Many of you are familiar with No Exceptions' Break the Block campaign to raise awareness of the appalling conditions in TN's private prisons,  with the ultimate goal to abolish private prisons.   We need to raise a minimum of $8,000  in one month in order to continue traveling across the state and the region every week through September to meet with family members of prisoners and other activists, and to create and engage in bold direct actions.  We will be risking arrest throughout the summer. 
For more detailed information please continue reading below. 

More than ever No Exceptions needs your support to continue our work.
Recently, a lot of folks have called or texted me to ask if I am okay and if No Exceptions is changing its strategy and tactics in reference to my four arrests over the past month. Some of you have responded with shock and concern.

No Exceptions has not shifted course. We have simply evaluated the political landscape of Tennessee after the past three legislative sessions and determined that we are called to escalate and put our bodies on the line as a necessary catalyst for change. I must speak very plainly and frankly here. During the past legislative session we made progress and advances with our legislation. The life sentence bill which would reset the floor to life with parole to 25 years for everyone continued to gain additional votes and traction. The House Joint Resolution that will be the first in a three part process to amend the TN Constitution passed in the House and, along with the life sentence bill, will be back this coming session. The bill banning chain gangs passed through House committees and died in the Senate; nonetheless, we will work to advance it during the next session.

Additionally, our lawsuit challenging TN’s 51 year life sentences continues to work through the judicial process in the Court of Appeals. The class action Hepatitis C suit on behalf of TN prisoners with Hep C, also continues to progress. Additionally, we are continuing to work with a team of lawyers and family members to address internal conditions in CCA (Core Civic) prisons, particularly Trousdale.

We also continue to run a  campaign in Knox County  to bring back in person visitation to the Knox County Detention Center.  A campaign that is crucial to changing the course of direction in TN where 2/3 of the jails have already eliminated in person visitation. 

So why have we determined that it is necessary to put our bodies and freedom on the line now? This past session we watched as a State Comptrollers Report, that was scathing and should have been the catalyst for bringing back independent oversight over TN prisons, was basically disregarded after so much blustering, condemnation, and demands for change called for by legislators during joint House and Senate committee meetings this past November and December. We watched as weeping family members telling of assaults, rapes, and deaths due to a lack of health care, were treated with great disrespect and disregard by Representatives in State Government Committee. We watched as a family member describing how her son was repeatedly raped while a shank was held to his throat, was cut off in midsentence by a committee member announcing her three minutes was up and she was out of time. We watched during the pre-meetings, where legislation to bring back independent oversight was made fun of, and prisoners were joked about, with literal winks and nods given by legislators to TDOC’s legislative liaison. We watched as politicians during multiple committee hearings glad-handed and slapped the backs of CCA executives and lobbyists. We watched as a few good legislators, demanding accountability and change, were shut down and told to shut up. We watched as bill sponsors folded under pressure from senators informing them that oversight was dead, and to take the bill off notice before it could even come to a vote. We stood and watched in anger and despair over the fact that we had every shred of evidence and sound reasoning on our side, but it mattered not one whit because CCA lobbyist own controlling shares in the State’s lawmakers. We understood very clearly that prisoners’ lives do not matter to the majority of the TN General Assembly, and the few legislators who do care, and who do fight alongside us, are shut down and shut out by economic interests. And we continue to hear the voices of prisoners’ loved ones beg for help in a situation where there is no accountability.

We have thought long and hard about the landscape upon which this human rights disaster is playing out. We have had many late night conversations and have reached the conclusion that in the course of American history, the only time the needle has truly been moved in the fight for human and civil rights, individuals have put their bodies and freedom on the line. Those who created change before us were willing to create stark images in public spaces to raise awareness, and shame politicians who refuse change and could care less for human worth and dignity. If we only play the game of respectability politics, we will never stop hearing the screams and wails of people who are powerless against a Prison Industrial Complex that consumes humans, destroys families, and devastates communities. We have not abandoned legislative and litigation strategies, but we must now move into a new area of public resistance. We encourage anyone who can to join us, and if you are not in a place yet to move forward with us physically with your bodies, we ask for your continued love, belief, and support in other ways. We ask for your prayers if you pray and, finally, we ask for your financial assistance. We survive without grants or government support. We survive because individuals and congregations believe in our vision that another way is possible if we are willing to fight for that vision. We survive because we have each other and an amazing collective and extended community. We survive because the lives of other people depend on it. We will continue to post and inform all of you about upcoming events and actions this summer. In the end, all of us together will break the auction block of carceral slavery. Keep moving forward, not one step back! And please, donate now!