The United States incarcerates more of its citizens than any other nation in the world. With a prison population of nearly 2.3 million, this country confines a quarter of the world’s prisoners, but has only 5% of the world’s population. The prison-industrial complex has become the go-to solution for a host of social problems, including mental illness, homelessness, drug addiction, and more. Everywhere, budgets for social welfare programs are cut repeatedly, while police, prosecutors, and courts receive all the funding they need and more.

As an abolitionist organization, the Guild supports eliminating mass incarceration. Join us on Saturday March 30 at Pitt Law School for a presentation and panel discussion featuring a diverse range of speakers on the destructive effects of mass incarceration, and possible remedies.

This event is co-sponsored by the United Steelworkers.

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The Guild’s national office has recently released a best practices guide for creating a bail fund. From their post:

“The National Lawyers Guild and National Bail Fund Network have teamed up to create the Best Practices Guide for Setting Up a Legal Defense Fund in order to address some challenges organizers may face in creating and implementing such funds, with considerations related to fundraising, eligibility, legal logistics, accountability, and more.”

The PDF is available here.

This document follows the Guild’s March webinar on bail funds, which features bail fund organizers and volunteers from around the country discussing their work.

The Pittsburgh chapter of the National Lawyers Guild is pleased to announce our new legal support hotline. We can now make a phone number available for arrested protesters to call from Allegheny County Jail, and for others to call to report instances of police brutality at protests. Protesters can write the hotline number on an arm or leg, so that if they get arrested they will have a number to call even if the cops take their phones. This line is maintained by volunteers, and will be staffed only on request from protest organizers. It is not a full time service. To request the hotline for your protest please email pittsburgh@nlg.org.

A printable PDF version of this manual is also available. Note that this is the second edition of this manual.

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National Lawyers Guild legal observers are a crucial factor in defending protesters against police repression. They observe and document police conduct at actions to create an objective record of events, in order to assist the defense of protesters in court and provide evidence in civil suits. Here in Pittsburgh LOs’ numbers are dwindling, even as the rise of Trump and the increased willingness of police to arrest protesters make their role more important than ever.

In the days to come we will be posting news and information about the activities of the Pittsburgh chapter of the National Lawyers Guild. Check back often!