Open Collective
Open Collective

Chicago Community Jail Support

Volunteer mutual aid network supporting those recently released from Cook County Jail.

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Become a financial contributor.

Financial Contributions

Goal

help cover our gas & ride share reimbursements Read more

$362.75 USD of $600 USD / month raised (60%)

Starts at$5 USD / month

Latest activity by


+ 79
Goal

help cover emergency housing expenses for newly released folks Read more

$777.25 USD of $1,000 USD / month raised (78%)

Starts at$10 USD / month

Latest activity by


+ 62
Goal

help cover supplies for on the ground and our storage space Read more

$820.25 USD of $2,000 USD / month raised (41%)

Starts at$20 USD / month

Latest activity by


+ 61
Goal

support released people long term with bills, groceries, medication and more Read more

$534 USD of $1,500 USD / month raised (36%)

Starts at$50 USD / month

Latest activity by


+ 15
Goal

help cover expenses to keep our community van running Read more

$315 USD of $2,000 USD / year raised (16%)

Starts at$100 USD / year

Latest activity by


Custom contribution
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Make a custom one-time or recurring contribution.

Latest activity by


+ 731

Events

Chicago Community Jail Support is hosting the following events.

Event
11:30 PM UTC
On September 18th, Illinois will implement the Pretrial Fairness Act and end money bond! Communit...Read more

Attending


+ 40

Chicago Community Jail Support is all of us

Our contributors 744

Thank you for supporting Chicago Community Jail Support.

Eric O'Hara

Admin

$7,623 USD

:-)

E

Admin

$200 USD

Cat Klemke

Admin

$45 USD

Thanks for your support :)

Donald Lyons

Admin
Hi, I'm Don! I've been a CCJS volunteer since J...

Mads

Admin
i love you. please donate.

Paloma Locsin

Admin
Thanks!

DFL

Supplies & Storage Monthly ...

$9,125 USD

Clower Family

$4,000 USD

Budget


Transparent and open finances.

Contribution #133650
+$20.00USD
Completed
Contribution #707807
+$20.00USD
Completed
Contribution #705422
$
Today’s balance

$9,443.45 USD

Total raised

$161,848.07 USD

Total disbursed

$152,404.62 USD

Estimated annual budget

$58,423.19 USD

About


 
Chicago Community Jail Support is a daily, on the ground, grassroots mutual aid project run completely by volunteers. Our mission is to assist anyone being released from Cook County Jail, their loved ones, and the surrounding community. We focus on providing direct aid that meets the immediate needs of those being released with phone calls, warm clothing, snacks, drinks, PPE, safe transportation home, and emergency housing. 
We are present outside the jail at the corner of 27th Street and California Blvd every day from 5 PM to 10 PM (we extend to 11 PM on weekends).

 Most people are released from Cook County Jail with essentially nothing but the clothes they were arrested in. What would you do if you found yourself on the street without a phone, money, or any of your belongings? How would you get home? How would you contact a loved one? Cook County Jail is legally bound to provide bus cards and phone calls to those being released, but all too often, those basic allowances are not made. These discrepancies can be more than inconvenient and demeaning, they can be dangerous. That's where we come in. 
 
Chicago Community Jail Support began following the mass arrests during the protests in the name of George Floyd (and all those harmed by police brutality and incarceration) on May 30th, 2020. 
The practice of jail support has long been a tool to show solidarity for those arrested at protests, to demand their release, and to aid those arrested after they are let out. While our volunteers were initially present for those participating in the protests, we quickly realized the conditions in Cook County Jail required us to extend our stay and assist anyone being released, not just protesters. 
We've returned every single day since that first day and we intend to be a permanent fixture outside of Cook County Jail. 
We believe no one should be exposed to the conditions inside Cook County Jail and that incarceration is not the solution to a healthier, safer Chicago. 
 
🌱MISSION STATEMENT🌱

We are a group of volunteers who want to abolish police, jails, and prisons.
We understand mutual aid as community survival pending revolution, which means we work to help those leaving Cook County Jail and their loved ones with their immediate needs.
This includes free phone calls, transportation, food, water, first aid, warm clothing, and housing whenever possible.
This care is critical, as so many are released from jail having had little to no food or water and have none of their property on them (no cash, no credit cards, no cell phones) because their property is stored at the police station they were booked into.
Cook County Jail also was for a time a leading hot spot for COVID-19 infections resulting in a number of deaths, proving the point made over and over by abolitionists that jails and prisons are a public health crisis.

