Thursday, February 20, 2020
6:30-8:30pm
Khnemu Lighthouse, 966 E 105th St, Cleveland, OH 44108
This month's meeting will take the form of a training on the Criminal Punishment System. Together we'll explore what it is, how it shows up in our community, the deep layers of law institutions, and actors that prop it up, and the even deeper historical and cultural layer of lies that form its foundation. We'll look at the system within our local context as well as through an international lens, and discuss how we can apply what we learn to our organizing work. The training will be 6:30PM-8:30PM at the Khnemu Lighthouse, 966 E 105th St, Cleveland, OH 44108. As always, dinner will be potluck style, so feel free to bring a dish if you are able! And be sure to RSVP and invite your friends to the Facebook event.
Demands of the Coalition
Bring all the Cuyahoga County Jails, including the one at the “Justice” Center, the Juvenile Detention Center, Euclid, and Bedford Hts., into compliance with the "Minimum Standards for Jails in Ohio."
a. Implement Zero Tolerance for Guard Brutality immediately.
b. Bring the Jail into immediate compliance with the Prison Rape Elimination Act.
c. Clean the Jail immediately. Bring the facilities up to basic sanitary eating and sleeping conditions. Rid the sleeping areas of feces and urine; replace ALL moldy trays
d. Give all detainees immediate ability to make a phone call, undergo medical and mental evaluation and needed treatment, including addiction services.
e. Cease coercive pressure, to waive the right to a speedy trial, and plead out to a lesser charge.
2. Provide full access to healthcare services. Immediately end the deprivation of resources, including food, water, and medicine/medical services, including addiction treatment.
3. Establish Mental Health diversion centers, serving needs/lessening overcrowding.
4. End the transfer of children to adult correctional facilities.
5. Increase funding to support reentry support services: Implement policies and approaches that link those reentering society with needed treatment, housing, employment.
6. End the use of criminal history, including past convictions, in determining eligibility for housing, education, licenses, voting, loans, employment, and other services and needs.
7. Carry out the swift implementation of bail reform. Honor the county’s commitment to reforms by centralizing bail hearings, investing in comprehensive pretrial services, establishing uniform bond schedules (county-wide), and releasing anyone held for a low-level offense on personal recognizance.
We demand the release of all inmates held pre-trial for low level, nonviolent offenses. This use of pretrial detention should be severely limited, and if deemed necessary, a recorded justification for imposing any bail must be met and available to the public upon request.
8. Begin systematic data collection, reporting, and transparency governed and led by a committee of affected community members, over the Criminal Justice Reform Task Force. We demand this task force propose a timeline for achieving promised reforms to the county’s bail system and agree to independent oversight.
9. Set up independent oversight, governed and led by a committee of affected community members, over the Criminal Justice Reform Task Force.
10. Repay your moral debt to all those subjected to the Jail inhumanity through acknowledgement, apology, assurance of future protection from harm, and material reparations the details of which must be determined through mediation with affected inmates, overseen by independent practitioners of transformative justice.
The Coalition to Stop the Inhumanity at the Cuyahoga County Jail:
Black Lives Matter Cleveland
Black On Black Crime, Inc.
Carl Stokes Brigade
Cleveland Democratic Socialists of America
Cleveland Lead Safe Network
Communist Party USA Cleveland
Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus (CCPC)
Imperial Women Coalition
Inter-Religious Task Force
Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition
Ohio Organizing Collaborative
Ohio Student Association
Puncture the Silence-Stop Mass Incarceration
Refuse Fascism Cleveland
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) NEO
Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, Inc.
Tamir E. Rice Foundation
Black On Black Crime, Inc.
Carl Stokes Brigade
Cleveland Democratic Socialists of America
Cleveland Lead Safe Network
Communist Party USA Cleveland
Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus (CCPC)
Imperial Women Coalition
Inter-Religious Task Force
Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition
Ohio Organizing Collaborative
Ohio Student Association
Puncture the Silence-Stop Mass Incarceration
Refuse Fascism Cleveland
Showing Up for Racial Justice (SURJ) NEO
Survivors/Victims of Tragedy, Inc.
Tamir E. Rice Foundation
