NLG and It’s Prison Abolition Committee Are in Solidarity With Jailhouse Lawyers Speaks Call for a Nationwide Prison Strike

Commemorating this first week of Black August, the Prison Abolition Committee (PAC) of the National Lawyers Guild (NLG) stands in solidarity with the National Prisoners' Human Rights Strike, the imprisoned organizers leading this call to action, and all those resisting carceral violence in this age of acute repression and the rising number of political prisoners. We stand with imprisoned organizers, jailhouse lawyers, families, and outside supporters advancing labor dignity, voting rights, and legal empowerment. We encourage everyone to review their Ten Demands and the three primary demands of this specific initiative: labor rights, voting rights, and the freedom of political prisoners. As JLS urges: "Teach the law. Learn the Law. Organize. Refuse to Slave."

Below is the full message from Jailhouse Lawyers Speak:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Movement Press Release

National Prisoners' Human Rights Strike

"From May Day to Juneteenth: We Refuse to Slave"

MAY 1 - JUNE 19, 2027

CONTACT:
JLS Housing and Resource Center

EMAIL: [email protected]

WEBSITE | OFFICIAL STATEMENT |CAMPAIGN UPDATES: Jailhouselawyersspeak.com

NATIONWIDE - Prisoners across the United States will stage a National Prisoners' Human Rights Strike from May 1 (International Workers' Day) through June 19 (Juneteenth), 2027, uniting the fight to end legalized slavery with the struggle to restore voting rights to the prison class.

Issued by Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS) and developed in coordination with imprisoned organizers across multiple states, the strike reflects a growing national movement committed to collective action, legal empowerment, and human rights. The full statement, including the Ten National Demands and detailed participation guidelines, is available at Jailhouselawyersspeak.com.

JLS has organized and led national direct actions inside and from prisons before and since the historic Millions for Prisoners Human Rights March in 2017-the first demonstration in Washington, D.C., against the 13th Amendment's exception "slavery" clause. In 2018, prisoners across the country developed the Ten National Demands and then laid down from work during the National Prison Strike. JLS later adopted those demands as its national organizing platform. In 2021, JLS issued the SHUT'EM DOWN calls for coordinated resistance inside prisons. The work continues.

Prisoners in multiple states have committed to participating during the May 1-June 19 strike period, with each participating place of confinement determining its own tactics, timeline, and local demands within the strike timeframe.

"America celebrates Labor Day in September and ignores May 1. Either way, the prison class is erased from every labor narrative. Corporations and prisoncrats profit from our bodies 24/7 on a cell bunk-work or no work. We are exploited as commodities and as forced labor. But commodities do not strike. We do. From May Day to Juneteenth, we reclaim our power. We refuse to slave."

WHY THE STRIKE IS NECESSARY

The United States cages more human beings than any nation on earth. The Constitution contains multiple exception clauses tied to crime that strip the prison class of both labor rights and political power.

The 13th Amendment permits slavery "as punishment for crime," excluding prison labor from basic labor protections. The 14th Amendment, Section 2 strips voting rights "for participation in rebellion, or other crime." These clauses operate together: the 13th enables economic exploitation while the 14th ensures the prison class is governed without consent - taxed, regulated, and policed by officials that view imprisoned people as property of the state - slaves, civilly dead.

The system also weaponizes prisoners through prison-based gerrymandering. Prisoners' bodies are counted to inflate the political power and draw federal funding into rural districts, all while the imprisoned are stripped of any vote or representation.

Through these exception clauses, the prison class is relegated to conditional citizenship,
a status where constitutional rights are granted at the pleasure of the state. When officials can openly discuss transferring imprisoned citizens to foreign prisons without a constitutional barrier, it is because these exception clauses have already stripped the prison class of the full protections of citizenship.

Even after release, formerly imprisoned people return home to communities where they remain subject to a government, they cannot hold accountable.

Behind the razors, prisoners report living in unventilated, boiling or freezing cells during climate extremes; enduring endless so called "staffing shortage" lockdowns ordered by prisoncrats; watching militarized roundups in ICE detention centers; and seeing poor people funneled into plea deals simply because they cannot afford cash bail or pay for a decent defense attorney.

