Brochures supporting the “No New Jail!” campaign explained that $2 billion would be better spent on jobs, education, mass transit and other community benefits. The Coalition calls for “Care Not Cages” — offering individuals in crisis the care they need and creating alternatives to incarceration. Money bail has been criticized for the way it keeps low-income people, especially people of color, in jail because they can’t afford bail.
Public pressure led the Cuyahoga County Council to scrap plans to build a new jail on a toxic site in Cleveland, but the latest plan is to go ahead with building a new jail in a “cleaner, greener” location in the suburb of Garfield Heights. Bringing the struggle against any new jail to the Labor Day Parade was an important contribution.