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Begin forwarded message:
From: "heather m. o'brien" <heathermobrien@gmail.com>
Date: May 5, 2014 at 1:39:23 PM PDT
To: undisclosed-recipients:;
Subject: NO MORE CAGES IN LOS ANGELES !! / TOMORROW - May 6 at 10:30am (on the steps of the board of supervisors in downtown)
Reply-To: School of Echoes <share@forum.schoolofechoes.org>
critical resistance los angelesdear friends and comrades:
it was great to see many of you at the MAK center last weekend, as well as our action at the mall in lancaster.
as discussed:
all of us at critical resistance los angeles hope to see you tomorrow, TUESDAY MAY 6 AT 10AM on the steps of the board of supervisors in downtown la. we must stop the expansion of jails in l.a. county!
this is a VERY important mobilization and we need as many voices there as possible.
1) At this meeting the Los Angeles Board of Supervisors may vote to move forward on 1 of 5 proposed jail plans created by Vanir Construction Management, Inc.
2) The new jail plan is proposing to spend over $2.3 billion to expand the L.A. county jail system by constructing a "Women's Village" and a "Mental Health Jail". The county has refused to use any of the millions of dollars to implement well-founded strategies that reduce recidivism, reduce the number of people in L.A.'s violent jails and invest in viable solutions that create truly safer communities.
hope to see you there! we need as many bodies in the room as possible to tell them that we need community solutions; not more cages.in solidarity,
heather
criticalresistance.org
(image courtesy of the center for the study of political graphics)NO MORE CAGES! NO MORE JAILS!
TOMORROW:
TUESDAY, May 6 @ 10AM
(meet on the front steps of the building!)
500 W. Temple St.
Rm 381B
Los Angeles, CA, 90012
Join Critical Resistance Los Angeles and the LA No More Jails Coalition for a public press release + public comment
The Board will have a discussion of the Los Angeles County Jail Plan-Phase 2 (Architectural Program) report by Vanir Construction Management, Inc.
Demand that the L.A. Board of Supervisors vote NO on this plan by sending an email today ---> http://bit.ly/1njnhIc
Circulate this email ---> http://bit.ly/1fKlNa3
Talking points:
STOP ALL LA COUNTY JAIL EXPANSION PLANS - NO NEW CAGES FOR WOMEN
The LA County Sheriff's Department and the County's Chief Executive Officer are proposing to spend over 2.5 billion dollars to expand the L.A. County Jail system. At the same time the County has refused to use any of the hundreds of millions of realignment dollars that are available to implement well-founded strategies to reduce recidivism, reduce the number of people in LA Counties' violent jails and invest in viable solutions that create truly safer communities. The Vanir Corporation will present the next iteration of this monstrous jail plan on May 6, 2014 at 10:30am at the Board of Supervisors meeting. We need you there.
The first stage of this jail expansion project is to build a new jail for women in Lancaster on the site of the old Mira Loma Correctional Facility—projected to be 1604 new beds for women. These cages will be partially funded with a $100 million awarded by the state through AB900. Passed in 2007, AB900 gave birth to the largest prison and jail expansion plan in the history of the world. Mostly poor women and women of color would be housed in this new female facility, they are ironically calling a 'Village'. Sheriff Teri McDonald couched the concept for this new facility as a cozy environment where "women and children can do there time together'.
In June 2012 the LA Board of Supervisors voted to accept $100 million in AB900 funding to help finance the women's jail but plans have been stalled due to inaccurate cost projections, site changes, and community pressure. In January 2014 the Board of State & Community Corrections (BSCC) approved a site change—from the Pitchess Detention Center in Castaic to the Lancaster site—and granted LA County an extension needed in order to still qualify for the AB900 funding.
The women's jail plan includes renovating the old facility at the Mira Loma site that would house 1156 women. This building is not up to code and has a deteriorating foundation — not fit for human habitation. For 15 years L.A. County contracted with the Department of Homeland Security to house ICE detainees at Mira Loma. In November 2012, the facility was vacated—up to 2000 detainees were transferred out of the County jail system. Sheriff Lee Baca broke the contract with the Federal agency in August 2012, as the County could not meet ICE standards for medical and mental health care, detainee programs and services, security or basic living conditions. The women's jail plan also includes a second facility with an additional 448 mental health beds. People with mental illness should not be put in cages but served by professional health care providers in the community.
The L.A. County jail plan will also proposes to replace Men's Central Jail with a new mental health facility and high security units. All the jail options that have been proposed in the last year project an ongoing need for over 20,000 beds in the L.A. County jail system. Over 50% of people in the county jail are awaiting trial, over 30% convicted of non-violent, non-serious charges. L.A. County is insisting on holding the realignment population—people convicted of non-serious, non-violent offenses—for 100% of their sentence while doing nothing to invest in strategies to reduce recidivism and the reduce the number of people locked up in its violent overcrowded dungeons. The extreme violence in LA's jails should be reason to shrink, not expand the system. The LA County Sheriff's Department was recently investigated for regular and brutal violence inflicted by guards against prisoners and allowing the conditions in its jail system to deteriorate. They are currently under the critical eye of a local and national community as implementations recommended by the Citizens Commission on Jail Violence are tracked. The county needs to focus on resolving these issues, not building more jails.
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