Take Action

Take action against civil commitment! Abolition NOW!

It is our hope that after bearing witness to the horrors of civil commitment in Illinois that you are eager to act against this practice and for transformational change. 

How to get started

Mariame Kaba has created four generative questions to ask ourselves when outraged about injustice:

1. What resources exist so I can better educate myself?

2. Who’s already doing work around this injustice?

3. Do I have the capacity to offer concrete support & help to them?

4. How can I be constructive?

Make a commitment to and with Incarcerated People 

Mariame Kaba started a working document called “9 Solidarity Commitments to/with Incarcerated People for 2021,” outlining different ways we can all get involved with abolition and support people who are incarcerated.

Learn the difference between reform vs. abolition 

It is important to remember when planning strategies against Civil Commitment and other violent practices of the carceral state the difference between reformist vs. abolitionist change. This is to say the demands made in campaigns should principally align with the vision that is abolition. The changes we demand should shrink the size of the system in meaningful ways, and the frame of our campaigns should not reinforce the logic of the system. An example of this is to use people-first language rather than referring to people incarcerated as “felons” or “criminals,” language that has racist and classist undertones. 

Chart from the Civil Commitment Working Group exploring different concerns at Rushville and possible reformist versus abolitionist solutions.
Visualization from Critical Resistance titled: Reformist reforms versus abolitionist steps to end imprisonment.

Get involved

Civil Commitment Working Group

Here in Illinois, the Civil Commitment Working Group is working for the total elimination of the practice in our state. We are building towards transformative justice to address sexual violence in our communities over the punitive and dehumanizing practice of civil commitment. There are multiple outlets to get involved with this work. Email us if you’re interested in: 

  • Donating directly to Rushville/Big Muddy commissary accounts 

  • Sending in food parcels or gender affirming clothing 

  • Using your knowledge and skills to help with future projects 

  • Hosting a study group with materials from the Civil Commitment Working Group

Other Chicago organizations

Above all else, organizing is a collective activity. Get connected and start organizing with local groups doing work around issues that matter. Civil Commitment is connected to many issues across the web that is the prison industrial complex. Other groups doing abolitionist organizing in Chicago across issue areas to get plugged into:

Organizing across the U.S.

Learning from campaigns that have been and are currently being run against civil commitment is an avenue into abolitionist work. Some examples of organizing against indefinite confinement include:

Minnesota

OCEAN (Overcoming Corruption Encouraging All Nations)

OCEAN is a group founded by civilly committed detainees organizing to end the Minnesota Sex Offender Program (MSOP) through direct actions, seminars, and public education.

Their demands are clear:

  1. An end to these unconstitutional shadow prisons, including a “clear path home” for everyone in the 'program'  

  2. A reallocation of resources to effectively prevent and humanely respond to sexual violence

In July of 2021 45 people inside of Minnesota’s “shadow prisons”  launched a hunger strike demanding Governor Tim Walz put an end to Civil Commitment. In solidarity with this action, activists held a rally at the Minnesota State Capitol, saying:

How can Minnesota incarcerate people forever AFTER their prison sentences or WITHOUT having been convicted of a crime?

By saying they are "mentally ill" and "dangerous" and need "treatment" -- yet what is a "treatment" program where you are 6 times more likely to die than be released?

With 743 detainees being held at a cost of 100 million a year, Minnesota has the worst shadow prisons in the Country, prisons that hold two times as many LGBTQ and Black people than the population at large.

So, for the 27th Anniversary of this program, we say NO MORE, led by 45 people inside MN's shadow prisons who are on HUNGER STRIKE for a "clear path home" and an "end to the program".

Mass incarceration isn't working for our communities, it's time to create solutions and end this unconstitutional nightmare.

Petition to Stop Unconstitutional Confinement and Abuse of Taxpayers' Money

The Minnesota Sex Offender Program exploits public fears to justify taking $111 million from Minnesotans. Do not be fooled by the stigma. To fully understand this issue, go to A Just Future. org,  Action Network.org/minnesota, the MSOP REFORM Facebook page  and read the article “Creating Civil Commitment Chaos: How MSOP is taking millions from Minnesota taxpayers to lock up people who are not mentally ill.

Texas

Texans Against Civil Commitment (TACC)

Texans Against Civil Commitment is a group made up of family members of people confined in the Littlefield, Texas Civil Commitment Center. Many family members tell stories that are consistent with the inhumane “treatment” within civil commitment facilities across the country; that their loved ones have served their sentences and are being committed for years at a time, remaining at tier 1 with no hope of progressing through the 5-tiered program. Since 2015, the facility has released just 6 people, while 29 have died. 

In April of 2022 TACC held a protest outside the prison to shine a light on the unjust treatment within the walls of the Civil Commitment Center. Click the button below to sign the petition to FREE the men from the SHADOW PRISON-Texas Civil Commitment Center in Littlefield, TX.

National Collectives

National Association for Rational Sex Offense Laws (NARSOL)

NARSOL “envisions a society free from public shaming, dehumanizing registries, discrimination, and unconstitutional laws.”

NARSOL opposes dehumanizing registries and works to eliminate discrimination, banishment, and vigilantism against persons accused or convicted of sexual offenses through the use of impact litigation, public education, legislative advocacy, and media outreach in order to reintegrate and reconcile affected individuals and restore their constitutional rights.

Just Future Project

Just Future Project is working to bring shadow prisons to the light. Demanding the dismantling of “pre-crime preventative detention.” The Project demands: 

  1. Abolish pre-crime preventative detention laws

  2. Free our friends and loved ones from dehumanizing labels

  3. Realign our justice system with the values of restoration and reintegration

This project is championing actions against civil commitment in multiple states including Minnesota, Virginia, and Florida.