
Anastassia Haynes
Andrea Bernal
Andrea J. Ritchie, Interrupting Criminalization
Andrea James, The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls *
Andrew Dilts, Loyola Marymount University
Angela Thomas , Abolition Apostles
Angela Y. Davis, UC Santa Cruz *
Angela Cai, Critical Resistance NYC
Anika Seth, Yale College
Ann Fink, PhD
Anna Sugrue, The Remedy Project
Annaya Baynes
Anne Bonds, Associate Professor, University of Wisconsin- Milwaukee
Anne Gray Fischer, Author, The Streets Belong to Us: Sex, Race, and Police Power from Segregation to Gentrification
Annie Lo, NYU Law
Anthony Reed, Vanderbilt University
Antonio Buehler, Peaceful Streets Project
Anupama Rao, Barnard College and Columbia University
Aradhna Tripati, UCLA*
Ari K*
Arianne E. Miller, PhD, San Diego State University
Ariel Hart, UCLA and Charles R. Drew University
Ariel Mae Lambe, Associate Professor, Department of History, University of Connecticut, Columbia University Graduate School Class of 2014
Ariel Nix
Artie Vierkant, Death Panel
Asha Ramachandran, NY YCL Prison Abolition Subcommittee
Ashley R. Council
Ashley M. Lagrange, Therapist
Ashon Crawley, Associate Professor, Religious Studies and African American Studies, University of Virginia
Asian American Feminist Collective
Astra Taylor, Debt Collective
Aubrey Robinson
Audrey Gow, alumni of University of Texas- Austin
Austen Walker, Pennsylvania State University
Austin Frizzell, The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls
Avalon Betts-Gaston, IL Alliance for Reentry & Justice*
Aviva Galpert
Ayanna Spencer, UConn
B. Garcia
Bailey Demir, Anchorage Community Action Night organizer
Barbara Ransby, writer, historian, and activist
Baylee Basila
Bed-Stuy Strong Abolition Working Group
Bella Robinson, COYOTE RI*
Bella Week, Teachers Unite
Ben Hulett, Columbia University
Ben Land
Benjamin Lundberg Torres Sánchez, We Are Holding This; 2022 Broadway Advocacy Coalition Fellow
Benji Cashin, CSSW
Brendan Shiller, PCG Law Group
Beth Ashby, Recruiting
Beth Capper, University of Alberta
Bethe Newell
Beth E. Richie, Professor and Co-Author, Abolition. Feminism. Now
Bianca Herrera, Columbia School of Social Work
Blair Blue
Borys Niewiadomski
Bria Massey, Justice Informatics Group, Columbia University Department of Biomedical Informatics
Brian Cabral, PhD Candidate in Race, Inequality, and Language in Education, Stanford University
Brian Pitman, PhD, Assistant Professor of Sociology
Brianna Suslovic, PhD Student, University of Chicago
Bright D Limm 임대중
Brittney Cooper, Author and Professor
Bryonn Bain, The Center for Justice at UCLA *
Byron Barahona
C. Riley Snorton, Author and professor
Cailyn Potami
Caitlin Maloney, University of Washington
Cam Camacho
Cami Dominguez
Cami Jones
Candice Crutchfield, Columbia Alumna & Ohio State University PhD Student
Caren Holmes, Sisters Uncut
Carl Owens
Carla Smith
Carmen Catherine Alfaro
Carmen White Janak, InnerView Consulting Group/Mental Health Advocate
Caroline
Carolyn Lau, Columbia University
Carrie Naughton
Cassius Adair, The New School
Casey Berner, PhD Student, CUNY Graduate Center
Catherine Farley
Catherine Lori
Cathy J. Cohen, Author, activist, and professor
Celeste Brewer, Archivist, Columbia University Libraries
Chalay Chalermkraivuth, Survived & Punished NY member
Chanda Prescond-Weinstein, Theoretical Physicist and Writer
Chandan Reddy, Associate Professor at University of Washington
Chandra Talpade Mohanty, Syracuse University
Chandra Cruz Thomson, Collective Liberation Network
Charlene A. Carruthers , Writer, Filmmaker, Black Studies Scholar
Charles Buchana, Homes for All St. Louis
Charlie Basson
Charlie Squire, Goldsmiths, University of London
Charlotte Barber
Charlotte Carpenter
Charlotte Pope, Teachers Unite
Charlotte Rosen, Northwestern University
Charmaine Chua, University of California, Santa Barbara
