Running Down the Walls
Running Down The Walls Chicago 2023
Sunday September 17 outside of Cook County Jail
(green space near 27th and California)
5PM: Rally, March and 5K Marathon Run
7PM: Music by Kebranto, Lengua Salvaje, Glutton for Insurrection,
Lil Guillotine, Ho-Chi-$pins, and Mr. Bobby
Join us outside CCJ as we rally, march, and run in solidarity with
political prisoners and the movement to #FreeThemAll!
SHUT DOWN COOK COUNTY JAIL!
A rising death toll amidst deteriorating conditions, lack of medical care, and increasing censorship of books, mail, and legal materials. Resources not restrictions!
PARTY TO ABOLISH CASH BAIL!
This year's RDTW is going down the night the Pretrial Fairness Act goes into effect - come celebrate the end of wealth-based discrimination!
FREE ALL POLITICAL PRISONERS - FREE THEM ALL!
RDTW raises awareness and commissary funds for political prisoners as part of the ABCF Warchest. We go hard for our comrades, never giving up the fight until all are freed. Free Hybachi LeMar! Free all uprising arrestees! Free the Stop Cop City forest defenders! Free them all!
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More information about "Running Down The Walls" (from the Anarchist Black Cross Federation)
Demands for "Stopping the Loss of Life in Cook County Jail" :
Since 1999, prisoners and supporters throughout North America have participated in the annual event known as Running Down the Walls (RDTW) often running or walking simultaneously in many cities and prisons at once.
This is a non-competitive 5K run/jog/walk/roll in order to raise awareness and funds for political prisoners. Over the years, we have raised thousands of dollars and lots of awareness around the struggle to free political prisoners. Many places will be hosting RDTW 2023 on or around Sunday, September 17th – stay tuned to our blog for more details from all of the locations participating this year!
An important component of Running Down the Walls is the solidarity runs that take place throughout numerous cities. Solidarity runs that are held in our communities are designed to illustrate, through several small collective actions, that we have not forgotten our comrades locked up behind prison walls. Runs that are held in prisons are designed to both politicize other prisoners and to illustrate that the acts of solidarity have been heard.
This annual event is also one of the primary fundraisers for the ABCF Warchest Program – a fund designed to assist political prisoners who normally received little or no financial support with monthly checks. Other funds raised should be used to support local groups of your choosing, whether that is your own organization or another group you’d like to support. The choice is yours.
To highlight the importance of these events, we will provide you with two statements from our imprisoned comrades concerning RDTW.
“As we ran we were thinking and talking about all the runners in Los Angeles and how we’d love to be out there running with them. We also spoke about the other political prisoners who were running with us in at least some other prisons… Not only our pace and spirits soared, but the sun broke through the clouds and the temperature rose to the 60s. So we ran down the walls and ran up the sun and we were glad to be doing it.”
– Jaan Laaman
“Regardless of how one identifies politically, support for Running Down the Walls can be an important statement of solidarity in an era that finds the movement for the most equitable social reality unduly fragmented. Such support is not only recognition of the trial and tribulations suffered by the diversity of PP/POWs imprisoned for their contributions to the struggle. It is also an affirmation that the many voices recognizing those contributions and seeking justice for the prisoners are at least fellow travelers who have much more in common that at odds and share the same side of the barricade.”
– Bill Dunne
We must collectively raise our voices in support of those held behind the prison walls.
We must let them know that we are here for them until they are free.
We must Run Down the Walls!
SUPPORT THE STRUGGLE
Remember that many of those arrested in the past or present are not far from us. Many of them were and are community and labor activists, queer and environmental activists people who decided to speak out against various forms of oppression and paid the price of freedom for their actions. Any one of these people could have at one time stood beside us at a demonstration, speak-out, or even an organizing meeting. At any moment it could be us who find ourselves in this situation, so it is imperative that we ensure that a strong community of support exists for these people as well as ourselves. The strength of our movement is determined by how much we support our comrades.
GET INVOLVED
• Be a participant: As people participate in the run, we ask that people post videos and photos on their social media, using the hashtags #RDTW, #RunningDowntheWalls, #FreeAllPoliticalPrisoners.
• Sponsor a participant: This can be done through a flat donation to the runner/walker/roller of your choice.
