Just saw the text below in an email update from Voice of the Experienced, an FIP-led organizing/advocacy group in New Orleans. Very consistent with your post:
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The people who would be most impacted by the controversial $150 million Phase III “mental health facility” construction in Orleans Justice Center - those currently incarcerated at the jail - firmly aren’t for it. How do we know? We asked.
In response to a June 27, 2023 letter from New Orleans City Council that expressed Phase III as the will of CIP at OJC - we decided to go straight to the source.
With the help of the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Susan Hutson, who strongly oppose Phase III, VOTE Organizers went into OJC to speak with folks on the inside and distribute a survey we crafted to better understand their awareness, involvement, and perspectives on the federal consent decree, civil rights litigation, and the need to build a bigger jail for mental healthcare.
After collecting anonymous responses from 211 CIP (19% of OJC’s current occupancy of 1100), we found:
- 75% were NOT aware OJC is under consent decree
- 95% don’t know who the lawyers are
- 96% have not met with lawyers (and some answering yes weren’t always correct with the names)
- 88% have not seen the lawyers in the jail
- Only 2% believe they have received mail from the lawyers
- Only 3% have written the lawyers a letter
- 95% have not called the lawyers
- 94% have not been consulted by the lawyers on their opinions
- Only 4% know someone who has been in regular contact with the lawyers
In ranking roadblocks:
- More trained mental health staff rose to the top (1.77/4), 65% ranked this as the biggest problem
- Better trained mental health followed (1.88/4)
- Needing to rearrange the current jail to create more space / privacy (2.3/4)
- FINALLY - needing a LARGER jail to create more space / privacy ranked significantly lowest (3.17/4); 67% ranked this as the LEAST of the problems
In verbatim and vocally, CIP want more mental health programming, green space, and real resources - not a bigger jail. These are all things Sheriff Hutson has requested funding for and been denied.
When talking about Rikers, people should be talking a lot more about what happened in Cincinnati when the jail closure forced police to simply arrest fewer people.
Just saw the text below in an email update from Voice of the Experienced, an FIP-led organizing/advocacy group in New Orleans. Very consistent with your post:
-----
The people who would be most impacted by the controversial $150 million Phase III “mental health facility” construction in Orleans Justice Center - those currently incarcerated at the jail - firmly aren’t for it. How do we know? We asked.
In response to a June 27, 2023 letter from New Orleans City Council that expressed Phase III as the will of CIP at OJC - we decided to go straight to the source.
With the help of the Orleans Parish Sheriff's Office and Sheriff Susan Hutson, who strongly oppose Phase III, VOTE Organizers went into OJC to speak with folks on the inside and distribute a survey we crafted to better understand their awareness, involvement, and perspectives on the federal consent decree, civil rights litigation, and the need to build a bigger jail for mental healthcare.
After collecting anonymous responses from 211 CIP (19% of OJC’s current occupancy of 1100), we found:
- 75% were NOT aware OJC is under consent decree
- 95% don’t know who the lawyers are
- 96% have not met with lawyers (and some answering yes weren’t always correct with the names)
- 88% have not seen the lawyers in the jail
- Only 2% believe they have received mail from the lawyers
- Only 3% have written the lawyers a letter
- 95% have not called the lawyers
- 94% have not been consulted by the lawyers on their opinions
- Only 4% know someone who has been in regular contact with the lawyers
In ranking roadblocks:
- More trained mental health staff rose to the top (1.77/4), 65% ranked this as the biggest problem
- Better trained mental health followed (1.88/4)
- Needing to rearrange the current jail to create more space / privacy (2.3/4)
- FINALLY - needing a LARGER jail to create more space / privacy ranked significantly lowest (3.17/4); 67% ranked this as the LEAST of the problems
In verbatim and vocally, CIP want more mental health programming, green space, and real resources - not a bigger jail. These are all things Sheriff Hutson has requested funding for and been denied.
Good questions. I've always appreciated this article you wrote a few years ago: https://theappeal.org/incarceration-is-always-a-policy-failure/
When talking about Rikers, people should be talking a lot more about what happened in Cincinnati when the jail closure forced police to simply arrest fewer people.