In a letter to Congress, the Institute to End Mass Incarceration and more than 185 other organizations urged lawmakers to remove language from the FY24 House appropriations bill that would fast-track the construction of a new federal prison in Letcher County, Kentucky. Known as Section 219, the proposed legislation would allow the Bureau of Prisons to bypass the federal environmental review process and would make the prison and its operations nearly immune from judicial oversight.
The letter was spearheaded by the Building Community Not Prisons Coalition, of which IEMI is a founding member. This work is part of the Institute’s broader Carceral Infrastructure Project.