About Us

We are prison abolitionists.

Decarcerate Monroe County formed in Bloomington, Indiana in 2008 in response to the city’s proposal to build a justice campus. DMC’s framework included embracing alternatives to punitive justice, promoting ways to decarcerate, and building a safer community. The justice campus proposal was defeated and the organization went on to fight campaigns against gentrification and discrimination, to ban the box (disclosing a felony conviction on job applications), to keep police out of the Youth Services Bureau and maintain that space as separate from the criminal justice system/not use it for youth detention, and so on. While many of the people who started this movement have relocated, the name continues to operate as an umbrella for community members to discuss local issues of incarceration and as an organizing tool to realize DMC's original mission: DMC challenges the belief that cages, coercion, and confinement keep our community safe. DMC believes people are safe when they have their basic needs met and when they feel empowered and free.

Decarcerate Marion County later formed in response to a proposed justice campus very similar in scope to the one proposed in Monroe County. You can learn more about that proposal and the struggle against it by clicking the No New Jail Coalition tab. 

 

Decarcerate Indiana exists virtually to unite people across the state in their struggles against jail construction, against the expansion of incarceration, against the criminalization of mental health, substance use disorder, and poverty. We believe real safety comes in the form of affordable housing, living-wage employment, quality education, access to healthcare and social services, and the ability to contribute to and be a part of one's community. 

 

The purpose of this site is to act as a hub for people seeking resources and connection as we collectively tear down prison walls.


/ˈprizən ˌabəˈliSH(ə)n/: n. A political vision of a world in which punishment and imprisonment are not the first response to social problems.
Share by: