POLITICAL PRISONER HEALTH TASKFORCE INITIATIVE
A Project of the Colorado Chapter of the National Conference of Black Lawyers
Political Prisoner Health Taskforce
A Project of the NCBL Criminal Justice Section
Overview
The Political Prisoner Health Taskforce is an ongoing initiative of the National Conference of Black Lawyers (NCBL) Colorado Chapter. Founded by Colorado Chapter leadership, the taskforce is co-led by political prisoner Veronza Bowers Jr. The Taskforce launched its inaugural meeting on January 28, 2026, convened in partnership with For the People, LLC and Black Power Media.
Mission
The Taskforce's mission is to confront and end the systemic medical neglect and death by incarceration of political prisoners through coordinated legal, medical, and community action, centering care for elder political prisoners facing medical degradation while building sustainable support structures to secure their freedom and dignity.
The Crisis It Addresses
The Taskforce was born directly out of a documented and escalating health crisis facing elder political prisoners — predominantly Baby Boomers from the Black Panther Party, Black Liberation Army, American Indian Movement, and allied revolutionary movements of the 1960s and 70s. These individuals include so-called "old law" prisoners sentenced prior to November 1, 1987, who are ineligible for judicially ordered compassionate release under the First Step Act and remain subject to the U.S. Parole Commission — a class that includes Leonard Peltier, Veronza Bowers, the late Dr. Mutulu Shakur, and Jeff Fort.
The conditions they face — poor and delayed medical care, lockdowns blocking healthcare access, denial of necessary surgeries and treatments, jurisdictional shell games between state and federal systems exploited to evade accountability, and parole processes lacking substantive due process — are characterized by the Taskforce as Death by Incarceration (DBI), or systemic medical lynching. The Taskforce points to the death of Imam Jamil Abdullah Al-Amin (H. Rap Brown) on November 24, 2025 — who was allowed to go blind from untreated cataracts and died of Stage 4 multiple myeloma in federal custody — as a paradigmatic example of this pattern.
The Taskforce centers the 1971 Attica Manifesto of Demands as both its historical foundation and its contemporary mandate, noting that 54 years later, political prisoners still face the same degrading conditions the Attica prisoners demanded be ended.
Framework: Concentric Circles of Care
The Taskforce's organizing architecture is grounded in Professor Joy James' concentric circles of care framework, which calls for building layered rings of support radiating outward from the political prisoner at the center. Those rings extend from family and legal teams, to local organizations (such as NCBL Criminal Justice Section chapters and The Jericho Movement), to national networks, and finally to international human rights bodies and United Nations mechanisms. The Taskforce operates as one of those organizational rings, with the specific task of building and strengthening support committees for individual political prisoners using this model.
Core Objectives
The Taskforce pursues five core objectives:
Expose medical neglect as torture — Document and challenge deliberate indifference to political prisoners' healthcare needs as a form of state violence.
Build concentric circles of care — Create and strengthen support committees that mobilize medical, legal, family, community, and international resources around each political prisoner.
Demand accountability — Challenge death by incarceration, jurisdictional barriers to compassionate release, and parole systems lacking due process.
Honor the prison freedom movement's legacy — Continue the struggle rooted in Attica, George Jackson, and the Free Alabama Movement.
Coordinate across all rings — Connect local chapters, national organizations, legal teams, medical professionals, and international human rights bodies in sustained advocacy.