AUSTIN — Members of Texas Advocates for Justice (TAJ) and Grassroots Leadership will gather hundreds of formerly incarcerated community members, their families, and advocates from Austin, San Antonio, Houston, and the Dallas-Fort Worth area.

Those attending the event include community members impacted by incarceration and see these issues as interconnected and rooted in systems of oppression and exploitation. The whole day of events includes:

• A rally on the Capitol steps.

• Formerly incarcerated people created a powerful art installation in the North Central Gallery.

• Legislative visits.

Those formerly incarcerated, deported, and their families demand that communities impacted by deportation and incarceration policies be consulted when policies are written, amended, or enacted. Legislative visits are scheduled for directly affected people to advocate for public health approaches to drug use; end fines, fees, and surcharges for people who cannot afford to pay; remove obstacles to reentry and dramatically change parole for adults and juveniles; create independent oversight for Texas prisons; fix the bail system and more.

“Those impacted need our voices to be heard,” said Annette Price, statewide organizer for Texas Advocates for Justice, a network of formerly incarcerated people and their loved ones. “We must be a key part in ending this system of modern-day slavery called mass incarceration.”