To download the zine click here: Never Alone
Never Alone was created to give a voice to those that support people in prison. Often invisible, unsupported and unrecognised, thousands of people in the UK, and millions internationally, support friends, family, partners and comrades in prison.
Their support, love, money and solidarity help people survive their time inside. They directly experience the harm of the prison system; separated from the people they love and losing their lives to give time and energy to support people behind bars.
This publication, while not distracting from the acknowledgement that those behind the walls are the centre of our struggles, seeks to amplify the voices of those on the other side of the fence, and share their experiences of interacting with the prison system. We hear from mothers, nephews, lovers, friends and organisers of support campaigns, about how it feels to know those you care for are behind enemy lines.
Bristol Anarchist Black Cross is a prisoner support organisation based in the South West UK. While commonly focusing on supporting prisoners of political struggle, we should never forget that all prisoners are political. Human beings are in cages because of class, race, gender, sexual orientation, because they are poor, and it serves the state and capital to exploit and control them.
The Empty Cages Collective is a new collective launched in 2014, which aims to bring prison abolition to centre stage in the UK. We are fighting against prison expansion and connecting people in the struggle to resist and dismantle the prison industrial complex.
We have worked together to produce this publication and hope it is the first of many so that those impacted by the ever- growing reach of the prison industrial complex are not forgotten.
If you have any comments, criticisms or would like to submit articles for future editions please contact us. We welcome stories of your direct personal experience, the harm the prison system causes and how you have got through, or continue to get through. Political commentary is also more than welcome, as well as ideas of how we can better support each other to cope with the emotional, practical and financial challenges of supporting someone we care about through their time inside.
Until Every Cell is Empty,
Bristol Anarchist Black Cross & Empty Cages Collective September 2014