The prison industrial complex is a well oiled machine, deep rooted in American society and its economics. There is much ground work and strategy needed to break that system and eventually shut it down. Countless grassroots organizations fight to end mass incarceration and abolish prisons. Even during a global pandemic, they continue fighting to keep prisoners safe and alive.  There has been tremendous pressure to release prisoners, which the Bureau of Prisons and some states did, but not nearly enough. One state, Alabama, refused to release prisoners and decided to build new places to confine them.  Governor Ivey<\/a>, the Alabama Department of Corrections<\/a> and CoreCivic<\/a> (formerly Corrections Corporation of America<\/a>) proposed building<\/a> three mega prisons, housing 4000 prisoners each at a cost of 3.4 billion dollars.  This decision was made even with Alabama being among the top 10 poorest states and its Department of Corrections under investigation and facing a lawsuit from the Department of Justice.  <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Several grassroots organizations formed a coalition that strategized to shut down their plan by working with local organizers, then targeting banks and the treasury Department.  Movement Talks spoke with Jordan Mazurek, activist and organizer with Fight Toxic Prisons<\/a> and Prison and Jail Closing Coordinator for National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls<\/a>.  Jordan discussed three strategies to stop prison construction that engaged unlikely coalitional partners such as conservative rural Alabama organizers, targeting banks that had agreed to sponsor the prison project and to obtain policy from the National Treasury Department not to use COVID funds for jails. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

First, after forming a coalition with Community Not Prisons<\/a>, these organizations engaged conservative rural Alabama organizers.  The Alabama organizers were fighting against opening prisons in their backyard, while the coalition\u2019s organizers didn\u2019t want more black\/brown people filling those prisons.  They found common ground to work together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n