• Sponsor Running Down the Walls: Any amount helps. Contact la[at]abcf.net if you wish to simply donate money. Organizations can donate and be added to the list of sponsor organizations on the website and fliers/posters.
• Donate to the Warchest: You can send funds to Lancaster ABCF, P.O. Box 8682, Lancaster, PA 17604 indicating your desire for those funds to go to the Warchest. Please make checks and money orders to Tim Fasnacht. You can also donate by clicking here.
STOPPING THE LOSS OF LIFE IN COOK COUNTY JAIL
Since January 1st, 14 people have died while incarcerated in Cook County Jail. We mourn the loss of these lives and our hearts go out to their families. As community organizations representing thousands of Cook County residents, we are concerned that the Cook County Sheriff’s Office has been unable to keep the people in their custody safe and that their response to the loss of lives has been to cover up these deaths and implement punitive measures that have further worsened the quality of life of people incarcerated in the jail.
We are calling for all Cook County stakeholders to work together to reduce the number of people incarcerated in the jail and for the Sheriff’s Office to meet the following demands without retaliation against those courageous enough to bring attention to the jail’s life-threatening mishandling of resources:
Life-saving care, particularly regarding overdose, must be available and provided for everyone incarcerated in Cook County Jail.
No procedures or protocol should delay the administration of Naloxone by officers or people incarcerated in Cook County Jail.
Every incarcerated individual and staff person should be trained and required to use Naloxone in the event of a suspected overdose.
Naloxone and test strips for adulterants are evidence-based harm reduction tools and should be freely available without consequence.
Incarcerated people should have free access to paper and the Sheriff’s Office should cease undue confiscation of paper materials. Access to educational materials, programming, and libraries should be universal within Cook County Jail.
End the paper ban. Stop preventing lawyers, program facilitators, and visitors from bringing paper into the jail.
People should have access to all kinds of reading materials, including legal documents, books, and paper on which to write and draw.
Tablets should not be the only access people have to books, documents, and educational materials.
Books and mail should not be rejected without verified proof that each specific rejected item contains illegal substances.
Any items rejected by the jail without verified proof that the item contains contraband should be returned to the sender rather than confiscated by the jail.
All divisions should have functioning and freely accessible libraries. Those libraries should have the same diverse collection of materials as outside libraries.
Funding for library services come out of the Sheriff’s existing budget, which has continued to grow substantially even as the number of people incarcerated in Cook County Jail has sharply decreased in recent years.
All incarcerated people should have access to medical services and public health measures to ensure that they are able to meet their most basic physical and mental health needs.
Incarcerated people must have consistent access to healthy meals and clean drinking water.
Soap, frequent laundry, fresh and nutritious food, and other basic necessities should be provided at no cost.
Medical services, including substance use treatmentdisorder and mental health treatment, should be provided efficiently, with care, and without risk of retribution.
Cook County Jail’s facilities should be high-quality, comfortable, and sanitary.
Spaces where incarcerated people live should be held to the same workplace safety heating and cooling standards as OSHA and tenant requirements.
Spaces should be free of environmental hazards including mold, pests and particulate matter.
Improving the facilities inside Cook County Jail should come out of the Sheriff’s existing budget which has continued to grow substantially even as the number of people incarcerated in Cook County Jail has sharply decreased in recent years.
People incarcerated in Cook County Jail should have greater life-saving contact with the non-incarcerated community.
Virtual visitation cannot replace in person contact with loved ones, faith leaders, or lawyers.
In person visits should be accessible and the default option and virtual visits should be used to increase accessibility to community contact and not be used as a tool of surveillance and exploitation.
People who express concerns about their mental health should be given evidence-based care and contact with loved ones rather than forced into further isolation within the facility.
The Cook County Sheriff’s Office should be transparent and accountable to the public about all policies, processes, and conditions inside the jail.
The Sheriff’s Office should promptly and privately notify families anytime someone dies in custody.
The Sheriff should publicly announce every death in custody by posting information in a central location on the Sheriff’s Office website. Information about the cause of death should be shared as soon as available. These announcements should center the dignity of the individual who has died.
Cook County Jail should be regularly and independently audited and inspected for conditions. Detailed reports should be released publicly.
