OFFICIAL PRISONERS' STRIKE STATEMENT
NATIONAL PRISONERS' HUMAN RIGHTS STRIKE
MAY 1 – JUNE 19, 2027
ISSUED BY: Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS)
MEDIA CONTACT: JLS Housing and Resource Center
EMAIL: jlshrcmedia@gmail.com
WEBSITE: Jailhouselawyersspeak.com
FROM MAY DAY TO JUNETEENTH: WE REFUSE TO SLAVE
Fundamentally, this is a human rights crisis. The United States cages more human beings than any nation on earth. Behind the razors, we are stripped of our humanity, exploited for forced labor, and treated as raw material for state and corporate profit.
Jailhouse Lawyers Speak (JLS), a prisoner human rights organization, calls on all prisoners in federal and state prisons, county jails, and immigration detention to join the National Prisoners' Human Rights Strike, running nationwide from May 1 (International Workers' Day) through June 19 (Juneteenth), 2027.
Developed in coordination with imprisoned organizers across multiple states, this strike reflects the growing national movement committed to collective action, legal empowerment, and human rights.
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 which
later became the organization's national organizing platform.
In 2021, JLS issued the SHUT'EM DOWN calls for coordinated resistance inside prisons. The work continues.
While the nation recognizes Labor Day, the legal loophole of the 13th Amendment ensures that prison labor remains intentionally excluded from basic labor rights.
Launching on May Day and running through Juneteenth, this strike bridges the international working-class struggle with the fights to abolish legalized slavery and restore voting rights to the prison class
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 and local demands.
"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 WE STRIKE
A political storm is sweeping through many prisons across the nation as the prison class plainly see the hidden mechanics of a system designed to dehumanize the imprisoned population. For too long, many of us were kept in the dark about the machinery behind our confinement, how law enforcement, district attorneys, politicians, and judges win elections on platforms of mass imprisonment, and how private interests and rural economies profit off our bed counts.
Our captive bodies are weaponized through prison based gerrymandering, where our numbers are used to swell the political power and draw federal funding into rural voting districts, all while stripping us 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 constitutional barrier, it is because these exception clauses have already stripped the prison class of the full protections of citizenship.
BEHIND THE RAZORS:
This legal disenfranchisement is paired with the reality of living in unventilated, boiling 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 paid legal defense.
THE POST-CONVICTION APPARATUS:
The trap extends beyond the walls. Thousands on thousands of people in prison who meet the 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. Even 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 CORE DEMANDS:
While the full Ten National Demands remain active (viewable at Jailhouselawyersspeak.com) strike organizers across committed states are focusing on three core demands:
1. END LEGALIZED SLAVERY: Repeal the exception clause of the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
2. RESTORE VOTING RIGHTS: Repeal exception clauses (such as Section 2 of the 14th Amendment) that strip voting rights from confined citizens, pretrial detainees, and former felons.
3. FREE ALL THE POLITICAL PRISONERS IN U.S. PRISONS.
HOW THE STRIKE WORKS
The National Prisoners' Human Rights Strike is more than a campaign; it is an effort to build lasting structure through collective action.
Starting May Day where conditions allow, we encourage you to lay down from labor and refuse to slave. Each organizer at each prison, jail, or immigration detention center will decide, based on local conditions, whether and how their place of confinement will participate. Prisoners inside determine their own dates and the length of their actions within the national strike time frame.
There is no top down order. There is no outside command. Every place of confinement is autonomous and should identify its own local demands tailored to its specific conditions, including targeting local parole board practices and conditions inside. This includes immigration detention, where organizers should identify the human rights issues most affecting detained migrants and asylum seekers.
Those inside know that not every prisoner has access to work, and that corporations and prisoncrats profit from imprisonment itself.
Ways to participate:
Labor Strike: Lay down from labor.
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 & POLITICAL EDUCATION:
Legal empowerment is the core of this strike.
This campaign centers on building a prison class that knows the law, understands the system, and can use that knowledge to defend and free itself.
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.That means: teach rights and court procedure; assist in preparing petitions, appeals, and grievances; and support litigation by researching case law and strengthening legal arguments.
The 13th Amendment's exception clause is essential study. Every prisoner must understand that the U.S. Constitution contains language permitting slavery "as punishment for crime." It is also worth studying that the Constitution contains more than one exception clause tied to crime. Section 2 of the 14th Amendment excepts voting rights "for participation in rebellion, or other crime." These exception clauses work in tandem to define who gets counted as a citizen and who gets stripped of humanity. They silence the prison class politically so we can be exploited economically.
