Building Community Not Prisons

Folks in DC! Join us for the opening event of art exhibition 500 Miles Out: Carceral Ties Between the District and Central Appalachia, which will highlight the relationship of these two regions via the prison-industrial-complex––including the proposed federal FCI Letcher prison––and feature artwork by BCNP friends and coalition members. Swing by on May 2nd between 4-6pm at Rhizome DC to see artwork by Jordan Martinez-Mazurek, Kat Smith, Comrade Pitt Panther, Tiffany Pyette, and more! Stay tuned for details on @rhizome_dc 's website!

If all of these prisons haven't brought about the changes Hal Rogers promises (more jobs, better economy), why would one more? No more prisons in Appalachia. No more prisons anywhere.

Hal Rogers would have you believe that Letcher Countians are just fine with a new prison, but here’s the truth: the only one who wants this prison is Hal. We want education, housing, food, and real safety that doesn’t mean abandoning people to an unjust system.

EASTERN TENNESSEE!!! We are coming to YOU!!! Join us this Saturday at @centralcinemaknox for a back-to-back Prison Fighting Double Feature Event! From 12:30-2:30 come hear about the fight against the most expensive Federal Prison in U.S. History, how it will impact folks in Tennessee if built, and how you can help us stop it! We'll have a screening of Calls From Home, as well as hear from local organizers with @cdet__ and more about ways to plug in to work going on locally! Then at 2:30 stick around for a screening of #TheAlabamaSolution hosted by @cdet__ ! We can't wait to talk prison-fighting with y'all! #NoNewLetcherPrison #Tennessee

KENTUCKY!!! Join us in Lexington next Sunday to learn about the historic decade long KENTUCKY-LED fight against the Federal prison in Eastern Kentucky, and how you can help us stop it once and for all! We'll have food! A short film! And speakers coming from across the country! From the Holler to the prison cell, we are united in stopping this prison 💪💪💪 When: Sunday, October 12th, 4:00-6:00 pm Where: @artfarmcoop - 1123 Winchester Road, Lexington, KY 40505 #NoNewLetcherPrison #Kentucky

💗🦬 𝓑𝓲𝓼𝓸𝓷 𝓬𝓸𝓶𝓲𝓷𝓰 (𝓫𝓪𝓬𝓴) 𝓼𝓸𝓸𝓷 𝓽𝓸 𝓔𝓪𝓼𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓷 𝓚𝓮𝓷𝓽𝓾𝓬𝓴𝔂 🦬💗 Bringing the bison home! Not long ago, this land in Eastern Kentucky was slated for a federal prison, a place built to confine and disappear. But the land had other plans. And so did we. This is the ancestral homeland of multiple Indigenous Tribes, who lived in these hills long before colonization. They hunted here, held ceremonies here, and lived in deep relationship with this land. We know all things are related: the people, the land, the flora and fauna. Now, we are preparing the land for the return of bison, a relative that the area has missed. Native to this region, bison shaped the landscape and sustained the people who lived with them. They are a keystone species. Their return is more than restoration. It is a living act of healing, memory, and renewal. With their help, we can restore the soil, protect the other pieces of the ecosystem on the site, and restore a harm that was done to Indigenous communities when the bison were removed. Support this project at the link in our bio 🤝🏽 #LandBack #CollectiveLiberation #Rematriation #CommunityNotPrisons #NoNewLetcherPrison #AbolitionNow

Dr. Lydia Pelot-Hobbs is an assistant professor of Geography at the University of Kentucky who recently submitted testimony to the United States Senate Appropriations Committee about why the federal government should cancel the funding to build a new prison in Letcher County, Kentucky. Dr. Pelot-Hobbs’ research expertise is on prison and jail expansion, and has published multiple peer-reviewed research articles and books with a focus on the economic, political, social, and environmental impacts of incarceration. Dr. Pelot-Hobbs’ comments draw on over a decade of primary research as well as in-depth knowledge of the academic literature on the effects of prisons and jails on local communities and the experiences of incarcerated people. Yet again another expert is telling Congress that spending over a half a billion dollars on this prison will unjustly harm the people and the surrounding environment. Enough is Enough! Congress its time to pull the plug on this project! #nonewletcherprison

