72-hour fast for prison reform

Start: 2022-08-21 12:00:00 UTC Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00)

End: 2022-08-24 12:00:00 UTC Eastern Daylight Time (US & Canada) (GMT-04:00)

This is a virtual event

A man grasps the bas of a prison cell
Mass incarceration is a moral stain on our nation, and we can do better in the 21st century by reforming our criminal justice system to better recognize ability for rehabilitation and self-improvement in all of us. To call attention to the need for systemic overhaul, the American Union is organizing a three day fast from August 21-24. Within the prison reform movement, August 21 commemorates the day George Jackson was shot and killed in San Quentin prison in 1971.

The American Union's federal legislative package, the Blueprint for a Better America, contains a number of prison reforms detailed in this article. They include:
  • An opportunity for a sentence review after 10 years of incarceration.
  • Restrictions on the use of solitary confinement.
  • Universal suffrage.
  • A repeal of the Prison Litigation Reform Act.
  • Fully restoring access to Pell grants for incarcerated Americans.
  • Striking mandatory minimums from the US Code.
  • IDs for people leaving incarceration.

This 72-hour fast is a fast for peace, which Martin Luther King described as "not the absence of tension, but the presence of justice." This fast is accessible to people on both sides of prison walls, a way to stand in solidarity for major reforms.

If you are willing and able to join us in abstaining from food for 72 hours over these days, please fill out this form. Participants are also asked to donate the money they save on food to help others; we suggest the Black August Mutual Aid Drive, which goes to help people inside prison.
This event is accessible