BEYOND BARS.

• Author: Law, Victoria
• Position: Campaigns to close down prisons and jails

Across the country, organizers have been waging campaigns to close existing jails and prisons and prevent new ones from popping up.

Alabama: In 2019, after years of activist pressure, major banks announced they would not provide new financing to private prison corporations. Two years later, private prison company CoreCivic failed to secure financing for two of three new mega-prisons in Alabama, which it planned to lease to the state for $94 million a year.

Los Angeles, California: Advocates with Californians United for a Responsible Budget (CURB), JusticeLA, and Re-Imagine L.A. County have in recent years stopped the proposed expansion of the Lynwood women's jail, closed the city's Men's Central Jail, and canceled the construction of a new 4,000-bed jail billed as a "mental health facility." CURB'S "The People's Plan for Prison Closure," released in April, calls for closing additional California state prisons.

San Francisco, California: In 2020, the No New SF Jail Coalition led a successful campaign to close the long-crumbling county jail at 850 Bryant Street. "If we can prove that no city needs a jail like 850 Bryant," the coalition stated, "then we have shown the world that we do not need cages of any kind for any reason."

Travis County, Texas: In June 2021, county commissioners unanimously voted to pause plans for a new women's jail, including indefinitely postponing approval of a $4.6 million design contract to HDR Architecture. More than 100 community members...