As the COVID-19 pandemic spreads across California, people caged inside prisons and jails remain at the mercy of our elected officials. Last week, the California Senate formed the Budget Subcommittee on COVID-19 to address the budget needs of this crisis and will be holding their first hearing this Thursday April 16th at 2pm. The budget that California creates over the next few weeks will determine who lives and who dies. In Los Angeles alone there have been 11 confirmed cases of COVID-19 among the jail population, 33 cases among staff, and one custody staff on life support. With over 700 prisoners quarantined in Los Angeles and many remaining to be tested, incarcerated people and their families fear that there are many more cases yet to be reported. Los Angeles, along with many counties across the state, are taking steps to reduce the jail population in order to slow down the continued spread of the virus. The jail population in LA is at the lowest levels since 1990 - dropping from over 17,000 prisoners to 12,800, largely due to the continued advocacy of groups like JusticeLA. Now is the time for the State to do its part and help fund jail and prison decarceration efforts by providing funds for: -- emergency housing for houseless people, -- transitional housing for people being released from jails and prisons, -- permanent housing for houseless people and people being released from jails and prisons, -- community-based treatment for people with mental health, behavioral health and biomedical needs transitioning out of incarceration, -- pretrial and post release services, -- post-conviction review and resentencing, -- alternatives to incarceration to support the release of additional people from jails and prisons, and -- free phone calls for families reaching their loved ones behind bars.

In the past 2 weeks thousands of residences in Kentucky have been laid off do to their employer closing and most won’t be able to pay bills including rent, mortgages, car payments or basic utilities. College students have been forced go home because they don’t have a roof over their head during these hard times! We need our governor more than ever to stand with us and help us get through this. Thank you!