The post-conviction apparatus extends the trap beyond the walls. Thousands on thousands of people in prison who meet basic parole requirements are repeatedly denied parole by arbitrary boards citing "the nature of the original crime," a static reason that never changes, solely to maintain prison bed quotas. Upon release, the carceral state traps formerly imprisoned people under supervision debt, electronic surveillance, ankle monitors, and restrictive probation and parole systems that serve as a revolving door back to a cell.

THE THREE CORE DEMANDS

While JLS maintains its full Ten National Demands (viewable at Jailhouselawyersspeak.com), this campaign focuses on three:

1. END LEGALIZED SLAVERY: Repeal the exception clause of the 13th Amendment.

1. RESTORE VOTING RIGHTS: Repeal exception clauses (including Section 2 of the 14th Amendment) that strip voting rights from confined citizens, pretrial detainees, and former felons.

1. FREE ALL THE POLITICAL PRISONERS IN U.S. PRISONS.

HOW THE STRIKE WORKS

The strike operates on facility autonomy. There is no top down order and no outside command. Organizers inside each prison determine their own tactics and timelines within the May 1-June 19 window.

Ways to participate:

• Labor Strike: No work.

• Commissary Boycott: Buy only what is necessary for survival and communication.

• Work Slowdown: Work at the pace that justice demands, not the pace that exploitation demands.

Legal empowerment is the core of this strike. Every jailhouse lawyer, law library clerk, and prisoner who has ever filed a grievance, writ, motion, or appeal is called to teach the law to those who do not know it.

STRIKE LINE: Prisoners and families may report participation, conditions, and retaliation by calling the JLS-HRC Strike Line at 202-996-6797. Prison phones are monitored; a simple
confirmation that a facility is "observing May Day" is sufficient.

BUILDING PERMANENT INFRASTRUCTURE

JLS emphasizes that this strike is not a standalone event but the launch of lasting institutions.

JLS Housing and Resource Center (JLS-HRC) serves as the campaign's outside coordinating infrastructure. Working alongside imprisoned organizers, JLS-HRC processes prisoner correspondence, coordinates volunteers, sends legal study guides, distributes JLS materials, and provides retaliation forms upon request during the strike. Retaliation forms are available for anyone who faces reprisal for strike participation.
Women activists about to be released from prison may contact JLS-HRC regarding JLS housing and reentry support.

JLS HRC Media serves as the communications and public information arm, documenting strike activity and amplifying imprisoned voices throughout the campaign.

The JLS Legal Hub, currently in development under a JLS appointed lead attorney, is building a state by state directory of legal resources for the prison class. Get involved.

The JLS Right 2 Vote Initiative will need State Liaisons in all 50 states to organize families of the imprisoned into voting blocs capable of forcing legislative change at the ballot box.

"Those inside cannot vote, but our families and friends can - and through this initiative, JLS is charging them to join our national legislative fight and force the changes that will impact the judicial system and will restore our right to vote," the full statement reads.

CALL TO ACTION

Whether motivated by human rights, labor dignity, or the complete abolition of the carceral state, inside participants stand united in direct action. We call on all outside allies to support the resistance inside, regardless of ideological differences.

JLS calls on outside supporters to:

• Push this statement inside by mailing it into prisons and sharing it on visitation floors, phone calls, and community networks;

• Center prisoner voices by publishing imprisoned people writings on prison labor, disenfranchisement, abolition and human rights;

• Pressure establishment politicians to address the Demands and repeal constitutional exception clauses;

• Inform JLS of any notices of participation from inside, ongoing strikes, or related retaliation during the strike timeframe;

• Volunteer legal expertise or join the Right 2 Vote Initiative by contacting [email protected].

The National Prisoners' Human Rights Strike is more than a strike. It is a commitment to building lasting institutions, expanding legal knowledge, strengthening political education, and organizing inside and outside the walls until legalized slavery and the broader systems of exploitation are abolished.

TEACH THE LAW. LEARN THE LAW. ORGANIZE. REFUSE TO SLAVE.

MEDIA & INFRASTRUCTURE CONTACTS
Media Inquiries:
[email protected]
Legal Hub, Volunteer & State Liaison Inquiries: [email protected]. cc [email protected]
(For Right 2 Vote State Liaison applications, use Subject: Re: JLS Right 2 Vote Initiative)

Prisoners may write to:
Jailhouse Lawyers Speak
PO BOX 673
MERCER, PA 16137