by Lavender Rights Project

JAILS ARE NOT AND CAN NEVER BE A SAFE SPACE FOR TRANS PEOPLE. They vilify and punish those explicitly targeted from structural oppression. They create more violence, suck up precious resources, and ultimately destroy lives. It’s not even that jails and prisons aren’t working—they’re working EXACTLY the way they’re supposed to. The carceral state serves to protect the systems of white supremacy, gender-based violence, colonialism, and capitalism. There are no reforms that will fundamentally change its original and currently intended purpose: to carry out systematic violence. There are no building designs or training programs that will alter this fundamental fact about jails and prisons, and this has been proven time and time again here in Seattle and King County.

THEREFORE, in order to protect our loved ones from state-sanctioned violence, the community demands the following to happen immediately:

• We DEMAND that King County Jail is shut down immediately, AND;

• We DEMAND investments in community care, not cages, with serious investments in community-led mental health responses, AND;

• We DEMAND investments in safe spaces, safe consumption sites, detox centers, crisis centers, and safe, secure housing for all, AND;

• We CALL on judges and prosecutors to reject the use of jail for any individual who is in a mental health crisis, has previously been found not competent to stand trial, or requires mental health or medical treatment, AND;

• We DEMAND an end to Operation New Day, and the explicit targeting and surveillance of communities of color—and especially trans people of color, AND;

• We DEMAND reforms that center our community members who have been or are currently incarcerated, to heal and to organize for power.

There is NO LIBERATION in the proposed expansion of carceral powers or increased funding for the SPD. We MUST unequivocally END the incarceration of trans and gender diverse community members, Black, Native, and people of color, people in poverty, and houseless community members instead of creating "bail reform" — which is not and has never been an answer to the violence that is taking our community's lives. The proposed reforms by members of King County Council do not address the real crisis at hand, and we must push for a deeper solutions that end carceral pipelines that are killing our beloved communities.

We join the organizers of Shut Down KCJ in calling for the immediate closure of King County Jail. We are committed to the fight to abolish all cages in WA.

SHUT DOWN KCJ NOW