Puncture the Silence

A Coalition of Clevelanders Demand:  Stop the Inhumanity at The Cuyahoga County Jail!


We are a coalition of deeply concerned Clevelanders and Northeast Ohio residents outside of Cuyahoga County Administration building in downtown Cleveland at 9th and Prospect to demand an end to the abuse and neglect at the Cuyahoga County Jail.

We meet here before the Cuyahoga County Council meeting because the members of this Council claim to represent us and other county residents. We will be presenting them with a set of urgent demands, but we will not be waiting on their answers. “It takes time” is not good enough. The horrors inside the jail must end today.

For a situation to be so urgent and unconscionable as to bring together a coalition such as this in one week is no small feat. Those of us who are compelled by our love for humanity to fight against injustice are overwhelmed by the horrors in the world today. With fascism on the rise in this country and across the globe, it can be difficult to bring people together to fight one or another of the injustices that demand our attention. For something to focus our collective attention on a new campaign would take an inhumanity so appalling as to be almost unimaginable.

Sadly, we have learned that just such an unimaginable situation is indeed going on inside the Cuyahoga County Jail. For Cuyahoga County’s representatives in Council and County Executive, Armond Budish, and judicial officers to allow this to go on is unacceptable. Accordingly, we have come together to cry out for an end to the gross maltreatment of our fellow human beings being warehoused at the Cuyahoga County jail.

After 7 deaths and 55 suicide attempts inside the walls of the Cuyahoga County jail in the last several months alone, dangerous overcrowding (a safety concern for both inmates and correctional officers) which includes pregnant women sleeping on mattresses on the floor, vermin in the food, and host of other disturbing reports, including the most recent announcement that the US Marshals Service will no longer house their detainees there due to the severely substandard and abusive conditions, we demand action now!

To that end, the coalition will stand in solidarity behind a set of demands that will be delivered inside the County Council meeting just after the press conference. “It is important that the residents of Cuyahoga County make their demands known: that this disturbing violation of human rights which impacts some of our most vulnerable residents must stop now,” said a community organizer personally impacted by Cuyahoga County jail. “I know the good people of northeast Ohio do not want this done to other human-beings in their name.”

Our coalition represents people holding a variety of ideologies and experiences, from everyday citizens to prison abolitionists and civil libertarians, to lawyers and formerly incarcerated survivors of state maltreatment and torture. We have found that, despite our disparate viewpoints, we have no trouble at all agreeing on several points, because they stem directly from universal values of humanity. To that end, we stand in solidarity behind the following demands:

End overcrowding. Immediately release those who are accused of non-violent crimes, unable to make bail; and do not detain the newly accused of non-violent crimes. If the County does not have the necessary facilities and staff to house new inmates, it should not be allowed to incarcerate them a moment longer.

Medical attention for inmates NOW. People are suffering grievously, and entirely needlessly, because they are denied simple medical evaluations, procedures and medicines.

1) Take Mental Health seriously. The fifty-five suicide attempts are just the tip of the iceberg

2) Treat juveniles as the children they are. No child should be detained with adults.

3) Initiate bail reform immediately. Only one Cleveland Municipal judge has taken the moral stand of refusing to send defendants to the hellhole that is the County Jail. We will be calling the other judges out on their unconscionable inhumanity as well. But the Cuyahoga County Council can end overcrowding and some of the injustices by immediately reforming the bail system.

4) Increase funding support for reentry services: Implement policies and approaches that link those reentering society with the treatment, housing, employment, they need. End the use of criminal history in determining eligibility for housing, education, licenses, voting, loans, employment, and other services and needs.

We will be presenting these demands in more detail to County Council in a few minutes. A series of speakers will present each demand, and written demands will also be provided to Council and the media.

The coalition includes:  Puncture the Silence-Stop Mass Incarceration, Black Lives Matter Cleveland, Black on Black Crime, Inc., Cleveland Lead Safe Network, Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, Showing Up for Racial Justice Northeast Ohio, Refuse Fascism Cleveland, Ohio Organizing Collaborative, Ohio Student Association, Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, Carl Stokes Brigade, and Imperial Women Coalition.

We invite all concerned citizens who care about equity, human rights, justice, and democracy to join this effort.  

For further information please contact co-organizers:                                                              

Video of testimony at the County Council Meeting, 12/11/2018.  https://youtu.be/aMNp8SziE6g



Ccpclogo008
Sponsored by
Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus
Lakewood, OH