US Groups Opposing New Prisons

Architects / Designers / Planners for Social Responsibility (ADPSR) pledge to not participate in the design, construction, or renovation of prisons, working towards a society that treats all its members with dignity, equality, and justice.

California Prison Moratorium Project seeks to stop all public and private prison construction in California.

Californians United For A Responsible Budget - (CURB) is a broad based coalition of over 40 organizations seeking to CURB prison spending by reducing the number of people in prison and the number of prisons in the state.

Critical Resistance - seeks to build an international movement to end the Prison Industrial Complex by challenging the belief that caging and controlling people makes us safe.

Holler to the Hood - Up the Ridge: A U.S. Prison Story, a one-hour documentary, offers viewers an in-depth look at the United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-city minority offenders to distant rural outposts.

Justice Policy Institute - Washington, DC-based think-tank committed to reducing society's reliance on incarceration.

Justice Works! - Mission is undoing racism in the criminal justice system as experienced by African Americans. Our vision is to provide a safe, affirming and unique community whereby African Americans, with the support of their allies, use self-determination to solve problems encountered with or created by the criminal justice system.

Massachusetts Statewide Harm Reduction Coalition -Building Momentum for a Statewide Moratorium on Jail/Prison Construction. There is something wrong when a country which is supposed to stand for freedom has the highest incarceration rate in the world. There is something wrong when public policies, which keep people out of jail and prison by giving them education and opportunity, are de-funded in order to fund jails and prisons instead.

Not With Our Money - Does your university invest in for-profit prisons? This group calls a day of solidarity each year, join the National Student Day of Action to Stop Prison Profiteering

November Coalition - The November Coalition is a non-profit, grassroots organization with a mission to raise awareness in individuals and communities about the spiraling increase in numbers of imprisoned in the United States due to drug-law enforcement.

Prison Design Boycott - from Architects / Designers / Planners for Social Responsibility

Real Cost of Prisons Project - Brings together prison/justice policy activists with political economists to create popular education workshops and materials which explore both the immediate and long-term costs of incarceration on the individual, her/his family, community and the nation. The goals of the Real Cost of Prisons Project are to strengthen and deepen the organizing capacity of grassroots prison/justice activists and to broaden the public's understanding of the economic and social consequences of mass incarceration.

The Sentencing Project - Information about crime, courts, sentencing, criminal justice policy analysis, punishment, alternatives to incarceration, jails, prisons, race, etc.

South Texans Against Private Prisons - STOPP was formed in the fall of 2003 in an effort to stop the expansion of the incarceration industry in south Texas -- starting with the construction of the Laredo "superjail." The STOPP Coalition brings together immigrant rights organizations, civic organizations, labor unions, criminal justice reform organizers, and student activists to oppose the construction of private jails in south Texas.

• Instead Of Prisons: A Handbook For Abolitionists; from Prison Policy Initiative. Many prison reformists yearn for the end of imprisonment but find themselves confronted by questions which seem difficult to answer. This online Handbook (also avalable in hard copy) seeks to answer those questions. We perceive the abolition of prisons as a long range goal, which, like justice, is an ever continuing struggle.

Global Groups Opposing New Prisons

Prison Justice Action Committee, Toronto, Ontario, Canada