PHILADELPHIA (February 9, 2022) – In the days before Valentine’s Day, people in states across the country will travel to nearby prisons, jails, and detention centers with valentine cards, signs, and banners. They will show their love to people inside and demonstrate to the public the human and fiscal cost of keeping people in cages. The participants will demand that people be released from prisons, jails, and immigration and juvenile detention centers. Learn more and see complete event listings: http://afsc.org/FreeThemAll
“If incarceration stopped violence, the U.S. would be the safest country in the world,” said Lewis Webb, who coordinates the American Friends Service Committee’s (AFSC) Healing Justice work and is organizing an event on the Rikers Island Bridge to give Valentines and care packages to people being released. “Instead, we have almost two million people in cages. On Valentine’s Day and every day our communities lack access to quality health care, education, employment, addiction and mental health services. We need policies that reinvest resources from carceral settings towards keeping families together and addressing root causes of violence.”
Actions are taking place across the country, including in California, Colorado, Michigan, Illinois, New Hampshire, and New York. See a complete listing of events here.
“Incarceration is too often used as a response to homelessness, migration, poverty, substance misuse or even an inability to afford bail,” said Grace Kindeke, who coordinates AFSC’s New Hampshire program and is organizing an action outside the Hillsborough County House of Corrections in Manchester. “This Valentine’s Day we are honoring our loved ones behind bars and calling for their release. We must invest in systems of healing and reparation.”
At another event in Aurora, Co., participants will deliver hundreds of homemade Valentines to the private immigration detention center run by GEO Group. “We call for resources to be redirected into programs that provide welcome and dignity through legal representation and resettlement to asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants,” said Jennifer Piper, interfaith organizing director for AFSC in Colorado. “We call on our political leaders to invest in local programs in Colorado that build up shared safety by investing in youth services, housing, mental health, and drug treatment. And we call for an immediate end to immigration detention.”
These actions were initiated by the American Friends Service Committee – a Quaker organization that has for decades advocated that the punitive criminal legal system and immigrant detention system be dismantled.
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The American Friends Service Committee is a Quaker organization that includes people of various faiths who are committed to social justice, peace and humanitarian service. Its work is based on the belief in the worth of every person and faith in the power of love to overcome violence and injustice.