Dear friends,

I am writing with the incredibly good news that my friend, Juan, will be leaving prison sometime in the next two months after more than 19 years inside. After surviving a pandemic in prison, on top of everything else. Juan will be released in March, and I am trying to raise $3000 to support him in his transition to the outside!

I feel so grateful to have known Juan and to be able to support him now. Despite the incredible massive and small daily injustices of prison over the past 19 years, Juan has retained his own humanity, constantly working on behalf of others and challenging the system in all the ways he can. I have learned so much from him about integrity and resilience and love in the face of so much harm. I love that he also knows just how far he can bend the rules for the good of everyone. He is currently at San Quentin, starting work every day at 3 am in the kitchen. On Christmas and New Years, he spent the day tracking the rotation of 650 roasted chicken breasts through the industrial ovens, making sure every single person got something good for dinner. He reads the state’s menu plan with items like “Mexican beans,” and he takes liberties with his access to onions and chile peppers and spices to make sure the food is as tasty as it can be.

I am trying to collectively raise $3000-6000 to help him get some of the things he’ll need to get started outside – food, a phone, new clothes, basic home supplies, transportation, first month’s rent, and hopefully dinner out with his daughter. I want this to be a collective gift to him, from us and our friends and community. I want him to exit feeling that there are many people cheering for him, working toward abolition in all the ways we can. When he’s out I’ll send him a card from all of us (with your permission I’ll list everyone’s first names) and the money. In the spirit of transparency, Juan and I have talked about this (or at least, I proposed this idea and he says OK), so I am asking you for this with his consent.

I got to know Juan after he participated in the California prison hunger strikes of 2013. I could tell you so much more about him and what I've learned, but want to keep this brief. Please let me know if you want the longer version of this letter and I'll happily email it to you!!

Thank you for joining me in this one of many small - or big! - steps toward radical redistribution of resources. And thanks for all you do to make this world more beautiful.

Love,

Krista

** Art credit for the "Free Them All" piece to Monica Trinidad; her piece is in the 2021 Certain Days Freedom for Political Prisoners calendar. This work - of individual support - is only one part of all the work we must do to abolish prisons. Shout out to Certain Days, Critical Resistance and soooo many others!

PS - Here's Juan, at a prison photo shoot in 2019.