On April 21, 2023, the Coalition to Decarcerate Illinois and our partners Avalon Betts-Gaston, Dyanna Winchester, Anthony Jones, Meleah Geertsma from Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC), Alan Mills from Uptown People's Law Center (UPLC), Tanya Lozano from Healthy Hood Chicago, and Sherrif Polk from the Final 5 Campaign gathered outside the State Building a year after State’s prison water was found unsafe due to the detection of legionella bacteria, causing legionnaires disease, in several Illinois prisons. In December 2022 and January 2023, IEPA issued drinking water Notices of Violation (“NOVs”) to ten Illinois prisons, including Stateville and Vienna Correctional Centers. Agency inspection photos show storage tanks with sticks plugging holes in them at Vienna C.C. and the bottom of Statesville C.C.’s water tower covered with mildew.
Coalition Overview
The Coalition to Decarcerate IL is a group of loved ones of the incarcerated, currently and formerly incarcerated individuals, activists, and creatives working towards abolition and fighting for the rights and dignity of currently incarcerated individuals and their loved ones. Our coalition works to achieve our mission through campaign organizing, political education, and the direct support of people with loved ones behind bars.
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Water Crisis in Illinois Prisons August 18, 2022 -- Illinois prison infrastructure is deteriorating. Legionella bacteria, which can cause Legionnaires’ disease, a potentially fatal type of pneumonia, was found in the water at Stateville and Joliet Treatment Center. We demand humane conditions and releases NOW! |
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Clemency Now! February 2022 -- What started as a coalition to end Illinois' prison lockdowns and fight for better medical conditions for those inside during the height of COVID-19, the Coalition to Decarcerate IL is a group of loved ones of the incarcerated, currently and formerly incarcerated individuals, activists, and creatives working towards abolition and fighting for the rights and dignity of currently incarcerated individuals and their loved ones. |
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#FreeTheMoms Action May 7, 2021 -- End IL Prison Lockdown, AFSC Chicago, and Mamas Activating Movements for Abolition & Solidarity (MAMAS) came out to a Mother’s Day rally where they delivered a giant Mother’s Day card to JB Pritzker’s home, singed by dozens of mothers of the incarcerated and incarcerated moms. We Demanded that the Illinois Governor restore contact visit and end of the lockdowns, sign the clemencies on his desk, and free our loved ones! Cancel the plans to build a new youth prison in IL and #StopLDC! |
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End IL Prison Lockdown December 15, 2020 -- SoapBox joins the End IL Prison Lockdown Coalition (now the Coalition to Decarcerate IL) to demand that the state of Illinois take the appropriate actions to protect those in IDOC. “Where are you Gov. Pritzker? In the past 10 months, incarcerated people in Illinois have faced an extreme, ineffective l, and unending prison lockdown, forced to stay in their cell over 23 hours a day! Still, over 60 are dead and 1,000s infected. Cages don’t drop COVID! |
Related Podcast Episode
BrownTown talks water access, water solidarity, and abolition as presence with Avalon Betts-Gatson and Tommy Hagan, organizers with the Coalition to Decarcerate Illinois (CDI). From indigenous land back struggles to fighting for clean drinking water for incarcerated peoples, water is the most basic human right. The gang gets meta discussing organizing strategies within coalitions of various ideologies, access points to abolition, and the role of prisons and carceral logics in current campaigns, recent events, and everyday life. Originally recorded September 11, 2023.
More Coalition Coverage
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Cinematography & Editing by James Murray
Field Direction & CDI Organizing Liaison, David A. Moran
Additional Cinematography & Direction by Caullen Hudson
Page Photos & Direct Action Photography by Isaiah Hester
Field Direction & CDI Organizing Liaison, David A. Moran
Additional Cinematography & Direction by Caullen Hudson
Page Photos & Direct Action Photography by Isaiah Hester
