The Prisoner Justice Project (PJP) at the Sylvia Rivera Law Project (SRLP) has a long history of providing legal and supportive services to our transgender, gender non-conforming, and intersex communities in state prison, and we have recently been able to focus even more of our efforts on our communities held in New York City jails. […]
Archive | SRLP Prisoner Advisory Committee
We believe that storytelling is a revolutionary act…
so, we created this space to share the activities and stories of our Prisoner Advisory Committee (PAC).
SRLP signs letter to the Board of Corrections to address suicidality in NYC jails
As we mourn the death of Kalief Browder and the many other New Yorkers who die through State-induced violence, SRLP joins activists from across the city in calling on the Board of Corrections to make wholly new and meaningful changes to how suicidality is cared for in the City jails. We request that outside experts […]
SRLP’s remarks on PREA at the Board of Correction’s monthly meeting
On May 12th, advocates from SRLP attended the monthly meeting of the Board of Correction – the body charged with monitoring all city correctional facilities – and spoke in favor of the Board adopting Rules enforcing compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act for the city jails. SRLP went further than the PREA standards and […]
NO ONE IS DISPOSABLE: Stop NY from limiting visits with people in prison!
Advocates have been rallying against NYC Mayor de Blasio’s proposed changes to visiting conditions on Riker’s Island. While incarcerated and formerly incarcerated people, their loved ones, and advocates have been able to push for many important changes at Riker’s, these new changes almost “snuck in” amidst the better news. These proposed regulations aim to reduce violence […]
Today 4/22: SRLP at #HALTSolitaryConfinement advocacy day in Albany, NY
Today, April 22, SRLP’s Prisoner Justice Project Director Mik Kinkead and Outreach Director Juana Peralta are in Albany at the #HALTSolitaryConfinement Advocacy Day with NY Campaign for Alternatives to Isolated Confinement advocating to end the use of solitary confinement and other forms of extreme isolation in NY prison and jails. Over 3,800 people are in […]
SRLP’s new Prisoner Justice Project Director, Mik Kinkead
It is an honor and a privilege to say hello to you as SRLP’s new Prisoner Justice Project Director. Since I first became involved in 2008, working with SRLP collective members, staff, and clients has helped me deepen my understanding that liberation is a process powerfully led by members of our community who are most […]
Steps toward abolition: Solitary confinement is limited in NYC, but not over yet
The news is abuzz about changes regarding young people in solitary at Rikers and other New York City jails. SRLP is excited to share this insightful article by Victoria Law (author of “Resistance Behind Bars” and “Don’t Leave Your Friends Behind”) highlighting the work of our friends and comrades at the NYC Jails Action Coalition […]
How does solitary confinement affect prisoners? Read Dee Dee’s letter and call to action
Dee Dee’s sixty-to-life prison sentence has taken an agonizing toll on her well-being, and subjected her to violence both emotional and physical at the hands of the prison industrial complex. As a jailhouse lawyer, she struggles to engage in effective work due to the limitations of her solitary confinement, which not only prevents her from […]
Solitary confinement, “a cruel and unusual punishment that benefits no one…nothing about it rehabilitates…”
Dee Dee Webber survives in an isolated cell for at least 23 hours every day, without human interaction. She is a trans woman in a prison for men, and she has been in solitary confinement for the past 4 years. Webber’s discussion of her experiences in Involuntary Protective Custody helps to illustrate some of the […]
A lovestory from “one of the darkest corners of this world”
Very rarely have I read “spark of life,” “amazing,” or “captivating” used by trans and gender non-conforming people–or anyone for that matter–to describe their experiences in prison. It is good to hear about finding love, and “sparks of life” behind bars. In this letter, Lexy, an incarcerated trans woman in Midstate Correctional Facility, describes some of […]