California needs to close more prisons — they cause more harm than they address while draining billions of dollars in resources from the communities that need them most. But we also can’t let the CDCR use closures as an excuse to punish imprisoned people with tumultuous transfers, denial of food and medicine, restricted access to rehabilitative programming, and retaliation. Releases, not chaotic transfers, must be the center of any future closure plan.

As CRC emptied out, one of us stayed behind while the other was transferred to another prison. From both sides of the closure process, we have seen the same pattern of preventable harm.