Very excited to share information Sammy sent about the jail support project that got started in Baltimore after the Baltimore Uprising. About the project:
“First imagined in response to the mass arrest of protestors and community members during the Baltimore Uprising, the Baltimore Jail Support collective organizes recurring jail care at the city detention center to reframe all prisoners as political prisoners. Jail care is a commitment to be outside jail as much as possible to provide folks with transportation, food, water, and care as they are released. In addition to direct mutual support, the collective produces material to connect people to reentry resources and information about prison abolition. Currently, we organize 2-hour shifts with drivers for 6 hours twice a week. In addition we provide jail care after protest arrests and coordinate with another local organization Baltimore Action Legal Team to provide bail when possible and for actions like Black Mama’s Bail Out Day.”
I am so inspired by this mutual aid project because of how it resists deserving/undeserving dynamics by offering help to whoever comes out of the jail during the shifts when the project is working. So many services are limited to people who fit criteria determined within racialized, classed and gendered hierarchies–like projects that only serve people with certain charges or convictions or who will agree to certain conditions. This project is about how everyone who walks out of that jail deserves support. Thanks for sharing the information, Sammy!