Charolais R. Soto, Re/creation Writers Collective*
Che Gossett
Chicago Torture Justice Memorials (Chicago, IL)
Chloé Cunha
Chinatown Art Brigade
Christian Nesfield, Eugene Lang 22'
Christina Dacanay
Christina Hanhardt, Faculty, University of Maryland, College Park
Christina Morton
Christina Roe, Columbia School of Social Work Student
Christina Sharpe, professor and writer, Canada Research Chair
Christine m.a. marzano
Christopher Paul Harris, University of California, Irvine
Christopher Soto, UCLA Institute of American Cultures
Christopher Walsh
Cindy Hwang, Art Against Displacement
Cintia Shamsu
Claire Zuo, CC 2020
Clara Kraebber
Clarissa Brooks, Journalism, University of Texas-Austin
Claryn Spies, Villanova University
Claudia Peña, Center for Justice at UCLA *
Cole Meyer, Student Collective for Abolitionist Learning, University of Texas-Austin LBJ School of Public Affairs
Colby Lenz, UCLA’s Center for the Study of Women; California Coalition for Women Prisoners
Colleen McCormack-Maitland, Survived & Punished NY; attorney
Columbia University Family Medicine Interest Group
Columbia University Primary Care Progress
Columbia University Students for Justice in Palestine
Columbia University Students for a National Health Program
Communities of Color United for Racial Justice (Austin, Texas)
Conchita Singson, NYC DOE
Connie Wun, AAPI Women Lead
Conrad Woolfe
Corinna Mullin, City University of New York (CUNY)
Courtney Bambrick, Writer, Professor, Editor
Courtney Hammett, writer/activist/grad student at UNO
Craig Willse
Cynthia Ramirez
Cynthia Yuan Gao, New York University, CC ‘12
Dale Mcenany, Columbia University — Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow
Damien Sojoyner, University of California, Irvine
Dan Berger, Author of Captive Nation: Black Prison Organizing in the Civil Rights Era
Dani Pugliese, Tech Specialist
Dana-Ain Davis, Professor *
Dana Keyes-Gibbons
Daniel Matza-Brown, Attorney
Danielle Altchiler, NYU Law
Danielle Metz, National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls*
Danielle M. Wenner, Department of Philosophy, Carnegie Mellon University
Darakshan Raja , Muslims for Just Futures/Muslim Abolitionist Futures
Davarian Baldwin, Professor and Director of Smart Cities Research Lab, Trinity College
Dave Tavalin
Davi Sherman
David Borgonjon, Department of East Asian Languages and Culture, Columbia University
David George
David Sledge, Columbia University
David Stein, Assistant Professor of History, UCSB
Davielle Lakind, Mercer University
Dawn V. Woolen
Dayo F. Gore, Associate Professor, Georgetown University
Dean Spade, Professor, Seattle University School of Law.
DeAnna Baumle, public health policy analyst
Deb Vargas, Professor
Debbie Kilroy, Sisters Inside*
Deborah Kent*
Demi Amideneau
Denish Jaswal, PhD Candidate Harvard University
Dennis Childs, Associate Professor of African American Literature & Prison Abolition (UCSD)
Dennis Hill, Passaic County Community College
Derecka Purnell, Initiative for a Just Society, Columbia Center for Contemporary Critical Thought, Columbia Law School
Detention Watch Network
Diana Colavita, Survived and Punished NY
Diana Scholl
Diego Millan
Dinesh McCoy
Dion Nania, the New School for Social Research
Ditra Edwards, SISTA Fire
Divya Persaud, Researcher
Diya Bose, William and Mary
Diya Vij
Dominique Grant, Women on the Rise *
Donna Nevel, PARCEO
Dorcas Adedoja, Columbia University Mailman School of Public Health Alumni Board Vice President
Dorian Riggs, Brooklyn College Student
Dorothy Roberts, University of Pennsylvania
Douglas Pepe*
Dr. Alexandra Juhasz, Brooklyn College, CUNY
Dr. Erin O’ Callaghan, St. Xavier University
Dr. Sukhmani Singh, Assistant Professor
Dr. Topeka K. Sam, The Ladies of Hope Ministries INC.*
DRUM — Desis Rising Up & Moving
Dylan Brown, NYU Prison Education Program
