Dear FAMMily,
Over the last year, FAMM has received a terrifying rise in outreach from family members all over the country whose loved ones are locked down in prisons. We hear of lockdowns that last weeks and sometimes months. Incarcerated people are confined to their cells for 23 hours a day. They have no access to telephones or email to assure their families they are safe; no access to nutritional, hot meals; and no access to rehabilitation programming, education opportunities, jobs, exercise, or recreation.
Help us fight rising lockdowns!
It has become clear that the United States is facing a lockdown crisis. One investigative report found that at least 33 state prison systems along with most prisons within the federal Bureau of Prisons went on a nondisciplinary lockdown between 2016 and 2023; often, though not always, a result of insufficient staffing. In Illinois, lockdowns rose by 185% between 2019 and 2024. A facility in Wisconsin, the Green Bay Correctional Institution, was under lockdown for over a year.
Too often lockdowns evade any kind of scrutiny or oversight. There is no consistent definition of what a lockdown is. Most prison systems are not required to inform families of lockdowns, nor are they required to report annually on the use of lockdowns.
This needs to change! Join our campaign today to urge policy makers across the country to work together on solutions to stem the rising tide of lockdowns. We need independent prison oversight to understand why lockdowns are being used and create safer prison environments. We must work together on sentencing reform to safely reduce our prison populations while working to recruit and retain quality staff.
Sign on today to join our campaign and together we can push back the rise in lockdowns!