We are not alone in recognizing this crisis of criminalization and incarceration here in Los Angeles and how COVID19 will exacerbate that crisis. Last week, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors approved the recommendations outlined in the Alternatives to Incarceration Working Group’s historic and unprecedented report, “Care First, Jails Last: Health and Racial Justice Strategies for Safer Communities.” Shortly thereafter, Supervisor Mark Ridley Thomas published a letter outlining his concerns about COVID19’s spreads to the LA jails and calling for a reduction in jail bookings, early release, plans for quarantine and treatment, concerted efforts to reduce virus transmission and a plan for expected staffing shortages. We are also not alone in calling for significant and timely steps towards decarceration. On Saturday, March 14, Judges from the Cleveland, Ohio’s Cuyahoga County Court announced their intention to seek the release of hundreds of people incarcerated in their county jails. Like us, these judges recognize that jails pose threats to our larger community and the incarcerated people themselves. On Tuesday, March 17, the New York City Board of Corrections, the independent oversight Board for the city’s jail system, issued a call for incarcerated people at high risk to be immediately released and for the overall jail population to be rapidly and drastically reduced. Also on Tuesday, March 17, thirty one elected prosecutors from around the country, but not from Los Angeles, published a letter advocating that counties “implement concrete steps in the near-term to dramatically reduce the number of incarcerated individuals” to prevent the potentially “catastrophic” spread of COVID19. We also join epidemiologists in warning that it is not a matter of if COVID19 enters your facility -- but when. For these reasons, we demand that you, as correctional health care leaders, do your part. We ask that you: 1) Prepare a list of your incarcerated patients who are most medically vulnerable and who require immediate release. We demand that you prepare that list within one week, notify the public that the list has been made available to correctional authorities, the courts and city/state leaders, and advocate for their early release with linkages to housing and healthcare services. 2) Use the legal authority granted to you to declare COVDI19 a liable danger to those currently held in the county jails and advocate for their immediate release to safe and meaningful housing. 3) Identify, coordinate and provide the services incarcerated people need upon their release (e.g. HIV care for those who are HIV+, substance use treatment centers for those with substance use disorders, homes and shelters for those who are houseless, etc) to ensure their ongoing protection from this epidemic. The County should use the recently approved recommendations from the Alternatives to Incarceration Working Group to build infrastructure that addresses and also outlives this emergency to achieve our shared goal of reducing the jail population.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is now officially classified as a pandemic and the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases Director has stated, “it’s going to get worse''. Across media outlets, the prevailing safety precautions include “wash your hands" and “stay home”. However, residents in this state are not guaranteed to have access to these basic necessities. Water shut-offs, evictions and homelessness significantly worsen the threat posed by COVID-19. If more residents are evicted during this period, COVID-19 could start to spread more rapidly among those who become homeless. We cannot afford to have more emergencies on top of the current emergency. We urge Governor Mike Parson to follow the lead of Detroit and San Jose - to stand with your constituents, to stop preventable illness and displacements and implement a rent freeze and moratorium on all evictions, utility shut offs, and job layoffs in the state of Missouri.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is now officially classified as a pandemic and the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases Director has stated, “it’s going to get worse''. Across media outlets, the prevailing safety precautions include “wash your hands" and “stay home”. However, residents in this state are not guaranteed to have access to these basic necessities. Water shut-offs, evictions and homelessness significantly worsen the threat posed by COVID-19. If more residents are evicted during this period, COVID-19 could start to spread more rapidly among those who become homeless. We cannot afford to have more emergencies on top of the current emergency. We urge Governor Greg Abbott to follow the lead of Detroit and San Jose - to stand with your constituents, to stop preventable illness and displacements and implement a rent freeze and moratorium on all evictions, utility shut offs, and job layoffs in the state of Texas.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is now officially classified as a pandemic and the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases Director has stated, “it’s going to get worse''. Across media outlets, the prevailing safety precautions include “wash your hands" and “stay home”. However, residents in this state are not guaranteed to have access to these basic necessities. Water shut-offs, evictions and homelessness significantly worsen the threat posed by COVID-19. If more residents are evicted during this period, COVID-19 could start to spread more rapidly among those who become homeless. We cannot afford to have more emergencies on top of the current emergency. We urge Governor John Bel Edwards to follow the lead of Detroit and San Jose - to stand with your constituents, to stop preventable illness and displacements and implement a rent freeze and moratorium on all evictions, utility shut offs, and job layoffs in the state of Louisiana.

Coronavirus (COVID-19) is now officially classified as a pandemic and the National Institute of Allergy & Infectious Diseases Director has stated, “it’s going to get worse''. Across media outlets, the prevailing safety precautions include “wash your hands" and “stay home”. However, residents in this state are not guaranteed to have access to these basic necessities. Water shut-offs, evictions and homelessness significantly worsen the threat posed by COVID-19. If more residents are evicted during this period, COVID-19 could start to spread more rapidly among those who become homeless. We cannot afford to have more emergencies on top of the current emergency. We urge Governor Tom Wolf to follow the lead of Detroit and San Jose - to stand with your constituents, to stop preventable illness and displacements and implement a rent freeze and moratorium on all evictions, utility shut offs, and job layoffs in the state of Pennsylvania.

It's an important thing to honor Congressman John Lewis who is the son of Alabama and show that Alabama has changed to understand the importance of civil rights for all people, especially since Congressman Lewis spilled blood on that bridge in 1963.

