Organizers demand Gov. Rauner close youth prisons and reinvest funding into communities most impacted by youth incarceration and the school-to-prison pipeline.
CHICAGO–(ENEWSPF)–March 31, 2016 — On April 1st, join young organizers at 2 PM for an action at the Illinois Youth Center (IYC) Chicago, 136 N. Western Ave, in solidarity with calls to shut down Chicago and #FightForFunding in our communities. The group plans to join the 4 PM mass rally at the Thompson Center after leaving IYC.
Organizers of the solidarity action say we can secure more funding for the things that matter most by closing youth prisons across Illinois. Governor Rauner has recommended the closure of Kewanee prison. Project NIA supports this and wants the funds to be reinvested in our communities.
On April 1st Chicago will “stand up to Rahm Emanuel, Governor Rauner and their cohort of corporate conspirators who are working to protect the rich while implementing massive cuts intent on destroying our communities, disproportionately impacting black and brown lives,” says the Facebook event post for this action.
Organizer say they hope young people will join them April 1st to make it clear that Chicago needs schools, not jails; education, not incarceration; and no youth in prison.
This action is co-sponsored with:
Assata’s Daughters
Black Lives Matter – Chicago
Brown People for Black Power
Chicago Freedom School
Chicago Taskforce on Violence Against Young Women and Girls
Chicago League of Abolitionist Whites
For the People Artists Collective
Launched in 2009, Project NIA is an advocacy, organizing, popular education, research, and capacity-building center with the long-term goal of ending youth incarceration. We believe that several simultaneous approaches are necessary in order to develop and sustain community-based alternatives to the system of policing and incarceration. Our mission is to dramatically reduce the reliance on arrest, detention, and incarceration for addressing youth crime and to instead promote the use of restorative and transformative practices, a concept that relies on community-based alternatives.
Source: Project NIA
