Critical Resistance NYC
Linda Thurston, Kai Lumumba-Barrow, Peter Chung & Amanda Devecka-Rinear, Co-Founders
Critical Resistance NYC (CR-NYC) is part of a national effort that “fights to end the prison industrial complex by challenging the belief that policing, surveillance, imprisonment and similar forms of control make our communities safer. “ CR-NYC believes “that basic necessities like food, shelter and freedom create the condition for more genuine forms of security.” With over two million persons incarcerated in the United States, Critical Resistance’s work involves “relieving the burden of the prison complex on the lives of people and empowering communities directly affected by its intrusions.”
Launched in 2001 following the Critical Resistance East conference, CR-NYC broadens awareness about felon disenfranchisement such as restrictions on employment, lack of access to public housing and high education, termination of parental rights and loss of voting rights. CR-NYC conducts workshops at La Casita, an alternative-to-incarceration residential treatment center for women located in the South Bronx, where the women develop popular education tools about the prison industrial complex. CR-NYC also builds relationships with prisoners and their facilities through activities such as visits, referrals to services and letter writing. Future plans include an art and organizing mentoring project for the children of incarcerated mothers at Taconic Correctional Facility.