Pottstown, a 110 year old rural, historically Black working class is located two blocks from the original slave quarters in Huntersville, NC. Two multi-million dollar corporations, Bowman Development Group and Griffin Brothers C & D Reclamation, have made their fortunes exploiting the land and community members of Pottstown. The community has had enough! We are calling both corporations to divest from harmful practices and invest in a historic landmark. Forty years ago, the Griffin family (of Griffin Brothers C & D Reclaimation) began operating a demolition landfill where over 200 dump trucks travel through our small Black community. The name has changed, but the company's impact has remained the same. In 2017, the Huntersville Town Board approved the Griffin Brothers' request for a 40-year extension that will end in 2057. Residents along Holbrooks Road are subjected to fumes from the trucks and the harmful chemicals used within the neighboring reclamation center. In 2000, in an attempt to quiet the grievances of residents living on Holbrooks Road, the Griffin Brothers created a community HOA, the Holbrooks Road Association, in order to provide annual stipends to .prevent further resident complaints and investigations. Developer and Partner of the Bowman Development Corp., Don Bowman, created a “new urbanism development” that gentrified a historic community by laying his most recent project's foundation along the streets that once ran through the heart of our rural community. His new development, -- Vermillion/Valencia, a 27 acre village -- was created at the expense of hundreds of rural Pottstown homes, as his quick property grab left countless families with nowhere to go. Pottstown residents adjacent to these newly developed urban homes are concerned that the rise of urbanism will irrevocably alter the culture of their hometown and push them out of their homes. Pottstown and most of its families have suffered from the effects of both companies who earn millions of dollar each year from the exploitation of a historic community. The profits of these businesses will allow company owners' children to benefit financially from their exploitative practices. But what about OUR children? Bowman Development Corp. and Griffin Brothers C & D Reclamation have made our community a “commodity” in which to profit from. The majority of Pottstown residents have not received any compensation from the harmful effects of the companies actions. We community of Pottstown deserve to thrive as these companies do! We are calling on Bowman Development Corp. and Griffin Brothers C & D Reclamation to invest Pottstown, not destroy it. The needs of our community are significant and we are calling on these companies to be good neighbors! We are calling on Bowman Development Corp. and Griffin Brothers C & D Reclamation to make an investment in the existing community's culture and pride. We are calling Bowman Development Corp. and Griffin Brothers C & D Reclamation to provide the necessary funds to renovate our historic Torrence-Lytle High School. This small investment would demonstrate goodwill and prove to community members that they value our beloved Pottstown. The community of Pottstown is asking YOU to support our demand for an investment in our community's rich culture with the corporate-funded restoration of Torrence-Lytle High School and affordable housing options for displaced familes.

On Tuesday, August 27, 2019 around 2:00pm, a member of the UDC community threatened our sense of safety by vandalizing the only community gender neutral bathroom on our campus. On the A level of Building 44, adjacent to the Center for Diversity, Inclusion, and Multicultural Affairs, a sheet of paper intentionally obscured half of the gender neutral and accessibility restroom signage. This is a hate crime and a direct violation of Title IX. As the first LGBTQ+ student organization at the University of the District of Columbia and part of only 30% of HBCUs that have active LGBTQ+ student organizations, we The Alliance Group (T.A.G) are requesting a meeting with UDC leadership on addressing this incident and we have created a list of demands. Hate crimes targeting LGBTQ+ and Non-binary people have increased since President Donald Trump was elected in 2016. Additionally, 16 Transwomen have been murdered so far this year and all but one have been women of color. Washington D.C has the highest number of openly LGBTQ people in the nation and as the only urban, public Historically Black College in the nation, we believe we cannot sit by when incidents like this happen on our campus. We are asking for your support by signing this petition and sharing it with others. Real change happens when everyday people like you and I come together and stand up for what we believe in. Together we can reach heaps of people and help create change around this important issue of homophobia and transphobia. UPDATE: As we were preparing to send this letter, at 12pm on Wednesday, August 28, 2019, our community has been attacked again; another vandalization occurred at the same bathroom in building 44. This requires outrage and action on our leadership's behalf immediately With Love and Support, The Alliance Group (T.A.G)

