This Saturday, May 16, there will be demonstrations for mass release of people caged in Indiana’s prisons, at Pendleton CF and Indiana State Prison, organized by the Free Them All Coalition! The Free Them All Coalition is composed of grassroots groups around the state of Indiana who have come together to fight for mass release from Indiana’s prisons, jails, and detention centers due to the threat posed by COVID-19. We have been organizing protests at various detention facilities, and we won’t stop fighting until our people are freed!
If we want anyone to be freed, we need to fight together for all our loved ones to be freed – that’s what free them all means! We don’t need to be arguing about who does or doesn’t deserve to be freed, when they are all facing an unjustified death sentence. If we fight together for all our loved ones to be freed, it will have the best results for everyone because we will be able to apply more pressure.
Demands of the Free Them All Coalition, to the State of Indiana:
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Release everyone in IDOC custody who has less than a year left to serve on their sentence, over 6000 people, immediately. In March, a plan was presented to all three branches of Indiana’s government for releasing everyone with a year or less on their sentence. The government refused to act on the plan, preferring to kill incarcerated people by keeping the prisons overcrowded during the pandemic. You can read the plan here.
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All sheriffs and county jails must stop cooperating with ICE, and release everyone detained on immigration holds.
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Release everyone who is in prison or jail on a technical parole violation immediately.
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Release people who are elderly or vulnerable to COVID-19 due to underlying health conditions
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Release everyone detained pre-trial because they can’t pay bail
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Provide temporary housing for those released using federal COVID-19 stimulus funds, so that those released can quarantine themselves for two weeks.
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Free medical care for everyone who remains incarcerated
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Free communication (video visits, GTL messaging, and phone calls) for everyone who remains incarcerated