Dylan James, CUNY Law Class of 2024*
Dylan Rodriguez, University of California, American Studies Association, Scholars for Social Justice, Critical Resistance
Edith Pope
Eileen Murray, Math for America
Eleanor Yousif, Columbia University Medical Center
Elena Gambino, Rutgers University (Assistant Professor of Political Science)
Eleanor Grauke, University of Pennsylvania
Elena Messinger, Columbia College ‘23
Eli Hadley
Eli Dun, NYU Silver School of Social Work
Elianna Mor, Child Psychologist
Elijah Stevens
Elisabeth Jahn-Morrissey
Eliza Armstrong
Elizabeth Alsop, City University of New York
Elizabeth Atkins
Elizabeth Epps, Colorado Freedom Fund*
Elizabeth Hinton, Yale Law School and Departments of History and African American Studies, Yale University
Elizabeth Holdsworth
Elizabeth Nomura, CCWP Prison Abolition/Reentry Advocate*
Elizabeth Oh, NYC DSA
Elizabeth Tracy
Ella Files, CSSW Student
Ellie Olsen
Eluned, Organizer
Em Brignac, Texas Abolitionists *
Emily Hobson, Historian, Professor, and Activist
Emilee Pelletier
Emily Davidson, PhD, Research Associate at The Ohio State University
Emily Drabinski, CUNY Graduate Center
Emily Olson, Columbia University Class of 2022
Emily Thuma, Author of All Our Trials: Prisons, Policing, and the Feminist Fight to End Violence
Emily Whalen, Attorney
Emily Szaflarski
Emma Martin, Farm Worker
Emma Pliskin, Survived and Punished
Emma Shaw Crane, Society of Fellows, Columbia University
Emmie DiCicco, Student Collective for Abolitionist Learning
Eric Reinhart, Northwestern University
Eric A Stanley, Associate Professor, Gender and Women’s Studies, UC Berkeley
Erica R. Edwards, Author of The Other Side of Terror: Black Women and the Culture of U.S. Empire
Erica R. Meiners, Author and professor
Erin
Erin Angelini
Erin Curley
Erin Eife, NSF Postdoctoral Research Fellow
Erin Mysogland, Showing Up For Racial Justice NYC / Educator
Erin Riordan
Eris Free
Esther Lee, Mental Health Therapist, Public Defender
Esther Vasquez
Eunice Park
Eva Baldinger
Eve Glazier, Organizer and student at Columbia University
Eve Kausch, MLIS Student, University of Washington
Eve Peskin
Eve Rosahn, Esq.*
Fabienne Doucet, New York University
Families for Freedom, Immigrant Rights Organization
Fern Onoclea
Finn Collom
Fiona LairdColumbia University Alumna
Florida Prisoner Solidarity
Frank Guridy, Columbia University
Franklin Sussman
Fred Moten, NYU
Gabriel Arkles, Alyssa Rodriguez Center for Gender Justice
Gabriel Radley
Gabriel Solis, Student Workers of Columbia University
Gabriela Vicoroska
Gail T. Smith, Children’s Best Interest Project
Garrett Felber, Study and Struggle
Gautham Thomas
Gayle Stamus, Rush University Medical Center, MA Nursing Candidate
Georgiann Davis, Scholar Activist
Geryel Osorio Godoy, Graduate Student
Gil Hochberg, Columbia University
Gianna Mosser, Vanderbilt University Press
Gina Dent, University of California, Santa Cruz
Gina C. Williams, HS-BCPCommunity Leader
Glennisha Morgan-Folks, Detroit Justice Center
Graciela Razo, Harm Reductionist
Grace Kyungwon Hong, Director, Center for the Study of Women and Professor of Gender Studies and Asian American Studies, UCLA
Greg Mingo , RAPP *
Gregory Herrera, Public Defender and Lecturer-in-Law at Columbia Law School
Griffin Epstein, Professor of Social Service Work
Hadass Wade, Bed-Stuy Strong
Hailey Corkery
Hana Uman
Hannah Appel, PhD, University of California, Los Angeles
Hannah Colfax-Lamoureux, Barnard College
Hannah Fogarty
Hannah Marcus, Public Health Student
Hannah Rosner, Public Defender
Hannah Werdmuller
Hannah Widercrantz
Hannah Zack
Hari Ziyad
Hazel V. Carby, Professor Emeritus Yale and Writer
heather barr, human rights lawyer
Heather Booth
Heather Huguenor
Heather Sessler, Musician and Library Assistant
Heather Walker
Heena Sharma
Heidi Adelsman, Nurse and Public Health Advocate
Helaine Meisler, Jews Say No!