Legal knowledge teaches us how to navigate the system; political education teaches us how to understand the system. Together, they transform survival mentalities into collective, liberatory mentalities.
Learning the law is protected activity.
OUTSIDE SOLIDARITY:
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.
To our families, allies, and community organizers on the outside:
Push this statement inside. Mail this call into prisons, share it on visitation floors, through phone calls, radio broadcasts, and community networks. The message going inside spreads the May Day Call.
Center prisoner voices by publishing imprisoned people writings on prison labor, disenfranchisement, abolition and human rights. If a prisoner writes it, find a way to get it out and get it heard.
Those who can should organize to pressure establishment politicians and prisoncrats to address the Demands and repeal constitutional exception clauses.
Inform us of any notices of participation from inside, ongoing strikes, or related retaliation during that timeframe. (Some prisoners may find it difficult to get the word out that they are participating or need support.)
STRIKE LINE: Prisoners and families may report participation, conditions, and retaliation by calling \texting 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 LASTING INFRASTRUCTURE:
1.JLS Housing and Resource Center (JLS-HRC)
The outside administrative backbone.
Inside Support: Processes prisoner correspondence, 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.
Reentry & Housing: Provides sober, non-traditional reentry housing and direct support for women activists returning home from prison. Women activists about to be released from prison may contact JLS-HRC regarding JLS housing and reentry support.
Volunteer Connection: Connects volunteers to the JLS and JLS HRC work
2. JLS HRC Media:
JLS HRC Media operates through the JLS Housing and Resource Center (JLS-HRC) and serves as the communications and public information arm of the National Prisoners' Human Rights Strike. It documents strike activity, tracks reports of retaliation against participants, serves as the primary media contact for the campaign, publicizes phone zaps and solidarity actions organized by supporters, and amplifies the voices, writings, artwork, photographs, videos, and reports of imprisoned people throughout the strike.
3. The JLS Legal Hub
A legal resource hub currently in development led by a JLS appointed lead attorney, building a state by state directory of legal resources for the prison class.
Call to Legal Workers & Students: We call on attorneys, paralegals, legal workers, jailhouse lawyers and law students to offer any services and to draft simplified legal study materials for distribution inside. If you are a student, bring your plans to JLS and we will collaborate with you to develop your legal projects at your colleges and universities. Contact jailhouselawyersspeak@protonmail.com cc Outthemud.jls@gmail.com.
Prisoners seeking legal resources through the Legal Hub should write JLS-HRC with "Legal Hub Request" noted on the envelope.
4. The JLS Right 2 Vote Initiative
JLS leads the charge to organize our vast networks of families and friends into an active voting bloc. 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.
Through this strike, JLS reinitiates the nationwide JLS Right 2 Vote Initiative. We will need State Liaisons in all 50 states to execute local strategy, organize families of the imprisoned, and build state by state voting blocs to force legislative change at the ballot box.
To apply or join as a State Liaison: Email Outthemud.jls@gmail.com with the Subject Line: Re: JLS Right 2 Vote Initiative.
Family members and supporters seeking to join or help build a voting bloc in your state should also contact JLS-HRC to be connected with your State Liaison.
Prisoners are encouraged to document and share the realities of imprisonment. JLS welcomes photographs, videos, written reports, artwork, poetry, and essays from inside. Throughout the National Prisoners' Human Rights Strike, JLS-HRC Media will amplify these voices and materials through a coordinated national media effort exposing conditions of confinement and highlighting the experiences of the prison class.
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. We invite every prisoner, family member, attorney, student, faith community, labor organization, and supporter of human rights to join us in this struggle.
TEACH THE LAW. LEARN THE LAW. ORGANIZE. REFUSE TO SLAVE.
DIRECTORY & MEDIA CONTACT
Campaign Demands & Updates: Jailhouselawyersspeak.com
Media, Legal Hub, Volunteer & State Liaison Inquiries: Outthemud.jls@gmail.com
(For Right 2 Vote State Liaison applications, use Subject: Re: JLS Right 2 Vote Initiative)
Inside Correspondence, JLS Membership, Retaliation Reports, Legal Resource Requests & Reentry Housing Support:
JAILHOUSE LAWYERS SPEAK
PO BOX 673
MERCER, PA 16137