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My old workplace @uplcchicago is jammed up. Their people who normally throw down hard on end of the year fundraising largely pivoted to efforts to help prisoners get free, get stimulus, & get access to the vaccine. My heart wants that to end well for them. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
They did what we say we want people to do -- they put people’s lives ahead of all else -- and ahead of $$$. They have a small staff and these are people I know. I watched them work themselves ragged trying to help prisoners during all of this. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
They have good people who work on fundraising, but those people also do a lot of other things: like helping 10,000 prisoners get their stimulus forms filed in time, with both the IRS and IDOC working against them. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
There are not enough people fighting to empty cages, to get imprisoned people decent medical care, to defend the rights of disabled people, in and outside of prisons. Those things and tenant rights will only become more important in the months ahead. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
Imprisoned people are in the throes of an atrocity right now. Some are resisting. There is a prison strike coming up on NYE. There is work happening inside prisons and they need help on the outside. They need advocates. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
(I will have more to say soon about how you can support the strike.)
Imprisoned people caged in the path of this disease have no functional access to healthcare. As with most disasters, many prisoners have been left to die. Even people who care are often too overwhelmed to help. There are people who have showed up tho. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
UPLC was formed back in the late 70’s by coal miners and their widows from Appalachia, bc they were getting denied black lung benefits. UPLC still has an organizing mindset. They fight for prisoners, tenants and disabled people. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
They started doing prison work because people from the neighborhood were sent to prison and needed help, and just because they were in prison didn't mean they weren't still part of the community. That work has been critical during the pandemic. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
. @alan_uplc is the the executive director of UPLC. He is one of the most overworked people I know. After years of paying himself the lowest salary on staff, to help keep UPLC afloat, he was eventually forced to take a raise. He's always taking on more work. We're alike that way.
Once during a tour of Western prison, people kept calling to Alan by name. Eventually, some folks directed him to a prisoner who told Alan that everyone knew who he was, and that UPLC had their backs, even tho they knew he wouldn't be able to help everyone that day.
One of the things that always really gets me choked up about UPLC is that prisoners donate. UPLC *does not* solicit those donations, but imprisoned people know how few people are fighting for them. They know most law offices don't even read their letters. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
UPLC reads every letter from every prisoner. They cannot help everyone, but no one is ignored. It's a special place with a small staff and a lot of heart, and there are generations of struggle and heartbreak embedded in its walls. It means a lot to me. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
Prisons are torturous, and that's not an overstatement. One of my friends who works at UPLC says she was not fully a prison abolitionist until she worked there -- that she could not see the everyday horror of it all and still think prisons should exist. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
The everyday torture of prison -- or more specific horrors -- can leave people unable to work when they are released, which feeds into the cycle of re-incarceration. For that reason, UPLC also helps released prisoners seek disability benefits. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
If anyone deserves some It's a Wonderful Life energy, it's the folks at UPLC. These people have made a lot of sacrifices & they've sacrificed even more this year. Now they're worried about sustaining what they do. This is the part where we show up to help. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
You can hear me talk with @alan_uplc about COVID-19 in prisons & @uplcchicago's work in this episode of Movement Memos (+ transcript). We recorded this in April, but enragingly, things are worse in prisons now than they were when this convo happened. https://truthout.org/audio/incarceration-is-killing-us/
. @prisonculture and I also talked about one of @uplcchicago's clients, Tiffany Rusher, in this piece. CW that Tiffany's story is tragic & horrifying and might be too much for some people today. UPLC fought for Tiffany. Her story has never left my thoughts. https://truthout.org/articles/a-jailbreak-of-the-imagination-seeing-prisons-for-what-they-are-and-demanding-transformation/
I think hope is important. I think people who cultivate hope in dark places, at great personal expense, should be supported. People who help defend the rights and lives of prisoners need our help, now more than ever, bc this pandemic is merciless. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
Prison conditions were already so bad in the U.S. that every yr in prison takes 2 yrs off a person's life expectancy. (A phenomenon that has shortened the overall U.S. life expectancy by 5 years.) That's what @uplcchicago was up against PRIOR to COVID-19. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
When they were faced w their usual workload, plus emergencies around getting prisoners their stimulus checks in time, getting people released, and getting prisoners prioritized for the vaccine, I watched them put that work ahead of fundraising every time. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
I watched as people lost sleep over that. But as one of them kept telling me, "What are we supposed to do? They're dying." Disaster reveals things about people, and about what we will prioritize in our darkest hours. And sometimes what it reveals is good. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
My heart needs this to end well. That's the thought I am stuck on today. Their year can't be a story about how some caring people fought too hard for folks others had forgotten, and were worse off for it. I don't accept that. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
So I'm inviting folks to join me in a reenactment of my favorite holiday film. Just one scene really (which is good, bc a lot of messed up things happen in that film). The part where everyone shows up for the people who always show up for other people. https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
So much love to everyone who's been donating and RTing. This fundraiser was at $0 this morning. We have raised $2,880 on Christmas morning. I donated $50. Can we keep this going? You can join in here: https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
We have a $500 match on the table. Who can help us secure that to help protect imprisoned people from the pandemic? https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
We are at $5,946! https://uplc.networkforgood.com/projects/120335-fight-covid-in-prisons
