CADBI-West is the Western PA arm of the Coalition to Abolish Death by Incarceration. Our founding meeting was September 25 of 2017. The founding organizations are Fight for Lifers West, the Abolitionist Law Center, Let’s Get Free, HRC-Fedup and POORLAW. We are a newer part of a statewide group that has been organizing around this issue, founded in June of 2015 in Philadelphia by Decarcerate PA, Fight for Lifers, the Human Rights Coalition, and Right to Redemption.
Pennsylvania prisons hold over 5000 people serving life sentences without the possibility of parole. In PA, a life sentence means your natural life–it is a sentence that condemns you to die in prison–which is why many choose to call it Death By Incarceration (DBI). We are working to build a mass movement both inside and outside of prison to take a stand against DBI and other harsh sentencing practices.