Inside-Outside Alliance is a group of people trying to support the struggles of those inside (or formerly inside) Durham County jail, and their families and friends. We recognize that any of us can be outside one day, inside the next–the revolving door of incarceration. We also participate in struggles against police harassment and brutality. Since November 2012, Inside-Outside Alliance has maintained this website, called Amplify Voices Inside that publishes the words of Durham jail prisoners and former prisoners talking about conditions inside and outside and how they see the world. The name Amplify Voices comes from something a brave and rebellious prisoner wrote in the fall of 2012.
Inside-Outside Alliance is documenting stories of current and former Durham jail prisoners and their families and friends. Do you have a story to tell? Do you know someone inside who has a story to tell? If so, please get in touch with us at insideoutsidealliance@gmail.com.
Added October 2013:
A little more than a year after movement on the inside brought us together as a group, we offer this statement that clarifies our ideas and what we do.
INSIDE-OUTSIDE ALLIANCE
Inside-Outside Alliance supports prisoners’ struggles on the inside and participates in struggles on the outside against our system of injustice that includes police, prisons, courts and immigration laws — the revolving door of incarceration.
Who are we?
We are a Durham-based, multi-generational group that welcomes children of all ages and their caregivers. We are not a branch of any party, business, or non-profit organization. We do not have directors or paid staff. We are not law enforcement, security, or corrections officers, and we do not work with them. We are not snitches.
We recognize the diversity of our experiences with the system and the different ways it has impacted each of us because of our race, gender, and other factors. We are all different. We acknowledge our individual differences but we struggle, fight, and make decisions collectively.
What do we believe?
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Our current system is cruel and does not care about anyone. It cannot provide justice and we do not expect it to.
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People are always in struggle against this unjust, white supremacist system. Although these struggles are not always visible, they are the building blocks for collective power.
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A world without cops, cages, and borders is possible.
What do we do?
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Our work is primarily focused on supporting prisoners in the Durham County jail and on fighting police terrorism throughout the city.
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We communicate with prisoners and former prisoners of the Durham County Jail and publish their writing and art at amplifyvoices.com. In various ways, including the print publication Feedback, we try to strengthen and deepen collective resistance to conditions inside.
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We do not lobby for legislative reform or endorse political parties or candidates.
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We seek bold, strategic ways to disrupt the justice system and challenge the idea that police and prisons exist to keep us safe.
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We confront and challenge oppression in all forms, wherever it exists, including within our group.
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Our work is shaped by collective reflection and critique.
Hit us up
We meet on a regular basis. If you would like to get involved, please call, email, or write to us for details.
Inside-Outside Alliance
PO Box 1353, Durham, NC 27701
insideoutsidealliance@gmail.com
(919) 666-7854
Amplify Voices Inside 
I’m sorry people aren’t enjoying their stay in prison. If they wanted a better hotel, maybe they should have booked through expedia rather than central booking. I think this is justice served correctly. Solution to their problem is not to go to jail in the first place. They are their own solution.
JAIL IS NOT PRISON.
Anon ymous is afraid to identify himself, but
Jail is not prison; Prison is for convicted felons;
Jail (a detention center) is for people NOT
eligible for prison: people waiting for trial, mostly,
and a few (about 15%) actually sentenced to jail,
for relatively petty
crimes, often
“crimes” with no victim, like possession of marijuana
by teenagers, Black & Brown teenagers,
mostly, not teenagers at DUKE,
or with family money, of course.
-REMEMBER:
Not everyone jailed is guilty, and
Not everyone guilty is jailed.
GOOGLE YouTube Police Abuse Durham NC
Look that woman in the eye (the one eye that wasn’t swollen shut
by a left-hook from a Durham jailer for complaining)
& tell her “You deserve whatever happens to you.”
(She was not even charged with any crime; the woman-beater cop, responding
to a 911 call (she was waiting for the cops so she could get her purse back)
grabbed her from behind (she didn’t even see him),
slammed her on her face (face planting people is OK with
Chief Lopez) and dragged on her face, held incommunicado
in jail, beaten, and released to the hospital without charges.
Ooops. Think she got an apology?
Don’t hold your breath.
Lesson? Don’t call 911; cops often use violence before asking questions.
Hope she doesn’t have lasting facial scars needing plastic surgery
like that 12-year-old caught on video throwing a little girl face first
into rose-bushes by a cop because she was wobbling down the
sidewalk on a broken bike she was taking to the store to get
repaired, her parents not expecting that it would be her face
needing major repairs (quietly paid for by the city),
like Timothy Carver, one of the first people I met here in Durham,
a nice guy who died in jail, beaten to death by cops
after being caught walking with a White woman
who testified so the guy’s children could get child support
secretly paid as an annuity so city council would not have to
approve the 6-figure settlement,
or know about it 9officially, at least; a city council member
admitted to me that the payments were made without their knowledge
or approval).
Or how about that painter here in Durham, snuffed by cops
like Eric Garner? Not a word about him, except one
lone voice at an accreditation hearing, asking, what is it about painters,
[that they get beaten and killed by the fashion police here
who never beat men in suit-&-tie.]
Think any of the above violence or many, many other such “incidents”
resulted in arrest or jail?
We all know the answer to that; only the Durham cop
who went to his mother-in-law’s house
(across state lines) and shot his wife through the neck
went to prison (PRISON)
for murder.
Say it / sing it / write it;
(OR) Repeat after me:
Not everyone jailed is guilty, and
Not everyone guilty is jailed.
That could go on a poster or T-shirt,
it could go in stories, books, or songs;
maybe someone could put it to music….
REMEMBER:
Not everyone jailed is guilty, and
Not everyone guilty is jailed.
-is “anony mous” actually Durham County Commissioner Chairman Michael Page? He has said similarly things since then.
I’m quickly learning justice is not served correctly (at least in the Family Court system). I am facing 180 days of jail time because I can’t pay $2,870/month of child support when my take home pay is $2,800/month. What crimes have I committed other than not making over $150k/year? If I could make that much $, why would I not??? Insane system. I see more and more the abuse of power. Before the system swallows me whole, I’m going to shine a light on it. . .
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