Helen Bolton, Center for Reproductive Rights Union, UAW Local 2210
Helen Campbell, NYU School of Law JD 22'
Helen Guzman
Helina Meressa
Hilarie Ashton, CUNY
Hilary Rasch, Brown University
Housing Equity Project
Ian Alexander, Wellesley College
Ibtihal Malley, Barnard alum
Imani Perry , Professor and Writer
Irena Huang
Iris Morales, Activist and Author
Isabela Muldoon
Isabella Irtifa, Columbia University Alumni
Iveliz Orellano
Iya Nori Moremi, S&P NY *
Jaboa Lake, Liberation researcher, Community Organizer*
Jack Halberstam, Columbia University
Jack Norton, Researcher
Jack Pacelle
Jackie Pereira, MSW Student
Jacinda Tran, doctoral candidate in American Studies
Jacob Conway, Small Business Owner
Jaden Janak, BYP100; Abolition Apostles
Jahmil Roberts, mental health + healing justice*
Jaime M. Grant, National LGBTQ+ Women’s Community Survey
Jahnavi Jagannath, NYU Law
Jake Gagne, Yale University, Columbia College 2016
Jalyn Houston, Charlotte Uprising
Jamal Joseph, Columbia University*
James (Andy) Hall
James Kleinfeld, Al Jazeera
Jamie Kim, Officer of the Student Collective for Abolitionist Learning (SCAL) at the University of Texas — Austin
Jamie Park, Dartmouth College
Jane Argodale, MSW ’23, Western Carolina University
Jane M.Dorotik*
Jane Hirschmann, Community organizer and author
Jane Lehr, California Polytechnic State University
Janee Ronca
Janesse Leung, Gallery Director, Evangeline Artists’ Co-op
Janet Jakobsen, WGSS, Barnard College
JANIE WILLIAMS, Esq., Advocate & Organizer
Jared Chausow
Jasmeen Nijjar*
Jasmine Leeward, Artist, Filmmaker, 2022 Broadway Advocacy Coalition Fellow
Jay Sunrise
Jay Ting Walker, Green Party of Pennsylvania co-chair (GPUS has endorsed #NoNewJails)
Jaya Dubey, Lecturer
Jean Halley, Professor of Sociology, College of Staten Island and the Graduate Center, CUNY
Jeanette Lloyd, Managing Director
Jeannie Cambria
Jerome Jackson, Jr.*
Jen Jenkins, New York Licensed Attorney*
Jenna Jarvis
Jennifer Fronc, Professor of History, UMass Amherst
Jennifer Jiminian, Columbia University
Jennifer Kelly, Associate Professor, Feminist Studies and Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, UCSC
Jennifer Lu
Jennifer Uribe, UCLA
Jenny Polak , Visual artist
Jenny Romaine, Cultural Worker
Jenny Scobel
Jeremy Tinsley, Public Defender
Jesse Cohn, Purdue University Northwest
Jesse Rice-Evans, CUNY
Jess Abolafia
Jess Goldberg, Penn State Restorative Justice Initiative
Jess Hallam, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem
Jessica Bracken, UC Davis
Jessica Bird, Department of Criminology, Law & Justice, UIC
Jessica Coffrin-St. Julien
Jessica McGinley
Jessica Means, New Connections*
Jessica phoenix Sylvia, Abolitionist, Community organizer, justice writer, public speaker, and philosopher *
Jessica Penaranda, Decriminalization of survivors
Jessica Ziling Ho, Columbia University Vagelos College of Physicians and Surgeons
Jewish Voice for Peace, Columbia/Barnard chapter
Jian Neo Chen, The Ohio State University
Jillian Neill
Jillian Zdepski
Jindu Obiofuma, Law for Black Lives, Columbia Law School Alum and Justice Lab Associate
Jodi Melamed, Marquette University
Joey Mogul, People’s Law Office
Johana Margalotti
Jon Lipscomb
Jon Tan, Pratt Institute
Jonathan Stegall, Reclaim the Block
Jordan E. Martinez-Mazurek, Fight Toxic Prisons
Jordan Uggla
Jordie Davies, Post-doctoral Fellow
Jose Saldana, Criminal Justice Advocate with RAPP *
Josh Rosenberg
Josh Potash, Union Theological Seminary — Columbia University
Joshua Clennon, Harlem Activist and Affordable Housing Professional
Joshua Guild, Department of African American Studies, Princeton University
JR Martin
Juan Hernandez, artist*
Judah Schept, Professor, School of Justice Studies, Eastern Kentucky University
Judith Ayers
Julia Bodson
Julia Ofman
Julia Shimizu, Barnard College
Julian Rose, Abolitionist Organizer
julie williams-reyes, UO
Justice and Unity for the Southern Tier, jail abolition upstate
Justice Gatson, Reale Justice Network
Justine Moore *
Justine Murphy, Columbia Business School 21'
Kaitlin Noss, NYU Prison Education Program
Kamelia Stavreva
Karen Chavez, Barnard College
Kari S., Mother
Kate Fetrow, Attorney
Kate O’Carroll, Columbia University
Kate O’ Rourke, Educator
Katherine Kim
Katherine McKittrick, Queen’s University
Katherine Nessel, Barnard College Student
Katherine Rand, PhD
Kathleen Collins, People Not Prisons- Volunteer Group Member
Kathleen Langjahr, Columbia University
Katie Casado
Katie Delahunt, Administration
Katey Ritchie
Katherine Nickols
Kathryn Henne, The Australian National University
Kathryn Rowe, NYU Law Student
Katie Doman, Neighborhood Defender Service of Harlem
Kat Klement, Bemidji State University
Kay Gabriel, NYU
Kay Whitlock, Co-author, “Carceral Con: The Deceptive Terrain of Criminal Justice Reform” and Queer (In)Justice: The Criminalization of LGBT People in the United States.
