ASK THE DEPARTMENT OF JUSTICE TO STOP TEAR GAS IN PRISONS NOW!

Tear gas is used brutally in U.S. prisons: testimony we gathered from 21 states from those being gassed while locked up signals a growing epidemic. Let's fight it now!

Though commonly used to repress protest around the world, the use of teargas is internationally banned in war. While teargas is only one front of violence that those locked in the mass incarceration system face, it is militarism in action against an already vulnerable and captive community. Stand with over a hundred courageous friends who wrote to WRL describing the tortures of being gassed, and work with us to fight this practice and all repression inside of prison walls, and outside on the streets.

Urge the Department of Justice to act immediately + end tear gas in prison!



ACT NOW: 3 things you can do this week:

1) E-mail askdoj [at] usdoj.gov + tweet at Deputy Attorney General Sally Yates [@SallyQYates] + call Yates through her Chief of Staff Heather Childs (202) 514-8699 with the sample script below. Use #BanTheGas.

2) Attend our Tear Gas in Prison Teach In: Breathing Fire in DC on Sunday, January 8th.

3) Attend WRL & Witness Against Torture's Rally at the DOJ in DC, Monday, January 9th.



SAMPLE SCRIPT My name is ___ ____ from _____, _____ and I am appalled at the use of chemical weapons across prisons and jails in the U.S. Testimony by inmates of the effects of this weapon describe nothing less than torture. I urge the Department of Justice to look into this matter and put an end to it as soon as possible. Thank you

SAMPLE SOCIAL MEDIA POSTS

Facebook post Twitter post Instagram post

For years, WRL has been organizing against the global impact of tear gas from Chile to Palestine to Haiti to Durham, North Carolina and we have seen how it is both a mass tool of repression and a marker of people coming together persisting to fight for justice. Let's end teargas, starting with U.S. prisons!

Read WRL's letter to the Department of Justice here!

For more information on tear gas + prison militarization, check out:

WRL's webpage "Prison Militarization"

The Nation & WRL's petition "End the Use of Tear Gas in Prisons"

The Nation's "Prisons are using Military Grade Tear Gas to Punish Inmates"