Hurricane Sally Phone Zap

PUSH OUT TO ANY ORGANIZATIONS YOU KNOW THAT MIGHT HELP, AND REPORTERS!

Tropical Storm Sally is expected to make landfall by Tuesday at unknown intensity––it could be a Cat 2 hurricane or higher––with New Orleans directly in its path. The storm will hit Louisiana and Mississippi, states with the 2nd and 3rd highest incarceration rates per capita. There are tens of thousands of people behind bars directly in the storm’s path with no ability to evacuate or procure their own clean water, food, or basic hygiene in its aftermath. 

Just two weeks ago ICE detainees impacted by Hurricane Laura were stranded in unlivable conditions, left desperately protesting for their own survival only for a local sheriff to brag that officers “squashed” the protest with a “show of force”. At least one detainee died of COVID in the aftermath, as others reported being locked in a room without ventilation alongside people suffering from the virus.

We need your help applying pressure to ensure these horrors don’t happen again. Phone zaps have proved effective in past years when we forced North Carolina and Virginia to evacuate prisons ahead of Hurricane Florence! And with the criminal injustice system feeling the power of the people this summer, Texas DOC and many other facilities remembered past years’ calls and evacuated before Laura.

Demands-

1. MASS RELEASE NOW → For areas not yet impacted, allow incarcerated people to be released to their family  members when possible. Start with the elderly and medically compromised.

2. EVACUATE FACILITIES IN EVAC ZONES IN THE MOST COVID SAFE MANNER POSSIBLE → If people are being moved to another facility, make sure they are quarantined away from the population for at least 2 weeks. 
3. STOCKPILE –> Facilities not yet in evacuation zones or unable to evacuate must stockpile food, water, medicine, and sanitation supplies.

When you get a response tweet @FightXPrisons!

Phone numbers aren’t working? Tweet us or e-mail with number updates too! 

Keep them talking, ask questions, get info. If you can, tell them you’re recording the phone call, and email it to us. If it turns out they’re lying, we’ll have voice-recorded evidence. (Email FightToxicPrisons@gmail.com and include “Sally” and Department you called in email title)!

ALSO- 

We don’t trust ANY Department of Corrections. Per Jailhouse Lawyers Speak’s advice, “If you know any prisoners in this storm path, it’s important to tell them to fill up any containers or bags with water NOW!! Prisons are notorious for not giving adequate drinking water to prisoners if any at all after the water is contaminated.”

CALL SCRIPT:

“Hello, I am calling to demand you take immediate action to protect incarcerated people during hurricane Sally. To ensure the safety of people inside you must initiate a mass release process, starting with the medically vulnerable. Incarcerated people should be released to their families! Facilities in evac zones must be evacuated in a COVID safe manner. This means quarantining for 2 weeks and ensuring all incacerated people have access to masks and sanitation supplies. Finally, for all facilities not yet in evacuation zones, you must begin stockpiling supplies, including: food, water, medicine, and sanitation supplies.”

TIPS FOR MAKING CALLS: 

• Be firm but polite, insist on speaking to the person you are calling for
• Leave a message if no one answers
• Refuse to give any information that you may be uncomfortable sharing with the state (e.g. full legal name, organizational affiliation, etc.)
• Send any new information gathered from calls to fighttoxicprisons@gmail.com or Tweet @FightXPrisons  

Who To Call:

Louisiana

Louisiana Governer John Bel Edwards- 

(225) 342-7015 or (866) 366-1121

twitter.com/LouisianaGov 

-Louisiana Dept of Public Safety & Corrections (LDPS&C)

(225) 342-9711 or (318) 283-0842 or (225) 342-6740

Alabama 

-Alabama Dept of Corrections

(344) 353-3883 – press 3 for “inmate inquiries”; goes to T. Smith inbox; press 5 for other ADOC inquiries; answered by admin

BALDWIN COUNTY REGIONAL JUVENILE DETENTION CENTER

Next to a landfill and the Styx River!

(251) 580-2540

FOUNTAIN CORRECTIONAL FACILITY

Further inland but has flooded in the past

(251) 368-8122

ESCAMBIA COUNTY JAIL

About 5 miles from pensacola bay

(251) 809-0741 connects to sheriff’s office, press 2 for jail staff and/or press 5 for sheriff’s secretary

Mississippi 

-Mississippi Governer Tate Reeves – 

(601) 359-3150

Florida

Angela Gordon, director of DOC Region 1 (Florida panhandle, where extreme flooding is occurring)

(850) 627-5511

Holmes Correctional Insititution

Phone — (850) 547-8600

Chaplain — (850) 547-8598

Fax — (850) 547-0522

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