On Saturday February 24, the John Marshall Law School chapter of the National Lawyers Guild hosted a day of panel discussions concerning the fight against mass incarceration and deportation. This event was part of the National Lawyers Guild’s Week Against Mass Incarceration, during which NLG law school and local chapters across the nation organize interactive workshops, community discussions, film screenings, tabling, letter writing campaigns, banner drops, visits to incarcerated youth, and panels on topics such as solitary confinement, school to prison pipeline, immigration detention, transformative justice, and alternatives to incarceration.
You can check out the schedule for JMLS’ event below:
The NLG platform calls for “the dismantling and abolition of all prisons and of all aspects of systems and institutions that support, condone, create, fill, or protect prisons.” The 2018 theme is the intersection of mass incarceration and immigration detention and deportation.
The Guild is currently engaged in unique and innovative efforts nationwide to alleviate some of the harm inflicted by the prison-industrial complex and immigration regime. The National Immigration Project of the National Lawyers Guild (NIPNLG) is a national non-profit organization that provides technical assistance and support to community-based immigrant organizations, legal practitioners, and all advocates seeking and working to advance the rights of non-citizens. NIPNLG promotes justice and equality of treatment in all areas of immigration law, the criminal justice system, and policies related to immigration. For 46 years, the National Immigration Project has served as a progressive source of advocacy-oriented legal support on issues critical to immigrant rights.
Other NLG initiatives include the NLG-NYC Parole Preparation Project, the NLG Bay Area Prisoner Advocacy Network, the NLG NJ-DE Prisoner Legal Advocacy Network, and the Guild Notes column, “Beyond Bars: Voices from NLG Jailhouse Lawyers”. NLG Mass Incarceration Committee and Prison Law Project volunteers respond to jailhouse lawyer members’ letters and send out our Jailhouse Lawyer Manual on an ongoing basis. The NLG Political Prisoner Support Committee provides legal support for and connects Guild members with political prisoners. NLG members are involved in various initiatives opposing policing, criminalization, solitary confinement, the drug war, capital punishment, and new prison construction. The Guild also supported the 2016 National Prison Strike and has been working to investigate and challenge deplorable conditions in numerous Texas Department of Criminal Justice prison facilities in the aftermath of Hurricane Harvey.
To learn more about incarcerated Guild members, their concerns, and more resources on prison litigation and organizing, please check out the NLG Jailhouse Lawyer website.
Resources
Punishment and Policing in the Trump Era
Immigration Guide to How Arrests and Convictions Separate Families
Immigration and Mass Incarceration
Immigration Policy and Planning in the Era of Mass Incarceration
Mass Incarceration and Immigrant Detention
Fact-sheet: Immigrant Detention and Mass Incarceration
Struggles of Using Legal Recourse as a Path Toward Better Prison Conditions
Following the Money of Mass Incarceration
Corrections Project PIC Poster
Joint Statement of Incite! and Critical Resistance
Incarcerated Workers Take The Lead
Documentaries