Formerly Incarcerated Families Call on Governor Wolf to #ShutDownBerks

Via the Shut Down Berks Coalition:

Today we want to center and amplify the voices of those who have always been the driving force of the campaign. The families who have been affected by the Berks County Detention Center.

They are the experts of this prison and their message is clear. No family, no person, no child should be incarcerated at Berks or any other family detention center. That is why Governor Tom Wolf must #ShutDownBerks NOW!

Listen to their messages right at the links below and share with your networks. A huge thank you to Michelle Angela Ortiz/ Artist for her ongoing work with these families and for these videos.

About the Families

Sofia - Sofia was detained at the Berks County Detention Center with her 14 year old son for 648 days.



Lorena - Lorena was detained at the Berks County Detention Center with her 3 year old son for 663 days.Delmy - Delmy was detained at the Berks County Detention Center with her 7 year old son for 754 days.



Waddah - Waddah was detained at the Berks County Detention Center with his 14 year old daughter for 6 months. 



These videos are apart of the Familias Separadas Project, a project created by artist MichelleAngela Ortiz. The project is a series of temporary site-specific public art works mark locations and documents stories of immigrant families affected by detention and deportations in Pennsylvania. Ortiz is currently working on Phase 2 of her project. Since March 2017, Ortiz has interviewed mothers and children formerly detained for close to 2 years at the Berks Detention Center.

The three mothers featured were part of the fourteen families that were detained at Berks for more than 2 years. During their time in detention the mothers organized labor and hunger strikes as they fought for their freedom. 10 families were deported back to their home country returning to the violence they were fleeing, and 4 families were released in the United States still fighting against their possible deportation and living through the trauma of being detained.

We want to thank these families for their unending strength and commitment to all of those seeking freedom. It is a honor to have them share their stories with us. 

In Solidarity, 
The Shut Down Berks Coalition

The Shut Down Berks Coalition is a group of organizations, grassroots groups, churches and individuals fighting to close the Berks family prison in Pennsylvania and end the practice of imprisoning immigrant families in the U.S.