black women lead: we need a better jail conversation.
By: Supervisors Dana Pellebon and April Kigeya
On Thursday July 21, 2022, the County Board was tasked to consider a change order for $800K to start the bidding process for the consolidated jail project. This is in addition to the $10 million ask that was made in response to Sub 1 2021 Res-320 amended to fund changes to the consolidated jail project made in this resolution.
During the course of the discussion around the change order, Supervisor Anthony Gray informed the County Board that the Black Caucus, made up of Supervisor Gray, Supervisor April Kigeya, Supervisor Dana Pellebon, and our ally Supervisor Jacob Wright, was working on an alternative resolution to reduce jail beds and forgo an additional $10 million allocation for the jail that would be released within two weeks. He asked that our colleagues on the Board hold off on the change order vote for $800K to give us time to propose an alternative—an alternative that became more timely in light of the recent JFA Institute presentation given to the Criminal Justice Council.
On July 28, 2022, Dr. James Austin gave a state of current incarceration in Dane County. These reports highlighted an already known racial disparity in incarceration that has continued to increase. Simply put, Dane County jails Black people at a rate of more than double the national average. Dr. Austin explicitly stated that building a 825 bed jail facility infers that Dane County is committed to the racial disparities as they stand. We firmly believe that these disparities cannot continue.
As Queer Black women in Madison, we know how the well documented racial disparities in incarceration disproportionately affect our community. We understand the many layers that come at all points of the process. We understand that we need a safe Dane County Jail while also knowing that we need concerted reform to our legal system. We have relied on the reports as given by the consultants hired by the county, input from community organizations and constituents who have been in steady communication with the Black caucus to form a solution.
The Black Caucus has developed a resolution that lowers the bed count, while urging our elected and appointed partners in the fight for reduction of racial disparities to institute reforms meant to reduce incarceration. In addition to these important reforms, we anticipate a savings to eliminate a need for the additional $10 million needed to complete the previous resolution.
We now are ready to talk to our colleagues and the public regarding our ideas on the largest public works project in the County’s history.
We sincerely appreciate the Board members who voted on a postponement for the change order to allow us the time to finish our resolution. We look forward to robust debate and engagement on our ideas.