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

[Szoke, Ronald Duane]

Either way is fine with me.  -- Ron
________________________________________
From: Peace-discuss [peace-discuss-bounces at lists.chambana.net] on behalf of Rohn Koester [rohnkoester at gmail.com]
Sent: Wednesday, February 20, 2013 2:06 PM
To: Stuart Levy; Peace Discuss
Subject: Re: [Peace-discuss] Should AWARE sign on to statement against a new Champaign County jail?

I agree that it's important for AWARE to maintain its identity and
purpose, but as a statement of support, yes, I think AWARE should sign
on.

Rohn

On Wed, Feb 20, 2013 at 1:28 PM, Carl G. Estabrook
<galliher at illinois.edu> wrote:
> Sounds like a good plan, Stuart.
>
> I'd object to signing in AWARE's name only because it's removed from AWARE's
> remit - opposition to the war and its attendant racism.
>
> Perhaps AWARE members should sign as individuals. --CGE
>
>
> On Feb 20, 2013, at 12:15 PM, Stuart Levy <stuartnlevy at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> 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 revenues  should 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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>
>
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