Kayla Merriweather
Kayley DeLong, Ohio State University
Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor, Writer and professor
Kelli Alvarez, Foundation for Liberating Minds
Kelsey King, Occupational Therapist
Kendall Kynoch
Kendall Thomas, Nash Professor of Law
Kendra Wagner, Yoga Behind Bars
Kevin Fellezs, Music/African American and African Diaspora Studies
Kerry Recht
Keyanna Jackson, Medical student
Khunsa Amin
Kimberly D Haven, Executive Director, Reproductive Justice Inside*
Kristen Doty
Kirstie Dorr, American University
Kirstin Ringelberg, Elon University
Kristina Baines, CUNY, Guttman, Associate Professor Anthropology
Kushya Sugarman, CUNY Graduate Center
Kylee Peterson, Ph.D.
Laleh Khalili, Professor of International Politics, London, Alumna of both Columbia and University of Texas- Austin
Larkin White, Columbia College student
Lauren Flanigan, Music and Mentoring House
Laura Whitehorn *
Laura Y. Liu, Associate Professor of Global Studies & Geography, The New School
Laurel Mei-Singh, Assistant Professor of Geography and Environment, UT Austin
Lauren Hunt, City University of New York (CUNY) Law Student
Lauren Low, Drama Facilitator/Educator
Lauren Shepherd, Graduate Worker, Columbia University
Lauren Wirt
Leanne Betasamosake Simpson, Independent Scholar
Lee Ann Wang, UCLA
Leigh Goodmark, Director, Gender Violence Clinic, University of Maryland School of Law
Leigh Patel, University of Pittsburgh
Leni Bryan
Leon Elcock, Synthethic Biologist
Leslie Fritz, Barnard alumna, Art Advisor, Recess Board Co-Chair
Leul Abate
Lexi Gray, Harvard Law Student
Liana Goff
Liat Ben-Moshe, Criminology, Law and Justice, UIC
Ligaiya Romero
Lily Frenette, Writer
Lina
Linda Luu, New York University
Linnea Carlson
Lisa Rosenthal, Pace University
Lisa Lowe, Samuel Knight Professor of American Studies
Liú Méi-Zhì Chen, National Public Housing Museum
Logan Middleton, University of Denver
Lola Olufemi, black feminist writer and researcher
Love M, Student*
Lucas Maurer
Lucien Baskin
Lucy O’Connor, undergraduate abolitionist organizing
Lula O’Donnell, Student Worker Solidarity member @ CU
Lydia Pelot-Hobbs, University of Kentucky, scholar of the carceral state
Lydia Masri, Data Engineer for Non-Profit
Lynzie McGeary
M.J. Williams, Covid Bail Out NYC
Madeline Neighly, Attorney
Madison Ryden
Mahan Saidi-Frant, Barnard College graduate/NYC-based abolitionist organizer
Mahogany L. Browne, JustMedia.Org*
Maia Groh Donald, Columbia University Student
Mai Tran
Mana Kia, Columbia University
Manu Karuka, Barnard College
Marah Nagelhout, Brown University
Margaret Barnsley, Barnard College ‘24
Margaret E.
Margot Lipin
Mariame Kaba, Project NIA
Mariame Sissoko, Barnard College- Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow
Marián Vargas
Mariana Iriarte Mastronardo, Lawyer and feminist professor at UPR-RO
Marianne Dhenin, Journalist and Historian
Mariel Stein, Public Defender
Marijike Silberman, Childhood Education Worker
Mark Enslin, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
Marion Anderson, The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls*
Marisa Solomon, Assistant Professor of Women’s, Gender and Sexuality Studies, Barnard College, Columbia University *
Marisol LeBrón, UC Santa Cruz
Marissa Gutierrez-Vicario
Marissa Nunez, Student Collective for Abolitionist Learning, University of Texas at Austin
Mark Phelan
Martha Tenney, Barnard College and Prison Library Support Network
Martha Schmitz
Mary
Mary McDade
Maryama Dahir
Matt Holm, MD., Pediatrician
Matt Wyat
Maya Bhardwaj, University of Pretoria
maya finoh, NYC Resident
Maya Navabi
Meg Berkowitz, NYU Law
Meg Newman, MD., University of California- San Francisco
Megan Bruhn
