NEYL

This is grounded in history.
Two symbols that once stood apart now move in alignment. What was divided is now unified elders and the new generation advancing as one.
This is not a redesign. This is continuation with purpose.
The shift to purple is intentional. It reflects who we are dignity, sacrifice, discipline, and commitment to the people.
Nothing here is accidental. Every element carries meaning. Every piece is connected.
This represents unity across time, across experience, across generations.
We are not starting over. We are building forward—together.
This is the New Era.

Slavery was never abolished.
It was given an exception.

And every day that exception exists, it is being used legally.

We’ve been taught to believe slavery ended.
But what happens when a system keeps the language of freedom…
while preserving the function of control?

If we stay silent on the exception,
we are not neutral.
We are participating in its normalization.

Because slavery doesn’t only exist in chains.
It adapts.
It evolves.

• In prison labor justified by law
• In economic systems that extract without protection
• In colonial conditions that deny full self-determination
• In psychological limits placed on what we believe is possible

Different forms. Same logic.
IT STARTS WITH THE EXCEPTION.

We are calling on organizations, leaders, educators, and community members:

Not just to agree.
But to show up.
To engage.
To build.

Come be part of the conversation.
Come help shape the coalition.

Because this doesn’t change in isolation.
It changes when people decide it can’t continue.

Abolish the exception clause.
Abolish slavery without conditions.

📍 The People’s Church, East Harlem
🗓 Sunday, March 29
⏰ 3:00 PM – 5:00 PM

PuertoRico SelfDetermination ServeThePeople

La esclavitud fue declarada abolida en Puerto Rico en 1873.
Pero como en muchos lugares gobernados bajo el marco de la 13ª Enmienda, todavía existe una peligrosa laguna:

La esclavitud y la servidumbre involuntaria siguen siendo legales como castigo por un delito.

Esa cláusula de excepción ha permitido que el trabajo forzado, la explotación dentro de las prisiones y la expansión de los sistemas de encarcelamiento continúen bajo otro nombre.

En todo Estados Unidos y sus territorios, millones de personas encarceladas son obligadas a trabajar por poco o ningún salario — produciendo bienes, manteniendo prisiones y sosteniendo un sistema que se beneficia del confinamiento.

Esta campaña trata de cerrar esa laguna de una vez por todas.

El 22 de marzo, organizadores, miembros de la comunidad y abolicionistas se reunirán en Santurce para lanzar una campaña que elimine la cláusula de excepción de la constitución de Puerto Rico.

La abolición debe significar abolición — sin excepciones.

Si un sistema puede recrear la esclavitud a través de la criminalización, entonces el trabajo por la libertad aún no ha terminado.

Únete a la conversación.
Únete al movimiento.

📍 Casa Sofía — Santurce, Puerto Rico
🗓 Domingo, 22 de marzo
⏰ 4:00 PM – 7:00 PM

Puerto Rico’s juvenile justice system does not begin inside detention facilities.
It begins with entry points:
• School discipline referrals
• Police contact
• Court intake processes
• Poverty exposure
• Untreated mental health needs
Research across the United States including Puerto Rico and U.S. territories consistently shows:
📊 Youth who experience early system contact are significantly more likely to have continued justice involvement.
📊 Confinement during adolescence disrupts education and increases long-term unemployment risk.
📊 Community-based alternatives reduce recidivism more effectively than incarceration.
📊 Nationally, nearly 70% of youth in the juvenile justice system have a diagnosed or diagnosable mental health condition.
📊 High school dropouts are significantly more likely to face arrest than graduates.
Puerto Rico operates under its own local juvenile code, but federal jurisdiction also applies. Certain cases allow transfer to adult court. Federal facilities operate on the island. And under the 13th Amendment, involuntary labor remains constitutionally permitted as punishment for a crime across all 50 states and U.S. territories.
This is not isolated to Puerto Rico.
The youth prison industrial complex in the continental U.S. and in territories such as Puerto Rico operates through similar structural patterns:
• Over-policing of marginalized communities
• School-to-court pipelines
• Underfunded prevention services
• Heavy reliance on confinement
If research consistently shows that:
• Education reduces system contact
• Stable housing reduces recidivism
• Mentorship lowers reoffending
• Mental health treatment decreases court involvement
Then continued overreliance on incarceration is not inevitability it is policy choice.
Prevention is public safety.
Investment is crime reduction.
Community intervention is evidence-based.
Our youth in Puerto Rico and across U.S. jurisdictions deserve development, opportunity, and support, not early system entrenchment.
What would change if prevention received the same level of funding as punishment?

ABOLISH THE EXCEPTION.

They told us slavery ended in 1865.
But they didn’t teach us to read the entire sentence.
“Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude… shall exist… except as punishment for crime.”
An exception is not an accident.
It is architecture.
In 1873, Puerto Rico abolished slavery under Spanish rule without a punishment clause.
No asterisk.
No conditional freedom.
Yet today, the 13th Amendment with its exception governs 50 states, Washington D.C., and U.S. territories.
If freedom can be revoked through criminalization, what does abolition truly mean?
This is not about denying harm.
This is about understanding systems.
Who gets policed more heavily?
Who gets charged more aggressively?
Who receives harsher sentencing?
Who grows up under constant surveillance?
Who is pushed from school discipline into courtrooms?
If incarceration can legally produce forced labor…
If poverty increases contact with the justice system…
If laws determine who becomes “criminal”…
Was the exception a loophole or a continuation?
History shows us that power rarely disappears.
It transforms.
Chains became codes.
Plantations became prisons.
Control adapted.
Abolition should not contain fine print.
Freedom should not depend on classification.
Justice should not require a cage.
If we believe in community safety,
we invest in education.
We invest in health.
We invest in opportunity.
We invest in prevention.
Read the amendment.
Read the language.
Read the structure.
Then ask yourself
What does freedom look like without an exception?