Dear Mayor Bill de Blasio, Layleen Polanco Xtravaganza, an Afro-Latina trans woman, died in solitary confinement. This PRIDE month I am saying enough. Layleen should not have been arrested by the NYPD. Even before her arrest as part of a predatory NYPD sting operation, she was struggling with homelessness. From there she was routed through every possible "progressive" criminal court and jail reform project: from a sex work "diversion" court to the Transgender Housing Unit in the Rose M. Singer Center on Rikers when a warrant was issued for her arrest after she missed a "supportive" service appointment. None of these "progressive" reforms that were designed to save her life worked. Layleen died in a cage on solitary after being criminalized for being trans, for being poor, and for engaging in sex work. Jails kill people. But now you are planning on keeping Rikers open until 2026, when the next mayor can keep the jails open indefinitely, after having spent $11 billion to build four new jails! We could close Rikers now without building a single new cage in NYC if we ended the unjust and dangerous practice of pretrial detention. Then, we could devote $11 billion to communities, not incarceration. The time is now. We must Close Rikers with No New Jails. Mayor De Blasio, we call on you to stop your jail plan and commit to closing Rikers with no new jails. I want $11 billion for Black trans women and all oppressed and criminalized communities, not for jails. Art Credit: Vienna Rye (@vrye)

The #JusticeLA campaign, a broad coalition made up of local and national stakeholders and community members and born from the work of family members in Los Angeles who have had loved ones harmed and killed by the Los Angeles jail system has been struggling with the Board of Supervisors on their dissonant plan to invest at least $4 billion dollars into jail expansion in Los Angeles County for almost a decade. The #JusticeLA campaign is partnering with health workers from across the spectrum of service and health advocacy to demand the long overdue end to caging as a response to public health issues. Jails and all forms of incarceration are bad for human health. Achieving humane, high quality and accessible health care for the roughly 170,000 people who are incarcerated every year in Los Angeles, the largest jail system in the world, is an urgent task, specifically because jails and other forms of incarceration are not health care institutions. On the contrary, jails are fundamentally harmful to human health. Understanding people inside primarily as criminals, not patients, jails isolate people from their families and communities, deprive people of control and agency over their bodies, subject people to unsafe environments and cause long-lasting trauma. Recent scholarship has outlined many of these harms on incarcerated people and their communities, showing, for example, how incarceration worsens mental health disabilities (Schnittker 2015) and shortens lives (Nosrati et al 2017). The previously approved $4 billion jail plan poses a significant and urgent threat to the health of those most criminalized, including Black and Latinx people across Los Angeles. The county is already home to the largest mental health facility in the country, Twin Towers jail. Eighty percent of the current jail system population is either Black or Latinx and an alarming 70% of the current jail population reports having a serious medical, mental health disability, or substance use condition. Over one thousand people per year die in local jails across the country. Half of all deaths of people incarcerated in local jails are the result of some type of illness including heart disease, liver disease, and cancer. As the largest jails system in the world, the Los Angeles County jail system contributes to all of these trends as reported by incarcerated people, their families, and by health workers themselves who provide services in the jails and as loved ones return home. Expansion of the function, scope, geography, or size of the current jail system will continue to result in both the reproduction of these harmful trends and/or the reliance of law enforcement contact and justice system involvement for what has historically proven to be inadequate and harmful “treatment.” Negative health outcomes in jails disproportionately affect marginalized communities. For example, roughly one out of every three deaths of Black people in local jails is the result of a heart attack which could be prevented in community-based treatment. While Black people make up less than 9% of the Los Angeles County population, Black people constitute 30% of the County jail population and 43% of those incarcerated with a serious mental health disability. Additionally, 75% of incarcerated women in Los Angeles are women of color. In the seven-year period between 2010 and 2016, Black women were sentenced to 5,481 years of jail time for charges that can be solved using public health strategies that build our communities rather than law enforcement which often undermine them. The construction of a women’s jail will exacerbate these trends and other negative health outcomes as incarcerated women of color will be further isolated from their families and communities. On Febraury 12th, The County has a historic opportunity to break away from the public health crisis of criminalization and incarceration by stopping this jail construction plan and diverting resources towards community-based alternatives that prioritize the dignity and wellbeing of our families and loved ones throughout Los Angeles.