Struggle over new jail heats up
By
Larry Hales
Denver
Published Apr 20, 2005 4:37 PM
The fight against a proposed new
Denver City jail is at its peak, with the vote on it scheduled for early May.
Some of the jail’s opponents have banded together in a broad coalition
called Denver City Residents for Responsible Spending, and some in this
coalition are even calling on the city to review alternatives for a cheaper jail
or repairs on the existing city and county jail.
However, the Committee of
Resistance to Jails, Prisons and War has taken a stand against jails on
principle and recognizes that any expenditure on incarceration will be a blow to
the throngs of poor workers and people of color.
Recently, Denver mayor
and millionaire restaurateur John Hickenlooper was named one of the five top
mayors in the country by Time magazine. One feat credited to him is the
elimination of a $70-million deficit “without major service cuts or
layoffs.”
The Time article highlights that Hickenlooper took a
25-percent pay cut himself. However, it is a pittance considering how much money
he is worth. Hickenlooper also forced city workers into accepting pay cuts.
Part of his idea of balancing the budget was to see that substitute
teachers receive a 30-percent pay cut and $11.6 million is cut from city
spending—all while the Denver public school system has no substitutes, has
a ratio of 35 students per teacher and is closing several schools throughout the
city.
When city residents and activists demanded justice in the wake of
rampant police brutality and the murders of five disabled people—two Black
males, one Black female and one Latino male—the mayor responded by
creating a benign city monitor position at city residents’ expense. This
position will pay anywhere from $74,000 to $114,000. The monitor can only make
recommendations but will have no real power to go after killer cops.
Now
the city is forcing a “Justice Center” down the throats of
residents, costing a whopping $600 million—and this is only for the
repayment of the bonds needed to construct the jail facility. The mayor and
other city administrators have crisscrossed the city, paying special attention
to communities of color, to sell the new proposal.
Of course, nothing is
being said about the fact that Black males are seven times as likely to be
arrested in Denver as whites, and Latino males twice as likely, and that 60
percent of those in jail have not been tried but are awaiting trial, many
because they cannot afford to post bail. Some 42 percent of the new felony cases
are for drug possession, yet the city is allocating only $1.3 million for drug
treatment and few decent-paying jobs are opening up.
City administrators
have gone as far as to call the jail proposal an issue of human rights, because
the conditions in the current jail are so deplorable. To be sure the conditions
are bad, but to call the building of a jail a matter of human rights is sick and
twisted. The true human rights abuse is a society that puts profit before human
need. Many of those in jail and prison are there because of crimes of
opportunity and these crimes won’t go away until the for-profit system is
abolished.
This proposal for a jail is really part of the war being
waged against workers, poor people and communities of color. The proposal for a
new jail in Denver is part of a trend in this country. Here in Denver, the call
to retake May Day is being heeded and used as part of the struggle against the
jail proposal, behind the slogan, “Money for jobs, health care and
education, not for war and incarceration.”
Articles copyright 1995-2012 Workers World.
Verbatim copying and distribution of this entire article is permitted in any medium without royalty provided this notice is preserved.
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