We challenge the culture of racism, repression and retribution that sustains mass incarceration. We seek to remove the structural injustices inflicted on the incarcerated, formerly incarcerated, their families and the communities from which they come. We seek human rights for all members of our society non-violently, in opposition to our current system of justice, which is inherently violent.

The Campaign to End the New Jim Crow (a project of the Riverside Church Prison Ministry and the American Friends Service Committee - NY) is a national coalition of organizations and individuals committed to ending mass incarceration and the collateral consequences coined the New Jim Crow. We currently have chapters in New York City, Upstate N.Y., New Jersey, Illinois, Washington, Detroit, Florida, Ohio and Oregon along with affiliates across the country. Together we work to foster a movement that will change hearts and minds so that true justice can be experienced by all. The New York City chapter's current membership organizations include: All Things Harlem, American Friends Service Committee (Northeast Region), Attica is All of Us, Campaign to End the Death Penalty, Center for Law and Justice, Human Rights-Racial Justice Center, New York State Prisoner Justice Network, Religious Society of Friends Morningside Meeting, Riverside Church Prison Ministry, Think Outside the Cell Foundation, Urban Rebuilding Initiative, VOCAL-NY, and many individuals.

It is our position that "mass incarceration and the racist practices of the New Jim Crow as manifested in all the collateral consequences imposed on individuals and communities will be dismantled with a grassroots, bottom-up effort led by those most directly affected and supported by their allies."

We stand on the platform that:

• Mass incareration and the New Jim Crow will end when communities of color fully understand that this is our struggle and that we must work together to dismantle this new caste system.

• Mass incarceration and the New Jim Crow will end when we confront and challenge the racists bias in our laws, policing practices, prosecutorial discretion, adjudication and sentencing.

• Mass incarceration and the New Jim Crow will end when we no longer use criminal convictions to deny people the right to vote, access to housing, education, employment and other human rights.

• Mass incarceration and the New Jim Crow will end when we focus on improving the conditions of people instead of locking them up for their responses to their conditions.