Mission Statement
Free The People WNY is a coalition of formerly incarcerated people, directly affected people, activists, organizers, and attorneys that envision a world free from the violence and death of mass incarceration. We act together to dismantle a justice system built on white supremacy and oppression, one that dehumanizes people, and we work to create in its place anti-racist systems with the values of collective liberation and true justice at their core.
Coalition Principles
We believe that all people are inherently valuable and deserving of respect, dignity and love.
We believe in the value of collective liberation: that none of us are free until all of us are free.
We believe that all people deserve to be seen as the complex and dynamic beings they are, that people change, and that no one should be judged only by their mistakes.
We believe in the value of collective liberation: that none of us are free until all of us are free.
We believe in reducing harm, and that the lifelong trauma of incarceration hurts more than it helps. We believe that restorative and rehabilitative approaches to accountability are more effective and helpful than solely punitive ones.
We believe that communities are safe when people have their needs met and that the prison-industrial complex extracts bodies and wealth from Black and brown communities, undermining community safety and economic stability.
We believe that the current American justice system is rife with systemic racism, and that the abusive policing and mass incarceration of Black Americans and immigrants is the modern iteration of state-sponsored racist violence. We believe colorblind approaches to dismantling this system will never succeed and therefore all efforts must be anti-racist.
We believe in decarceration and a world without prisons.
How we make change matters. We work within ourselves and with each other in love and healing, recognizing the many intersectional identities and experiences that each of us brings to this work. We utilize popular education methods to tell our stories and change our worldviews.