🚨📰🗞️🚨📰🗞️ Immediate Correction Needed! Recent reporting has indicated that local people in Roxana, Kentucky will loose out and not get access to water and sewer lines if Congress grants the President’s wish to cancel the funding for a new BOP prison in Letcher County!! WE ARE HERE TO CORRECT THE RECORD BECAUSE THIS IS NOT TRUE. Waterlines are coming to Roxana with or without a prison because the Bureau of Prisons is not and will not be paying for or maintaining water lines. Rather the water lines are going in, and being paid for by the Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) funds. In fact, Jim Cable, KY Division of Abandoned Mines (AML) said in April 2024: “In 2019, we found out the prison would not be a reality … but, knowing that the project would also serve many citizens of the coalfields with municipal water it was continued [because] AML and the EEC are still committed to the project and the citizens of Letcher County.” (EEC is the Energy and Environment Cabinet in Frankfort). People deserve clean water whether or not there is a prison. #NoNewLetcherPrison #BuildingCommunityNotPrisons #WaterforLifeNotforProfit

ALERT — 🔔🚨🔔🚨🦇🦇🦇🦇 The Bureau of Prison’s (BOP) proposed prison will likely destroy summer AND winter habitat for four endangered bat species. Bats are possibly one of the most misunderstood animals. Sheryl Ducummon from Bat Conservation International, Inc explains that “bats are key predators of night-flying insects that cost American farmers and foresters a billion dollars annually, and they are pollinators of several keystone desert plants in the American southwest and Mexico. Despite their importance, bats are often persecuted both intentionally and unintentionally, and their numbers continue to decline from habitat loss, environmental toxins, and disturbance at key roost sites. Bats currently represent the most imperiled order of land mammals in the United States and Canada.” The United States Fish and Wildlife Service, “bats play an essential role in pest control, pollinating plants and dispersing seeds. Recent studies estimate that bats eat enough pests to save more than $1 billion per year in crop damage and pesticide costs in the United States corn industry alone. Across all agricultural production, consumption of insect pests by bats results in a savings of more than $3 billion per year. While many bats eat insects, others feed on nectar and provide critical pollination for a variety of plants like peaches, cloves, bananas and agaves. In fact, bats are the sole pollinator for the agave plant, a key ingredient in tequila!” Why then is the government trying to build a prison where endangered bats live? Thats why bat biologist Jonathan Hootman of @borealis_biological submitted testimony to the US Senate Appropriations Committee asking Congress to rescind the over $500 million allocated to build this monstrosity. #NoNewLetcherPrison #buildingcommunitynotprisons

Jessie Cage speaks truth to power: “Building new federal prisons doesn’t serve incarcerated people or their communities.” Jessie testified before Congress urging them to rescind $506M for a new prison in Letcher County, KY, and invest in real rehabilitation instead.

🚫 The Sentencing Project is urging Congress to rescind over $500 million for a new federal prison—FCI Letcher—in eastern Kentucky. Here's why: Kentucky already has five federal prisons. The Trump and Biden administrations agree the prison should be canceled. FCI Letcher's remote location would isolate incarcerated people, harm families, and worsen the prison staffing crisis. It also poses serious environmental risks to the Eastern Kentucky region. 📣 We need fewer prisons—not more.

Voice of the Experienced (VOTE), a member of the Building Community Not Prisons Coalition, submitted testimony to the US Senate to rescind the over $500 million allocated to build an unnecessary federal prison in Eastern Kentucky.    VOTE’s General Counsel, Emily Posner, warned lawmakers that this prison would deepen the impact of prison gerrymandering—a tactic that inflates political power in rural areas by counting incarcerated people where they’re imprisoned, not where they’re from, despite their inability to vote. (Note: Incarcerated people can only vote in Vermont and Maine)     Eastern Kentucky already holds over 8,000 incarcerated people. This new facility would push that number to nearly 10,000—warping district lines and silencing communities most impacted by incarceration. If prison gerrymandering was abolished in Kentucky, the state, and likely Congressional, legislative maps would look much different.    Congress - we don’t need this prison but we do need fair representation.