Go to Jail

Confronting a System of Oppression

by Students at the Center

“America is number one in the world in terms of incarceration. Louisiana is number one in the United States. New Orleans is number one in Louisiana. We are ground zero for incarceration and young people need to understand this reality.” – Kalamu Ya Salaam

In Go to Jail, young people and their adult allies tell stories about the ways in which they use improvisation and imagination to refuse the unlivable destinies meted out to them by predatory policing and mass incarceration. This book includes a break down of the prison system, writing from those inside of Louisiana’s prisons, and student and teacher writings about the impact of the prison industrial complex on New Orleans communities.

Paperback | 328 pages | LMO Projects Inc. | 2021

Students at the Center (SAC) is an independent program that since 1996 has worked within public schools in New Orleans. The students of SAC participate through English and elective writing and social studies classes in their schools. We teach both regular and advanced core curriculum classes that are open to all students. In addition to the daily classes, since Hurricane Katrina, SAC graduates have worked as key staff members, serving as resource teachers in public school classrooms, organizers for youth involvement, and producers of youth media.

Proceeds from the sale of this book go to: www.freedemfoundations.org, an organization that helps build community cohesion and self-sufficiency in the neighborhoods of New Orleans. Founded by Jerome Morgan and Robert Jones, who spent 20+ years in prison for crimes they did not commit.