Have You Heard of the Megajail in Chinatown?

<p>In Manhattan’s Chinatown, the city is constructing a $3.9 billion skyscraper jail — set to be the world’s tallest — atop a once-flourishing pond. Borne out of local resistance to the expansion of carceral infrastructure, <em>Have You Heard of the Megajail in Chinatown?</em> captures glimpses of the history and context of how we arrived at this moment. Through community learning, we found the story behind every jail in New York to be distorted or fragmented, divorced from the machinery of state violence. This zine seeks to present a more complete story of the megajail, including the land it sits on, the millennia of abundant life that preceded its inception, and the centuries of colonial violence that have created the conditions under which present-day gentrification and the prison industrial complex flourish. Drawing on legacies of resistance across Lenape, Black, and working-class immigrant communities, we offer an invitation to reject the inevitability of the carceral and settler-colonial state, and instead orient toward community, possibility, and transformation.</p>