Free Lawrence Jenkins

Lawrence Jenkins is a longstanding member of the PNW abolitionist community. His defense committee is presently working to bring him home and we need your help.

Many know Lawrence as an artist, farmer, political educator, and organizer who works tirelessly to build community through sustained care, commitment, and devotion.

“I’ve always valued community,” Lawrence writes, “but in my youth, my understanding of collectivity was determined by my environment – the factors were simply, identity and lifestyle. If someone looked like me or moved through life like me, that was it. Over a decade of incarceration has forced me to redefine community based on shared struggle and collective emancipation. I’ve come to realize that solidarity transcends things like race, religion, ability, and gender. What we fight for, collectively, is to get free. When we’re fighting for freedom, we help each other heal, we restore our lives, and we take a chance at a better future.”

For Lawrence, the struggle for freedom starts from inside the prison. It starts with honoring everyone’s inherent value and capacity to develop the confidence and skills necessary to determine the course of their lives. As a practitioner of radical pedagogy and the liberation-education model, Lawrence honors co-learning and mutuality in everything he does, from his artist mentorship to his cultural and legislative advocacy. The foundation of all of Lawrence’s work is a deep commitment to sustainability and health–both of which are rendered impossible by the carceral state.

Lawrence is eager to continue this work upon his release, to farm and build healthier, more autonomous food systems while healing from the trauma of incarceration and years of medical neglect. Central to this process will be seeking more aggressive interventions for his advanced glaucoma–without which Lawrence risks going blind in a matter of years.

It is with this sense of hope and urgency that his defense committee is raising money for legal fees, restitution, and re-entry support including anticipated medical expenses.

Help us bring Lawrence home. He, like all those impacted by the carceral system, deserves to see freedom.