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The Fight for Abolition Continues
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This summer  has been a busy one for us here at the Abolitionist Law Center. We have been fighting to get friends and loved ones out of the Allegheny County Jail (ACJ), working to get all of the MOVE 9 out of prison and back in their community, successfully concluding a lawsuit to stop a federal prison from being built, continuing lawsuits to stop abuses in the Pennsylvania Department of Corrections, and organizing a grassroots movement against state violence.
The past few months have allowed us the opportunity to strengthen our community engagement and create more community-based programming. We have hosted know-your-rights trainings for local youth in Pittsburgh, so they are empowered and informed about the law. We presented at the Center For Urban Education at the University of Pittsburgh's conference on the school to prison pipeline. And we have spoken at forums and hearings about the impact of death by incarceration on the community and society at large.
We are fortunate enough to join local organizers and activists who are putting a spotlight on the atrocities that occur in the Allegheny County Jail. We are happy to announce that since being released from solitary confinement, Kim Andrews is home and joining the fight to ensure no one goes through what she had to endure in the ACJ. |
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Abolitionist Law Center Board member Ghani Songster with Michelle Alexander at the Center for Urban Education Summer Educator Forum.
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Advocacy and Collaboration
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 Last month we had the opportunity to expand upon our legal advocacy and collaboration by travelling to New York to attend a training at the Center for Constitutional Rights along with the Amistad Law Project. We were able to not only focus on litigation strategies but also delve into deepening the understanding of Abolition in movements spaces and among the legal community. Our trip to NYC allowed us to engage with fellow partners in the crusade for justice and equity. |
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 Among our many organizing projects is our work to abolish the use of solitary confinement in Pennsylvania prisons and jails. In June, Saleem Holbrook (ALC Director of Community Organizing), Carrington Keys (ALC Paralegal) and John Rowland (ALC Community Organizer), along with ALC Board members Ghani Songster and Shandre Delaney organized and participated in a convening in Harrisburg with groups from around the state to strategize how to move further expose the abuse of solitary confinement and push for its abandonment in Pennsylvania. Saleem, Carrington and Ghani were all able to share first hand experiences of being held in solitary confinement for prolonged periods, while Shandre described a decade of work to defend prisoner-whistleblowers from retaliatory solitary confinement in Pennsylvania. We will be organizing many more events to discuss abolishing solitary confinement all over Pennsylvania over the next several months.
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Our deepest thanks go out to Emily DeFerrari and Mel Packer for opening up their home to the Abolitionist Law Center, and hosting a discussion about abolition-based practices and movement lawyering with guest speakers Marc Lamont Hill and Mumia Abu Jamal (calling in from SCI Mahanoy). It is because of amazing donors like Mel and Emily that we are able to continue doing this great work. Thank you from the bottom of our hearts.
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Save the Date: September 18th in NYC
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On September 18, our Director of Community Organizing, Saleem Holbrook, will be participating in a teach-in and a separate panel discussion about ending life without parole sentencing. The events were organized by the Sentencing Project and are being hosted at the Columbia School of Social Work. The teach-in runs from 12:15pm-1:45pm and the panel discussion is from 6:30pm-8:30pm.
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Barroca v. Bureau of Prisons
 In June, the construction of the most expensive proposed federal prison in US history was stopped, after the Bureau of Prisons (BOP) withdrew its Record Of Decision (ROD) following a prolonged Environmental impact review that began in 2015. The withdrawal of the ROD means the BOP cannot move forward to acquire land for the prison or make any other preparations for construction at the Roxana Site in Letcher County, Ky.
This result was the culmination of over 4 years of organizing by Abolitionist Law Center, The Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons (FTP), and (most importantly) local residents in eastern Kentucky. While FTP organized national opposition to the prison, and helped build connections with eastern Kentucky locals, residents in Letcher County stalled the prison by refusing to sell land (forcing a year long delay for the BOP to redraw the site-plan for the prison) and by organizing the Letcher Governance Project and its #Our444Million campaign demanding that the money budgeted for the prison be used instead to directly support the people of Letcher County (which is one of the most impoverished counties in the US).
The Abolitionist Law Center along with attorney Emily Posner developed a litigation strategy in cooperation with local and national opponents of the prison filing a lawsuit in the fall of 2018, with Abolitionist Law Center and 21 federal prisoners as plaintiffs. The groundwork for the lawsuit was laid over 3 years as Emily Posner and ALC drafted NEPA comments in opposition to the prison and obtained expert opinions (paid for with funds raised by the Campaign to Fight Toxic Prisons) including a survey by Jonathan Hootman that found habitat for endangered bat species on the proposed prison site. This lawsuit was later amended, with lawyers from Green Justice Legal joining the team, and added a local group of east Kentucky residents and activists (Friends of the Lilley Cornett Woods and Northfork Watershed) as plaintiffs. The combination of the organizing and legal work, together with statements made by the Department of Justice and Whitehouse that undercut the rationale for building a new prison (e.g. the federal prisoner population has been declining for several years), ultimately forced the BOP to abandon its ROD stopping the prison construction project before it even began.
The BOP is now faced with the decision of either abandoning the prison project altogether or starting a new cycle of the NEPA process with new opportunities to organize opposition and new comment periods for public participation. If the BOP decides to renew its NEPA process (trying to cure the weaknesses in its prior Environmental Impact Statement), we estimate a delay of 1-2yrs before they can get back to an ROD that clears the way for construction. And of course, we will be preparing to sue them if they ever get that far. On the other hand, we are hopeful that movement pressure on the US Congress can get the money budgeted for the prison to be moved to other uses (preferably uses that directly benefit people in Appalachia and don't build anti-social institutions like prisons). If anyone reading this would like to help, please contact us at dsm@abolitionistlawcenter.org.
Abu-Jamal v. Kerestes
 In July, the Third Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in our favor in the fight over the PADOC's failure to treat Mumia Abu-Jamal's hepatitis C infection and related medical complications. This was a significant victory, in that the Court ruled that qualified immunity did not apply to block our damages claims from moving forward (qualified immunity being a notoriously difficult barrier to obtaining relief for victims of prison guards, police and other government actors. The victory puts our lawsuit on the road to a court trial sometime over the next year.
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 This summer we hosted our largest intern class to date. We had five law students and three undergraduate interns working with us on legal research and writing, court observations, and client visits. Throughout the summer our interns interacted with various aspects of the legal system ibn order to understand movement lawyering and abolition-based practices. Our interns were able to have direct client interactions in order to fully understand the impacts of the litigation ALC is pursuing. We are so thankful to all of our interns: Becca, Bex, Erica, Jonothan, Kaileigh, Matt, Paige, and Rachael. We wish them the best in their future endeavors.
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