Take Action! -- Educate the public where you live

Contribute to No New Prisons The Real Cost of Prisons Project has comic books available for distribution: Prison Town: This comic tells the tale of how financing and siting of prisons and jails affects the people of rural communities in which prisons are built. It also tells the story of the how mass incarceration affects the people of urban communities, where the majority of people who are incarcerated come from. Included in the comic book are alternatives to the current system. Prisoners of the War on Drugs: The comic book includes: the history of the war on drugs, mandatory minimums and how racism creates harsher sentences for people of color; stories on how the war on drugs works against women, three strikes, obstacles to coming home after incarceration, how mass incarceration destabilizes neighborhoods, and alternatives to the present system. Prisoners of a Hard Life: Women and Their Children: This comic book includes stories about women trapped by mandatory sentencing and the War on Drugs and the "costs" of incarceration for women and their families. A two-page story details the trial and sentencing of Regina McKnight. Also included are "Change is Possible" alternatives to the present system, a glossary and footnotes. Click for full-size Incarceration Graph Vist www.november.org/graphs for more graphs Hosting a Film Series An excellent and inexpensive way to introduce a group of potential activists to the topics of prison and drug policy reform is to present a video series. A series of video presentations can be informal, entertaining and packed with information. Here are some suggestions to get you started:

Table at events with our new 'Family Album' display: Drug War - It's Prisons, Poisons and Environmental Racism Set Up To Fail is a dramatic presentation created and performed by Justice Works!, a Seattle, WA based prisoner advocacy group. The performance takes about 20 minutes, leaving ample time for open discussion with performers and audience. Two people can educate hundreds! For more about the organization who began to perform this moving play in the northwest, visit Justice Works! online. Watch a performance of Set Up To Fail online here: Window Media - Large Window Media - Small Quicktime - Large You can adapt Set Up To Fail for your own community with the tools provided here. With only a small investment in materials, you can build your own Set Up To Fail Jail Cell (.pdf). Adapt this script, (.pdf), to your own local prison and prisoner issues. To help publicize your performance, create a Set Up To Fail Event Poster (.pdf). Download and customize this Set Up to Fail poster, or make an original of your own. To learn how to organize an event, visit these chapters of November Coalition's Bottom's Up: Guide To Grassroots Activism: Organizing a Public Event Making and Distributing Flyers and Posters Tabling at Events

	SNITCH - A great introduction to the inherent injustice in the War on Drugs, focusing on 'snitching', conspiracy laws and prosecutor abuse. 90 minutes long. This program is no longer available from PBS; however, PBS and WGBH-Boston have graciously given us permission to copy and distribute for public showings. Please contact our office if you would like a copy of SNITCH on DVD. Originally aired January 12, 1999.
	THE PLEA - Considered to be a 'sequel' to SNITCH, and by the same producer/director, Ofra Bikel. Nearly 95% of all cases resulting in felony convictions never reach a jury. They are settled through plea bargains in which a defendant agrees to plead guilty in exchange for a reduced sentence. But what are the implications of a system that relies on pleas to expedite justice? Originally aired June 17, 2004. Available from PBS Frontline.
	UP THE RIDGE: A US Prison Story - A one-hour television documentary produced by Nick Szuberla and Amelia Kirby of Holler To The Hood. The program offers viewers an in-depth look at the United States prison industry and the social impact of moving hundreds of thousands of inner-city minority offenders to distant rural outposts. The film explores competing political agendas that align government policy with human rights violations, and political expediencies that bring communities into racial and cultural conflict with tragic consequences. Available from Holler To The Hood.

• Instead Of Prisons: A Handbook For Abolitionists; from Prison Policy Initiative. Many prison reformists yearn for the end of imprisonment but find themselves confronted by questions which seem difficult to answer. This online Handbook (also avalable in hard copy) seeks to answer those questions. We perceive the abolition of prisons as a long range goal, which, like justice, is an ever continuing struggle.

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