In a special episode of Rattling the Bars, the Prison Policy Institute convenes activists fighting jail expansion from coast to coast to discuss strategies and methods to fight back.

The resources below were curated and shared by the Prison Policy Initiative and webinar panelists from Building Justice in Berks, Families for Justice as Healing, and the National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls. We hope they will be useful in your follow-up work fighting jail expansion projects in your communities.

Arguments against jail expansion (Prison Policy Initiative)
A how-to guide: Critically reviewing a jail assessment calling for a bigger jail (Prison Policy Initiative)
Does our county really need a bigger jail? A guide for avoiding unnecessary jail expansion (Prison Policy Initiative)
Smoke and Mirrors: A cautionary tale for counties considering a big, costly new jail (Prison Policy Initiative)
A guide to public records requests for advocates seeking reform of the criminal legal system (Prison Policy Initiative)
Winnable criminal justice reforms in 2023 (excerpt): Establish moratoriums on jail and prison construction (Prison Policy Initiative)
Incarceration Trends: a data tool from the Vera Institute of Justice
Empty MCI-Framingham, close it forever; and never build another prison in Massachusetts, by Andrea James (Boston Globe)
Inside the battle over a new women’s prison for Massachusetts, by Dan Atkinson (Boston Institute for Nonprofit Journalism)
Follow up: Mass is still ignoring public input and trying to build a new women’s prison, by Dan Atkinson (DigBoston)
Massachusetts organizers call for no new women’s prisons and an end to their construction, by Tamar Sarai (Prism)
Stop Building Prisons (podcast) with Sashi James, Maggie Luna, and Avalon Betts-Gaston (Failed Architecture) (featuring members of the National Council)
See also: The Free Her Institute and No New Women’s Prison webpages from Families for Justice as Healing and the National Council
A Co-Governance Success Story (Berks County)
Building Justice in Berks says jail decision premature without additional analysis
Criminal justice group calls for limiting pretrial detention on eve of final film in series (Berks County)
CGL response to community questions about jail assessment (Berks County)
Berks needs new jail with nearly 1K beds, assessment says (This article includes Building Justice in Berks’ critique of the assessment), by David Kostival and Jaccii Farris (Berks Regional News)

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28 thoughts on “New jails are popping up everywhere. Here’s how to fight back | Rattling the Bars”
  1. BM in the U.S. are more incarcerated than ALL women in the ENTIRE WORLD…. and you focus on women!???

    Do it again, and I unsub!!

  2. Only criminal wants to fight back building more prisons and only those related to the criminals want to keep him out of prison people obey the laws and do the right thing and live in a decent life would like to see more you ready damn streetgangs we need to get rid of these punks running the road Robin killing stabbing shooting people these are the people who need to be in prison we need prisons you freaking idiot

  3. you advocate for criminals….until you become a victim yourself.We'll see how you feel when your sisters rapist walks free.

  4. Sitting here in Vancouver, B.C, Canada at 3 AM, was about to watch a regular tv series show but this popped up. You ladies have not only kept me watching, interested as well as focused but you have filled me with inspiration. Watching all of you speak with respect, patience and polite intelligence once again solidifies that any issue no matter how hard or overwhelming can be defeated by true hearts, united and focused on doing good. To say I am impressed is an understatement, you are all treasures to your communities and the reason why people should never ever give up hope…..Thank you for your time, I enjoyed it , learned and grew from it. Respectfully, Steve

  5. I just went to a website that lists prisons (new & renovated old ones) by county, and if Federal, State, or privately owned. Amazing, you scroll, and scroll down and think the list will never end. This country is messed up! In actuality, many prisoners are simply victims of crony capitalism, and its iron rule over the people. When I say iron rule, I don't mean a military presence on the streets directly besides the militarized police force. I mean a cruel economic system that squeezes people really hard to conform, and if they don't make it—- the wealthy just dispose of them in jails.

  6. As Jim Carrey's character screams in the film "Liar! Liar!", "stop breaking the law… asshole!" Stop running from the cops. Stop carrying weapons, if you're dealing drugs. Stop your own personal naivety and model behavior that takes responsibility.

  7. I will repeat this again and again andddddd again till you yanks wake the fuck up ok let's go back to 1581, when there were still INDIANS alive……. so 1581, 442 years ago we Dutch wrote down the FIRST declaration of independence EVER written down : Het plakkaat van verlatinghe wich ofcourse is then observed by people like Franklin and others and they said : The Dutch are way ahead of everyone else…. let's COPY a LOT of shit from the Dutch let's rephrase things here and there and call it the DOI of America … ………and what does it state well here we go ……first the Dutch DOI :

    if a monarch does not fulfill his duties, but instead of
    protecting his subjects he tries to opress them and if he can be considered a
    tyrant, then his subjects are free to no longer recognize him as monarch.

    American version written down 200 years AFTER we Dutch invented things called ahum….. HUMAN RIGHTS :

    Whenever any form of government becomes destructive of these ends, it is the right
    of the people to alter or to abolish it and to institute new government !!!!

    I rest my fucking case……. so get your fucking guns…. all 357.000.000 of them sooooooo that will be one firearm for EVERY man woman and child and then you still got 30.000.000 firearms left !!!!!!!! And USE them !!!! You weak people !!!!!!!!!!!!! You yanks are such weak people…. you are a bunch of pussies !!!!!! That is what you are !!!!! Nowwwwwww if you kept your stupidity and DISGRACE internal then I would say : eyyyyy you deal with this shit not OUR problem buttttttt it is our problem now is it ? Terrorizing the ENTIRE fucking planet now ey ?????? So now all you 328 million pussies ARE our problem !!!!!!! So how to solve it ? Any ideas yanks ? No ideas ???? That is what I thought…. you faggots……. you chickens you pussies !!!!! You rats killed 20 MILLION people over the last 77 years in more then 50 countries…….. it is REALLY time…… you yank people DO SOMETHING about it …… like…… I dunno……. euhhhhh RIGHT NOW would be good !!!!!!!!! And you ….. as a nation you are the ONLY country with 6 million people in jail…. you are the ONLY country on the planet the ONLY ONE and STILL you yanks got your heads up your fat asses !!!!!! Fuckkkkk you yanks are a disgrace !!!!!!!!!

  8. Won't take much to close a Walmart and convert it to a Jail in the basement! One month project! The Law makers could make it a felony to wear sweat pants and spandex in public and incarcerate half the Walmart customers as they come through the door! Fill up those new basement jails with nasty Walmart shoppers yeah!

  9. The USA has over 25% of the world's prison inmates. But only 4.5% of the earth's population.
    All it means is that jails are big BUSINESS in the USA. And that the easy availability of firearms, creates a perfect climate for gun crimes.
    A lot of places use jails as manufacturing centers for Walmart and other chains. Giving someone 5 years for smoking a joint of weed, is part of the process to create a slave supply for those jails.
    The USA is probably the LESS Free Demicracy-ish place around. There are only TWO rights… Shoot guns and talk shiat.

  10. Jails are about making money and they do this off the back off the poor and vulnerable “Black” people…it’s sickening to think the ruin human life for $50k per person per year… only the grace of the Almighty will stop the corrupt people… who are the real criminal

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