As abolitionists we know that many of the services typically offered as solutions to social, political, and economic problems do not actually prevent or reduce violence and harm, but rather, they can serve to further surveil and criminalize Black and Brown people, and poverty in general.
This is why we work to provide resources and care outside of a non-profit or welfare framework.
Our mutual aid work outside Cook County Jail aims to make the police and the capitalist-imperialist state less and less relevant to people’s everyday lives, and puts into action the principle that we keep us safe.
Everyone has needs and everyone has contributions; mutual aid seeks to move beyond “charity” as wealthy tax breaks and beyond mere redistribution that does not disrupt the dynamics that created massive wealth inequality in the first place.
Chicago Community Jail Support supports Black, Brown, and Indigenous self-determination, and we know that will never be achieved as long as Chicago Police Department and Cook County Jail exist.

🌎LAND ACKNOWLEDGEMENT🌎
We organize and operate within Chicago’s Little Village community, and we honor the history and contributions of Native peoples from whom this land was stolen. We acknowledge that Little Village rests upon land that was stolen from Indigenous people, including the Kiikaapoi, Peoria, Kaskaskia, Bodéwadmiakiwen, Ojibwe, Odawa, Myaamia, Ho-Chunk, Sac, Mascouten, Meskwaki, Menominee, Wea, Thakiwaki, and Očhéthi Šakówin nations. 
We recognize a legacy of broken treaties and covenants and the need to strive to make right with all our relations.

🤝🏼COMMUNITY AGREEMENTS🤝🏼
  1. We are abolitionists, drawing from the knowledge and experiences of generations of Black organizers, and we acknowledge that we did not create mutual aid or jail support work. 
  2. We do not collaborate, collude with, or otherwise support law enforcement in any form.
  3. We understand that jail support is a temporary intervention aiming to reduce harm created by Cook County Jail and the entire carceral system. We believe it is crucial to abolish the prison-industrial complex along with all forms of policing.
  4. We know that Cook County Jail, the prison-industrial complex, and law enforcement do not keep individuals or communities safe.
  5. We believe mutual aid to be inherently collaborative, relationship-based, and community-oriented.
  6. We believe in Black, Brown, and Indigenous self-determination.
  7. We believe in fostering a culture of learning, growth, accountability, personal boundaries, & transformative and healing justice.
  8. We commit to being mindful of power structures and centering marginalized voices as we navigate our interactions
 

Our team

Eric O'Hara

Admin
:-)

E

Admin

Cat Klemke

Admin
Thanks for your support :)

Donald Lyons

Admin
Hi, I'm Don! I've been a CCJS volunteer since J...

Mads

Admin
i love you. please donate.

Paloma Locsin

Admin
Thanks!

Connect


Let’s get the ball rolling!

News from Chicago Community Jail Support

Updates on our activities and progress.

Help Us Sustain The Work!

It’s been a challenging winter for Chicago Community Jail Support, but we’re proud to say that we were able to show up every single day for those released from Cook County Jail and their loved ones. The massive outpouring of solidarity from...
Read more
Published on March 7, 2021 by E

We purchased a van!

Thanks to your generosity, we followed our van proposal and purchased the van above! This really helps our winter operations, and makes our daily setup and breakdown much easier and more efficient.
Read more
Published on January 30, 2021 by Donald Lyons

Winter Wheels

Chicago Community Jail Support is looking to buy a vehicle to make the operation sustainable during the winter months. Below we have established the need, use and parameters of this vehicle. Purchase Budget: $5,000...
Read more
Published on December 21, 2020 by E

Conversations

Let’s get the discussion going! This is a space for the community to converse, ask questions, say thank you, and get things done together.

Thank you comrades!

Published on December 7, 2022 by Lucky Mosqueda

Hi, just donated as a small token of me saying thank you for helping me survive this year. I know it’s not much, but I hope it will help in the long run.

My contribution is in the name of my friend Kathy White

Published on December 16, 2020 by William Patrick Smith

Happy to contribute in honor my friend's birthday. Thanks for the great work CCJ! Bill Smith