Elected officials have failed to address the interwoven crises of criminalization, poverty, trauma and mental illness that disproportionately harm Black and Brown communities. Systems of power have capitalized on our suffering to maintain the status quo – pouring over $600 million of public funding into our County jail and Sheriff’s department, while continuously divesting from our healthcare, housing, and education infrastructures.

For 9 years, we organized to defeat Alameda County’s proposed expansion of Santa Rita Jail, AND WE WON. Organizing together with the Care First Community Coalition, we stopped millions of public dollars from flowing into the County’s most deadly institution, and freed up over $50 million of county funds for life-affirming care.

We are organizing to ensure the $81 million that was diverted from the Santa Rita Jail expansion is reinvested in our communities – to expand decarceration opportunities, invest in holistic community-based mental healthcare, and build permanent supportive housing for all those who need it.

We will struggle together until the prison-industrial-complex is made obsolete by building out community-based systems of care and accountability. Until healthcare, housing, and safety are not luxuries but basic human rights. Until we are all free.