On May 8, 2012, a section of East Park Street, between Second Street and Third Street, in Champaign was dedicated to Catherine Hogue, black woman activist and long time County Board member. A sign now stands at the intersection in front of the Boys and Girls Club that reads, "Honorary Catherine Hogue Way."

On Tuesday, May 1, the International Workers' Day, the Illinois Legislature's Commission on Government Forecasting and Accountability will vote on whether or not to close Tamms, the supermax prison in southern Illinois. Our local Senator Michael Frerichs who will have a vote in that session has yet to declare himself on the issue.

On Tuesday, April 10 the Champaign and Urbana (Cunningham) Township meetings will have on their agendas two items to be voted on by all registered voters in attendance.

One item calls for an item to be added to the November ballot which urges representatives, from the local to national level, to endorse an Amendment which declares corporations do not have the same rights as people and states that legislation should be pursued which challenges the Citizens United Supreme Court decision by re-enacting curbs on corporate spending in elections.

Another adds to the November ballot a measure which challenges corporate enclosure of the commons by establishing laws in Champaign/Urbana which allow non-disruptive forms of free speech in areas where private business can currently prohibit it, such as private parking lots and malls.

Report back from County Board meeting on March 22, 2012

Since the proposed plans for the $20 million jail construction project landed on the Champaign County Board agenda earlier this year, the driving force behind this process has been an all-white grouping known as the Jail Space Improvement Planning Team. The team has functioned somewhat like a secret society within the board. While all subcommittees and advisory bodies of the board are supposed to be under the Open Meetings Act (and therefore open to the public and obliged to keep records/minutes of their proceedings), the  leading light of the Planning Team, Board member Tom Betz, has repeatedly claimed that the team falls outside the regulations of Open Meetings. When pressed for minutes of their meetings, County Board Administrator Deb Busey claimed that the group never met and therefore had no minutes.

The Public= “Lunatic Fringe”

In the last week, documents acquired by a Freedom Of Information Act request have revealed a number of troubling communications exchanged by members of the Jail Space Improvement Project Planning Team. The Team is the Champaign County Board's primary representative to County staff on the jail issue. Among these documents are emails exchanged by County Administrator Deb Busey and County Sheriff Dan Walsh which site projected costs as well as specific numbers concerning bonds to be issued backed by the Public Safety Sales Tax.

Clearly the word is getting out that the County Board intends to spend $20 million dollars on unneeded jail cells. At each Board meeting, opposition mounts. This week, Tuesday, March 17, at the justice committee meeting of the County Board, three issues rose to the fore. First came the fallout from State’s Attorney Julia Reitz’ comment the previous week that there was no need to include a “token” minority on an all-white jail space improvement team which has the major decision-making power over any construction project. Both Aaron Ammons and Martel Miller called for Reitz to step down from that committee. They also called for further investigation into the reasons why African-Americans make up more than 50% of the county jail population.

Our Cash-Starved Social Services

It took the County Board until almost midnight on Tuesday to pass the RFP for a needs assessment concerning the county jail. This is a first step in their grand plans to spend $20 million (likely more) on building new cells at the satellite jail. The five and a half hour meeting kicked off with an hour of public participation during which a parade of individuals stood at the podium urging the Board to re-think its approach to addressing "public safety" by building more jail beds. Three themes recurred during these inputs: 1) the overwhelmingly disproportionate presence of African Americans in the jails (more than 60% in a county that is 12% Black) 2) the lack of public voice in the decision-making process, particularly on the Board's all-white Jail Space Improvement Planning team which wields the bulk of authority on the jail issue 3) that there are many, many better ways to spend $20 million dollars in Champaign County than to build new jail facilities.

People from Champaign-Urbana Citizens for Peace and Justice (CUCPJ) have been attending the County Board meetings on the proposed $20 million dollar jail construction project since January.  Speakers during public comment have repeatedly pointed out to board members that the central problem with criminal justice in Champaign County is not a deteriorating building but the racial disparities in how the law is enforced.  At present only 12% of county residents are African-American, yet our surveys show that typically more than 60% of those in the jail are Black. We assume that none of the board members are the kinds of Neanderthal s who believes Blacks have some special criminal gene or come from an “outlaw culture.” So if our board members don’t fall in that category, we want to know why, despite the fact that we’ve brought this up at every meeting, almost none of them want to deal with this crucial issue. Their silence on these racial disparities is deafening.  They are ignoring the elephant in the room.

Save the date!