Megan Gallagher, Professor
Megan Heatherly, Columbia University
Meggan Marie Green, Software Engineer
Meghan Krausch, PhD, writer, sociologist, activist
Meghan McGowan, Detroit Librarian
Mei Azaad, The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons
Mekong NYC
Melanie Newport, University of Connecticut
Melissa Burch
Mellissa Martinez
Mendé Lescalleet
Meredith Howe
Meryl Ranzer, Respond Crisis Translation
Micah English, PhD Student at Yale University
Micah Herskind
Michael Baginski
Michael Kieffer, New York University
Michael Steven Smith, Law and Disorder radio-co-host
Michelle Alexander, Union Theological Seminary
Michelle Kweder, MBA, PhD, Independent Researcher and Consultant
Michelle Pham, Lawyer, Columbia Law School Class of 2012
Mikayla Petchell, Beyond the Bars 2017–2018, Critical Resistance
Mike Dunn, LMSW
Mikki Halpin, Emergency Release Fund
Mildred Beltre
Milo Giovanniello
Mimi Kim, Creative Interventions and California State University, Long Beach
Minahil Akbar Khan, Abolitionist organizer & editor
Minali Aggarwal, PhD Student and organizer
Minh-Ha T. Pham, Pratt Institute
Miranda Rose Crissman, Prisoners Solidarity Committee of Workers World Party
Miriam Ticktin, CUNY Graduate Center
Mishuana Goeman, Professor of Indigenous Studies, University at Buffalo
Mizue Aizeki , Senior Advisor, Immigrant Defense Project
M.J. Williams, Covid Bail Out NYC
MK Moskowitz, MSW Student
M.L. Roberts, Theatre Artist
Mohamed Shehk, Critical Resistance*
Mon M, No New Jails Network
Mona Eltahawy, Author, FEMINIST GIANT newsletter
Monica Kim
Morgan
My Le, movement lawyer, former public defender
Myles Shelton, University of Southern California
N/A TK
N Bakwin
Nadav Gazit, AMNH
Nadine Naber, UIC
Nadja Eisenberg-Guyot, Postdoctoral Fellow, Columbia Social Work School*
Natalie, Graduate Center, CUNY, Women’s and Gender Studies
Natalie Chap
Natalie Stephenson, Columbia University
Nate Krinsky
Nathan Yaffe, Immigration Attorney
Naia Sasano
Naomi Schachter, MSW
Natalie Akel, Violence Prevention
Natalie Anne Casey, Student
Natalie Diaz, Poet and Professor
Natalie Ruby, CUNY Graduate Center
Natasha Lightfoot, Associate Professor, Columbia University Dept. of History
National Lawyers Guild Mass Incarceration Committee
Neha Nimmagudda, Columbia University
Neighbors Against White Supremacy (NAWS) Central Queens , Anti-Racist Abolitionist Organizing
Neelofer Qadir, University of North Carolina at Greensboro, English & International and Global Studies
New York Young Communist League
Ngozi Alston
Nicholas Abramson, Critical Resistance
Nick Mitchell , Associate Professor, Feminist Studies, UC Santa Cruz
Nicole Burrowes
Nicole Catá, Columbia University
Nicole Davis, Lake County*
Nicole R. Fleetwood, Author of Marking Time: Art in the Age of Mass Incarceration
Nicole Haiber, S&P New York
Nicole Lopez-Jantzen, Borough of Manhattan Community College
Nicole Mo
Nicole Williams, CUNY Bronx Community College
Nikolas Michael , GSAPP
Nilufahr Cooper, Student, Barnard College
Nino Rodriguez, Free the 350 Bail Fund; conducted research at Rosies (2004)
Nishat Akhtar, Barnard College of Columbia University
Noam Keim, The Center for Carceral Communities
Noname Book Club *
Nora Carroll, Esq., public defender (The Legal Aid Society’s Brooklyn trial office)
Nyle Fort
ocean phuong
Oksana Mironova
Ollie Donald, Smith College
Olivia Anastasio, Barnard College
Olive Fine
Olivia Fritz
Omavi Shukur
Orisanmi Burton, American University
Ozzie Araujo, Community & Youth Development Worker
Pamela Thoma, Washington State University
Paul Cato, University of Chicago
Paul Holmes
Paula X. Rojas, Midwife and member of Communities of Color United for Racial Justice (CCU)
