Jail solidarity is unity of purpose of those incarcerated or imprisoned. In some

mass arrest A mass arrest occurs when police apprehend large numbers of suspects at once. This sometimes occurs at protests. Some mass arrests are also used in an effort to combat gang activity. This is sometimes controversial, and lawsuits sometimes result. ...

situations, the activists decide to use

solidarity ''Solidarity'' is an awareness of shared interests, objectives, standards, and sympathies creating a psychological sense of unity of groups or classes. It is based on class collaboration.''Merriam Webster'', http://www.merriam-webster.com/dictio ...

tactics to secure the same

plea bargain A plea bargain (also plea agreement or plea deal) is an agreement in criminal law proceedings, whereby the prosecutor provides a concession to the defendant in exchange for a plea of guilt or '' nolo contendere.'' This may mean that the defendan ...

for everyone. Sometimes activists also make a mutual decision to reject offered plea bargains and take their cases to trial in order to overburden the court system, or in order to otherwise mutually support one another as

co-defendant In court proceedings, a defendant is a person or object who is the party either accused of committing a crime in criminal prosecution or against whom some type of civil relief is being sought in a civil case. Terminology varies from one jurisdic ...

s; an example of this would be

the Camden 28 The Camden 28 were a group of leftist, Catholic, anti-Vietnam War activists who in 1971 planned and executed a raid on a draft board in Camden, New Jersey, United States. The raid resulted in a high-profile criminal trial of the activists that ...

. It is generally agreed that jail solidarity works best when a plan is arranged ahead of time. One of the governing principles of the

anti-nuclear movement in the United States The anti-nuclear movement in the United States consists of more than 80 anti-nuclear groups that oppose nuclear power, nuclear weapons, and/or uranium mining. These have included the Abalone Alliance, Clamshell Alliance, Committee for Nuclear Re ...

was jail solidarity. Some activists have viewed jail solidarity as being very important for their states of mind while imprisoned. Jail solidarity can also refer to non-prisoners holding rallies outside prisons or otherwise helping to provide

moral support Moral support is a way of giving support to a person or cause, or to one side in a conflict, without making any contribution beyond the emotional or psychological value of the encouragement by supporting them. For example, in a war between two c ...

to prisoners, especially imprisoned activists or colleagues. It has been hypothesized that prison administrations throughout the United States might be overwhelmed by prisoner organizing across racial lines. Per Herngren, recounting his prison experience, writes: A number of

prisoner advocacy Prisoner support encompasses a variety of activities aimed a providing assistance to prisoners, particularly political prisoners. Many programs devoted to this purpose have quite limited resources; for instance, Nottingham Black Prisoner Support, w ...

organizations, including PrisonerSolidarity.org, which serves as a

news portal A web portal is a specially designed website that brings information from diverse sources, like emails, online forums and search engines, together in a uniform way. Usually, each information source gets its dedicated area on the page for displayin ...

, are part of the prisoner solidarity movement.

References

{{reflist Activism