Food Lion Worker Testimony: Our Needs Are Essential (7.27.20)

Peoples’ History: Policing for Profit in Early Roanoke (7.23.20)

Virginia had no public local police force until 1932, before then, policing was almost totally a private affair. The protection of private property & reinforcing the white supremacist social order were & are the two major functions of police in America. Roanoke has its contribution to that history in the form of the Baldwin-Felts Detective...

WVRJ Inmate Testimonies #2 – Medical Neglect Causing Blindness, Religious Diet Ignored (7.20.20)

Over the past two months two people locked up at Western Virginia Regional Jail (WVRJ) in Salem have reached out to us about the conditions they're being subjected to and asked for support and solidarity. Norberto Ruiz is being denied his medicated eyedrops repeatedly, which is causing blindness. 5.9.20: "I've been having an ongoing issue...

Abolish RPD & RCJ, Invest That in Meeting Peoples’ Needs (6.26.20)

We are continuously told in schools, by the media, and authority figures that police & prisons are here for public safety, but a look at their origins, function and current examples of such shows that is simply not true. Prisons were created in the 1700s as an alternative to corporal punishment. Police were created in...

Protected: TAP Head Start Worker Fired During Covid-19 for Voicing Concerns (6.5.20)

There is no excerpt because this is a protected post.

RCJ Inmate Testimonies #6: Some Finally Get Masks, 2 Months into Covid-19 (5.14.20)

Roanoke Jail Solidarity Efforts During Covid-19 Since the outbreak of Covid-19 in the so-called U.S. in March 2020, we've outlined a case & made a firm call for decarceration (releasing all incarcerated workers) of all jails, prisons, & detention centers in Virginia, we've co-sponsored a petition pushing 5 *ESSENTIAL* demands for people to survive during...

Roanoke Coalition Demands During Covid-19 Pandemic (3.18.20)

We, the undersigned, are demanding that Mayor Lea and the City of Roanoke, Virginia Government, as well as Mayor Foley and the City of Salem, Virginia Government, immediately implement a response to the coronavirus pandemic that places the needs of Roanoke & Salem’s most vulnerable groups first. As COVID-19 continues to spread throughout Virginia and...

Roanoke Coalition Statement On COVID-19 Decarceration (3.17.20)

March 17, 2020 COALITION CALLS ON CITY OF ROANOKE TO HALT NEW JAIL ADMISSIONS AND RELEASE ALL PEOPLE INCARCERATED IN ROANOKE FACILITIES IN RESPONSE TO COVID-19 VIRUS ROANOKE, VA - We, the undersigned organizations, call on Roanoke City Mayor Sherman Lea and Roanoke City Sheriff Tim Allen to immediately release all of the people currently...

WVRJ Inmate Testimony #1: Non-Functional Toilets, No Intercoms in Cells (2.28.20)

An incarcerated worker who's been in contact with us regarding the inhumane conditions in Roanoke City Jail for the past year, and has filed a lawsuit against RCJ was transferred to Western Virginia Regional Jail a few months ago. He sent us this letter from WVRJ (written on 2.15.20) highlighting that the inhumane conditions in...

RCJ Inmate Testimony #5: Inhumane Conditions Persist (2.17.20)

(photo: The Roanoke Times) We received a number of messages from an incarcerated worker in Roanoke City Jail in the past couple months thanking Roanoke Jail Solidarity organizers for our work and also confirming that unfortunately many of the inhumane conditions at RCJ, which a different incarcerated worker brought to public light in April 2019,...