[Peace-discuss] Should AWARE sign on to statement against a new Champaign County jail?

[Stuart Levy]

Question for AWARE: should we sign on to the statement below, even 
though we won't have had time to discuss it in person?

C-U Citizens for Peace and Justice and others have been organizing 
against Champaign County going forward with plans to build a new jail, 
and looking instead at alternatives to incarceration and better ways to 
protect public safety.

On Feb. 21st, 7PM, the County Board will meet with the jail-needs 
consultant.   CUCPJ will be reading statements of support from local 
organizations.   We could be one of them.

Should AWARE sign on to this?   Unfortunately it came out too late to be 
considered at our Sunday meeting.

Proposed process: *If anyone is at all uncomfortable with either the 
statement below, **or with our making a decision by e-mail rather than 
in person*, then I think we should decline.   If no one objects and we 
get at least as many positive responses as we'd get at a well-attended 
meeting (say eight people), then we can say Yes.   How about that?

You can write back either to the list, or to me.

> The Champaign County Board is considering a proposal to spend $20 
> million on new jail cells. Under this proposal, the Board would pay 
> for this jail construction from our public safety sales tax which 
> currently brings in about $4 million per year.We, the undersigned 
> organizations, believe the County must change its priorities in terms 
> of public safety.Instead of building new jail cells, public safety tax 
> revenuesshould go to fund preventive services and programs that will 
> keep people out of jail. These include: youth job training, mental 
> health services, substance abuse treatment, re-entry programs for 
> people returning home from prison and measures to address the racial 
> discrepancies in the jail population. We urge the Board to work with 
> the community to make these alternatives to incarceration a reality.

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