Pavithra Vasudevan, Assistant Professor, Women’s & Gender Studies, The University of Texas at Austin
Payden Dyer, Black & Pink
Pedal Miranda
Perrin Ireland, Artist
Piper Kerman, Orange Is the New Black *
Pooja Gehi, Lawyer
Tony Plunkett, Critical Resistance NYC DSA
Pongsathorn Muangchan, Anti-Violence Educator
Premilla Nadasen, Historian, Columbia University
Priscilla Ocen, Loyola Law School
Priscilla Grim
Priya Kandaswamy, Associate Professor of Women’s Studies, San Diego State University
Project LETS
Qudsia Raja
Quinn Dunlea
Quinn Scollard
Raoul Cocard, Student
Rachel E. Barkley, Law Student, Survivor, and Abolitionist
Rachel Burns, Columbia University
Rachel Foran, Survived and Punished NY
Rachel Hurst, St. Francis Xavier University
Rachel Jones, NYU/CUNY
Rachel Lee Pincus, Survived & Punished
Rachel Marandett, NYU Law Student
Rae Kurland
Rachel Kuo, Asian American Feminist Collective
Raj Chetty, St. John’s University
Ranita Ray
Ray Acheson, Author of Abolishing State Violence: A World Beyond Bombs, Borders, and Cages
Reagan Peters-Roussell, Better Future Program (BFP)
Rebecca Change, Organizing Director of MN8
Rebecca Glade, PhD student, Columbia University
Rebecca Meyer, NYC DOE Teacher
Rebecca Schectman
Rebekah Skelton, Student
Red Mars
Red Schulte, Support Ho(s)e Collective, UT Austin
Regina Fontanelli, Middlebury
Reina Sultan, Journalist, Co-Creator of 8 to Abolition
Reproductive Justice Collective at Columbia & NYC
Rev. Amanda Hambrick Ashcraft, Community Minister, Middle Church
Renee Kelly, Senior Editor at Penguin Random House
Rhetta Eubanks, NYU Law School 2024
Richard Thomas, Fight Toxic Prisons
Rina DeFrancesco
Rita Shah, Eastern Michigan University
Riya Vyas, Milpitas High School
Robin D. G. Kelley, Professor of History
Robin McGinty, PhD*
Robert Martin
Robyn Maynard, Assistant Professor, Department of Historical and Cultural Studies, University of Toronto-Scarborough
Rocío García, Arizona State University
Roderick A. Ferguson , Yale University
Roma Panganiban
Romarilyn Ralston, California Coalition for Women Prisoners *
Rosa Báez
Rosa Palmeri, DSA National Abolition Working Group
Rosalind Petchesky, Distinguished Professor Emerita of Political Science, Hunter College & the Graduate Center, City University of NY
Rosemary Kean, Racia Justice Decolonization Working Group, Mass Peace Action
Rosza Daniel Lang/Levitsky, Survived & Punished NY; cultural worker
Rowan White
Roxanne Zech, HEARD
Ruha Benjamin, Professor of African American Studies and Director of the Ida. B. Wells Just Data Lab at Princeton University
Ruth @Rooflesser LA Public Unhoused Encampment Present on Social Media*
Ruth Wilson Gilmore, Center for Place, Culture, and Politics, CUNY Graduate Center
Ruth Sangree
ryan, Behavioral Psych Studio
Ryan Park, Barnard College
SA Smythe, University of Toronto / Cops Off Campus
Sabina Sethi Unni, Graduate School of Architecture, Planning, and Preservation
Sabina Vaught, University of Pittsburgh
Sabrina Bohn, Barnard College
Sahil Singhvi
Saidiya Hartman, Columbia University
Sam Hamer, Social Worker
Samah Sisay, Lawyer
Samantha Caveny, Columbia University Alum
Samantha Cricelli
Samantha Majic, Associate professor of political science, John Jay College-CUNY
Samantha Turk, Barnard College
Samora Pinderhughes, Composer and Interdisciplinary Artist
Samuel Galloway, Author and Professor
Samuel Kelton Roberts, Associate Professor of History, Sociomedical Sciences, & AAADS
Shaniyah Jasper
Sandra Miller, Interfaith Sacred Conversation of Race and Diversity
Sanjeevi Nuhumal
Sara Kramer, Columna Mailman School of Public Health Class of 2023
Sara Plummer
Samantha Santoro
Sandy Bacharach
Sara Schott, License Social Worker, Columbia University Alumna
Sara Z.
