On September 9, an estimated twenty-four thousand people in twenty-nine prisons across twelve states launched a national strike. The Free Alabama Movement (FAM), the prisoner organization that announced the strike last spring, called for an “action against slavery in America.” Pointing to the Thirteenth Amendment, which allows slavery as “punishment for a crime,” the organizers “vow[ed] to finally end slavery in 2016.”

Even before it began, proponents were labeling it the biggest prison strike in American history. Yet the action’s exact scope remains unclear: communication is inherently limited, and prisons routinely suppress or misreport protest activity. A number of prisons took preemptive measures to prevent protests before September 9.

Supporters claim that anywhere between twenty thousand and seventy thousand people have participated in the strike, but the accuracy of these figures is difficult to determine. After two months, the major strike action seems to have dissipated, but some facilities remain on alert.