The New Wave of Frontal Attacks on Prisons, Jails, and Detention Centers
In response to a viral video prisoners released detailing moldy conditions inside of the Dekalb County Jail, fifty people flooded the jail in Atlanta, Georgia, on April 12, 2019, clashing with correctional officers and setting off smoke bombs inside the jail and fireworks outside it.
The following month, a group twice as large marched to the jail, facing down over 100 police officers.
Prisoners smashed the windows in their cells in order to communicate directly with the protesters outside.
Smaller actions at the jail and outreach to the families and friends of inmates are ongoing, exerting pressure on the administrators, who have stopped commenting to the news, and contributing to a growing tide of anger against the facility.
This is just the latest flare-up in a nationwide wave of struggles against jails, prisons, and other detention facilities from outside as well as within.
In the following text, we review some of the highlights of these struggles, address why they are so pressing today, and discuss the necessity of an emancipatory politics that opposes both traditional means of incarceration and the alternative forms of control that are emerging from the restructuring of prisons, jails, and borders.
Until you are ready to stand up for others, to push back against our thuggish masters, slavery is what we get.
Until, and unless, we leave rule by force behind, slavery is all we'll get.
