Mass incarceration saps the health and lessens the quality of life of everyone impacted by living within the carceral system— incarcerated people, officers, administrators, medical staff, and counselors.
Mission
We highlight the moral cost of mass incarceration while honoring the lives of all who die while living or working behind bars.
Carla Simmons
History
Mourning Our Losses was created in April 2020 by a volunteer group of educators, artists, students, and organizers—many of us formerly incarcerated—committed to the release of people from prisons, jails, and immigration facilities across the United States during the Covid-19 pandemic..
Mourning Our Losses was born out of anger that governors, judges, and legislators throughout the nation are willing to sacrifice the lives of people in confinement. The project was also born out of personal grief and anxiety over the fate of our friends, students, and colleagues marooned inside. For those of us who were formerly incarcerated, our pain is amplified by the knowledge that a few months or years are all that have separated us from these horrors.
Since our launch, Mourning Our Losses has been carried out by dedicated volunteers. Our volunteers come from a broad community of students, educators, artists, and advocates, inside and out, including those based in California, Colorado, Connecticut, Delaware, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Louisiana, New York, Pennsylvania, Texas, and Virginia. Mourning Our Losses is fiscally sponsored by the Texas After Violence Project.