Sarah Coker
Sarah Coomey, Political theorist
Sarah Duncan, MD
Sarah Haley, Columbia University
Sarah Hordern
Sarah Kilbarger-Stumpff
Sarah Lamble, Birkbeck, University of London
Sarah T. Hamid, Carceral Tech Resistance Network
Sarah Inskeep, Public Defender
Sarah R. Meiners
Sarah T. Roberts, UCLA
Sasha Verma, Ved-Stuy Strong
Savannah Shange, Anthropology & Critical Race and Ethnic Studies, UC Santa Cruz
Saya Signs
Scholars for Social Justice
Sean Adams, Texas Abolitionist *
seb choe, Columbia University Class of 2017
Seth J. Prins, Assistant Professor of Epidemiology and Sociomedical Sciences, Columbia University
Setsu Shigematsu, University of California, Riverside
shabana mir, Associate Professor, American Islamic College
Shabnam Javdani, New York University
Shaka King, Filmmaker
Shana Agid, Parsons School of Design and Critical Resistance
Shana Nicholson
Shana L. Redmond, Author and Scholar *
Shannon Bucci
Shannon Terry, OCRJ
Shaun Leonardo, Artist and Co-Director, Recess
Shaun Lin, CUNY Graduate Center
Shawn Vieira
Sherene H. Razack, Distinguished Professor Penny Kanner Endowed Chair in Women’s Studies, UCLA
Sherene Seikaly, Associate Professor of History, UCSB
Sherry Wold, Tempest Collective
Shreya Mandal, Expert Witness, New York Unified Court System
Shewit Zerai, Community Organizer
Shira Hassan , Just Practice
Shirin Purkayastha
Shirin Saeidi, University of Arkansas
Shivani Nishar, Mental Health Researcher
Sienna C., Community Ally
Simmi Kaur
Simone Immanuel
Sina Kramer, Women’s and Gender Studies, Loyola Marymount University
Sindy Mata, Ice out of Tarrant
Siri Ketha, Barnard Student
S.J. Barone Shannon
Sloane Holzer, California College of the Arts
Snehal Patel, Physician and Member of Communities of Color United
Sofia Kaut
Soledad Aguilar-Colon, Bard College
Sophia Dalal, Berkeley Law
Sophia Gurulé
Sophia L., Student
Sona Quigley, Columbia University School of General Studies
Soraya Chemaly, Author and Activist
Soren Hough, University of Cambridge
Stacy Amador
Stella Kramer, Publisher of Stellazine
Stephen Wilson, In the Belly, Study Abolition*
Stephanie Andreou
Stephanie Etienne, Midwife and Reproductive Justice Advocate
Stephanie Kuborssy, Educator
Stephanie Villanueva
Stuart Chen-Hayes, Professor, CUNY Lehman College
Student Worker Solidarity, Columbia University
Survived and Punished NY, Survived and Punished NY
Susana Flores, PhD Central Washington University
Susila Gurusami, UIC Department of Criminology, Law, & Justice
Sydney Moon, UC Berkeley Law School
Sylvia Morse
Tafura Taslima, CSSW
Tai Uong
Tamar Eisen, Center for Reproductive Rights
Tamara Z. Jamil, UC Berkeley
Tamara K. Nopper
Tamara Santibañez, Columbia University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Oral History
Tammy Ingram, College of Charleston
Tania Mattos , Envision Freedom Fund
Tanya Nguyen, Black & Pink NYC
Tarika Sankar, University of Miami
Taryn Fivek, John Jay Economics Department
Taylor Marshall
Taylor Parson, Brunswick Community College
Taylor Pearson
Tausif Khan
Teddy Blaylock, Plume
Tera W. Hunter, Princeton University
Teresa Burruel Stone, Scholar/Educator
Teresa W. Price, SWOPLA
Terri Friedline, University of Michigan
Terrion Williamson, University of Illinois Chicago
Tess McGee
Thao Ho
Therese Quinn, Professor of Museum and Exhibition Studies, University of Illinois, Chicago
Tomas Miles
Tina Catania, Syracuse University PhD Candidate
Tina Shull, Assistant Professor of History at UNC Charlotte
Tina Szpicek, NYU
Tingyee Chang
TJ Alexander
Toni Hellmann, LCSW
Tony Plunkett, Critical Resistance NYC DSA
Dr. Topeka K. Sam, The Ladies of Hope Ministries, Inc.*
Treva B. Lindsey, Ohio State University
Tricia Best
Tsuru For Solidarity
Uday Jain, PhD Student, Committee on Social Thought, University of Chicago
Uday Narayanan
Ujju Aggarwal, The New School
Valerie Hawkins, Rebellious Magazine
Vandana Ranjan
Vanessa E. Thompson, Queen’s University, Kingston
Vanessa Thill
Vani Natarajan
Vayne Ong, Columbia University
Vesla Weaver, Professor, Johns Hopkins, and co-director of the American Prison Writing Archive
Victoria Payne
Vijay Iyer, composer/pianist; professor, Harvard University
Vicky Osterweil, Author and Agitator
Viva B., Teacher
Walter Li, University of Chicago — Mellon Mays Undergraduate Fellow
warren wagner, University of Chicago, Care not Cops
Will Depoo
Will McKeithen
Wendy Granger
Wesley Ware
Whitney Hu
William Oh, Columbia Law ‘24
Xavier Cornejo
Xinyu Guan, Cornell University, Columbia College Alum 2015
Yeji Jung, NYU Law
Ylva Habel, Independent Researcher
Yosmin Badie
Yusef Omowale, Southern California Library *
Yves Tong Nguyen, Red Canary Song
Zachariah Smart, Columbia University School of Social Work
Zara Cadoux, CUNY School of Labor and Urban Studies
Zareena Grewal, Associate Professor, Yale University
Zoe Farkas, NYU School of Law (23')
Zoë Haylock
zillah eisenstein, writer, activist, prof. emerita
