Asheville
Jail Support
Hotline: (828) 318-4477
Asheville Jail Support is a volunteer-run mutual aid project. Our goal is simple: to support arrested protesters through the processes they're faced with on the night of, and after, their arrest.**The Jail Support Hotline is only active during protests. To contact us outside of that context, please send an email. **We cannot answer private, hidden, or blocked phone numbers.Follow us on twitter for announcements.
Frequently Asked Questions
What is Jail Support? It is a group of volunteers who provide support to people arrested for protesting. See this article for a deeper explanation.
What kind of support do you provide / What do you do? Please see our "What we do" section below.
To whom do you provide support? We provide support to people arrested for protesting against police and state brutality, for Black Lives, and for liberation movements.
Where do you get the money to bail people out of jail? We are not money-holders. We have a relationship with a bail fund run by Blue Ridge ABC, which predates our organization. We simply act as a liaison.
Are you antifa/anarchists/satanists? We're Jail Support. See FAQ #1 if you're still unclear.
What we do
There are three "branches" to our operation:
The Hotline - This is how most people find out about us. The hotline is provided for people who have been arrested or, more often, people who witness an arrest. We collect information about the arrested person so that we can track them through the system and provide them with anything they might need or want. This includes things like getting medication to the jail, coordinating someone to take care of their pets, calling a boss or spouse, etc.
On The Ground Support - We will have someone at the jail to bail out the arrested individual, and/or support the person however they need upon release. This could include a ride, a phone charger, or even just a drink.
Follow-up Support - Being arrested is just the beginning for most people. There are often injuries, court dates, and consequences of being arrested that go beyond the night of the arrest. Our goal is to support arrestees through these things, and provide them with connections to resources that can help them navigate these processes.
Request Support
If you are planning a protest or event that might need Jail Support at the ready, please fill out the form below and include the requested information. A jail support coordinator will reach out to you to make personal contact and confirm details.Please provide the following information on this form, and remember that web forms are not secure for sensitive or personal details.1. Name for the person of contact
2. An email or phone number we can reach them at
3. The name of the event
4. Groups or Organizations organizing or sponsoring the event
5. A short description of the event's purpose
7. Expected attendance (50-100, 100-200, 300-500, 500+)
8. Is this a permitted event? (Not required, we just like to know)
Get Involved
If you'd like to become involved, please send us an email and include your name and pronouns, some information about yourself, your interest in jail support, your thoughts on police and prison abolition, and a good email address for subscribing to our mailing list.
Please note: The work we do here is just as much about building trust, relationships, and community as it is about the technical details of running a hotline or bailing people out of jail. We are a mutual aid project, not an NGO. For those reasons, we do not just assign out 'jobs' to volunteers - instead we ask that individuals interested in becoming involved with our work start by demonstrating a willingness to engage with us when we put out calls to action.