How Students Are Pushing for Justice in US Prisons |
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How Students Are Pushing for Justice in US Prisons
The Remedy Project trains students to help incarcerated people file grievances, expose abuse, and, in some cases, secure release.
Columbia University’s Remedy Project chapter celebrates filing 500 administrative remedies.
In March of 2024, Christopher Trenchfield, a Jamaican national on a valid US visa, faced a violent assault from prison staff. A deputy officer at the Santa Rosa County Jail, where Trenchfield was incarcerated on domestic abuse charges, grabbed him by the neck and choked him as a group of around 15 officers physically assaulted him and forced Trenchfield to sleep on concrete outside for multiple nights.
The particular brand of brutality that Trenchfield faced is not unusual, according to The Remedy Project (TRP), a national collective led by students and system-impacted people to challenge injustice in US prisons. “I run across letters constantly from people saying, ‘I know that this prison is the worst one in the system.’” Colin Adams, the remedy advocacy director at TRP, said. “And they’re all talking about different prisons.”
Beyond the malfeasance demonstrated by his assault, evidence showed that Trenchfield was not even meant to be in prison at all: His house had been investigated without a warrant, Florida state charges were dropped against him, and private and state psychologists repudiated the idea he was mentally incompetent. The Federal Bureau of Prisons nonetheless inexplicably continued to pursue detainment.
To call attention to his unjust circumstances, Trenchfield reached out to TRP on January 27, 2025. Six weeks later, he was freed from prison. His release was facilitated by the efforts of students who spent their spring semester fighting for Trenchfield. On top of exams and essays, the students wrote letters to apply pressure to his sentencing judge, senators, and the Jamaican consulate, Anna Sugrue, cofounder of TRP, said. They also used the keystone of TRP’s work: administrative remedies.
Administrative remedies are documents that allow incarcerated people to issue formal grievances about their conditions. The complaints—which can range from a petition for adequate medical treatment to a report about guard misconduct—must be submitted as an administrative remedy for prison staff, courts, or government agencies to consider the grievance.
Aside from being the only organization that works with incarcerated people free of charge to create these submittable documents, TRP stands out for its staffers: students and those directly impacted by the prison system. Following the guiding principle “don’t preach, but do abolition,” the network mobilizes college and high school students seeking to make a direct impact.
According to Olivia Law, a volunteer and Amherst College student, TRP offered her “something very tangible to do to create change,” in a time when “everything feels like it is falling apart.”
The students are taught the remedy-writing procedure by one of the project’s founding members, self-proclaimed “remedy guru,” David D. Simpson. Simpson learned how to navigate the byzantine administrative process during his incarceration at Federal........