I first met Rabi Cepeda in 2015. Over the past three years, Rabi and I have been able to meet, share food, and grow together. Rabi came home in the summer of 2017 and I have been able to meet with him a few times to make sure he stays…
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SRLP Signs On to Letter Demanding End to ICE Arrests/SRLP Firma Una Carta Exigiendo El Fin de las Detenciones de ICE
Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) defiantly joins the nearly two thousand organizations and individuals who have spoken out against the arrests and deportations of visible, courageous activists and organizers in the immigrant rights movement by signing on to a letter to the secretary of DHS condemning the targeting of immigrant…
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SRLP Supports the #cancelpinkwashing Campaign
Why is SRLP supporting the #cancelpinkwashing campaign happening around Creating Change this year? For 15 years, SRLP has been focused on building trans resistance rooted in racial and economic justice. That mission is particularly important because of the long history and contemporary reality of poor people, indigenous people, Black people,…
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Protective Custody & The Right to Work – A Former PAC Member’s Letter on the Lack of Safe Housing and Job Accessibility for Transgender Women in Prisons
Today, we’d like to share a letter from one of our former PAC members, Victoria Rodriguez, who wrote to us earlier this year while she was housed in the Transgender Housing Unit (THU). The THU is a specialized unit for transgender women currently stationed at the Manhattan Detention Center (MDC).…
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Meet the Advisory Committee for It’s War in Here!
As part of the relaunch of “It’s War in Here,” we asked some of our incarcerated members to join an Advisory Committee for the project. These members have helped us to generate questions and edit the surveys, and they will help us to review data and edit drafts of the…
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“What’s Up with Trans Healthcare?” Town Hall Event Recap – A Night of Community Bonding, Building Power, and Creating Alliances
On Thursday, November 9th, the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) teamed up with the LGBT Community Center at West 13th to create an affirming and community-driven space to discuss trans healthcare and to learn about the work being done by our allies around the city. During our “What’s Up with…
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Writing to Folks on the Inside
“I didn’t know I needed community until it was offered to me.” – James, member of SRLP’s Prisoner Advisory Committee Trans, gender non-conforming, and intersex (TGNCI) folks experience significantly increased interaction with police, police violence, and incarceration. This heightened state of policing and discrimination is even more acute for folks…
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It's War in Here - Legal - Newsletter - Prisoner Rights Project - SRLP News - SRLP Prisoner Advisory Committee
Celebrating the Prisoner Justice Project’s Accomplishments in 2017
As with all of Sylvia Rivera Law Project’s (SRLP) legal work, the Prisoner Justice Project (PJP) seeks to address the immediate needs of our incarcerated community members and connect them with opportunities to engage more fully in our work. Most people initiate contact with PJP in a state of crisis,…
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What is the Sylvia Rivera Law Project’s Prisoner Advisory Committee?
The Sylvia Rivera Law Project’s Prisoner Advisory Committee (PAC) is a committee of incarcerated trans, gender non-conforming, and intersex (TGNCI) individuals who seek to share their voices with those on the outside about the injustices they have faced both in and out of prison. PAC began from a proposal by…
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NYC Board of Corrections Issues New Resolution to Protect Incarcerated TGNCI Individuals from Sexual Assault
In 2003, Congress passed the Prison Rape Elimination Act (PREA), which sought to address and reduce sexual assaults in prison, as well as to develop resources to educate institutions on this issue and to protect those most vulnerable. Unfortunately, many prisons across the country have failed to uphold the standards…