Critical Resistance Central Appalachia (CRCAPP) is a part of the Building Community Not Prisons coalition (BCNP) to stop federal prison expansion in the region by stopping the proposal for a new federal prison, FCI Letcher in Eastern Kentucky.
The BCNP coalition has been working to stop federal prison expansion in Letcher County since 2015 and already has one historic community organizing victory under its belt. Check out the coalition’s work, get involved in CRCAPP – CR’s newest chapter – , and help CRCAPP win another much needed people’s victory in the coalition against the prison industrial complex (PIC).
From 2015-2019, Letcher County residents in Eastern Kentucky, currently incarcerated individuals, environmentalists, anti-prison advocates and lawyers worked together using a variety of tactics to stop the construction of the most expensive federal prison in US history – USP Letcher. The campaign culminated with a first of its kind litigation where both prisoners and local Letcher County residents sued the BOP under the National Environmental Protection Act (NEPA) (See Barroca v. BOP, case no. 18-2740 D.D.C. 2018). In an unprecedented victory for the health of prisoners, the surrounding community, and the local environment, the Federal Bureau of Prisons (BOP) canceled the project in 2019.
Unfortunately, the BOP is again attempting to build a new prison in Letcher County, FCI Letcher. The agency is currently undergoing a NEPA scoping process and will soon initiate a NEPA administrative process for its proposed Environmental Impact Statement (EIS). Any new prison construction undermines progressive criminal justice reform, threatens the region’s ecology, and damages the health of Letcher County residents and prisoners, their communities, and the planet. And we are prepared to stop it again. For us, the frontlines are multi-faceted. A new prison in coal country will not only devastate the rural environment and community surrounding it; but also put the health of the people locked inside of it at risk.
Learn all about the campaign to stop FCI Letcher and BUILD COMMUNITY NOT PRISONS in Central Appalachia and beyond on our coalition’s website: buildingcommunitynotprisons.com