The People’s Voice is Heard

By BaBa Omowale Eng

On April 27 at 10 a.m. Prisoners Are People Too Inc. along with Partnership for The Public Good, Black Love Resists in The Rust, H.A.L.T and a host of community activists appeared before the Erie County Legislature to protest Sheriff Garcia’s attempt to take our community’s money and build a new jail. His attempt to hoodwink and bamboozle our community in order to take 2.5. million dollars of our community's money to look for and design a new County Jail failed because the Legislature heard the community’s cry and put a pause on the funding for a new jail where the same old practices that were responsible for the deaths of so many of our loved ones during the tenure of the old Sheriff, Tim Howard, can continue.

The brutalization, oppression and even allowing our young and old people to be tortured and even murdered was put on the floor by the eloquent talk presented by Community Activist Jerome Wright. His heartfelt words moved all members of that auspicious body, opening their minds and hearts to a different possibility for how we, as a society of caring people, respond to those of us who find ourselves in situations where we make ourselves vulnerable to arrest and detention at The Erie County Holding Center.

Mr. Wright and members of the community made it clear that a shiny new jail does not make us safer nor provide the kinds of programming and intervention services that our people in such circumstances need. We were able to make it abundantly clear that it is the culture of racism and white supremacist ideology that puts us all at risk and that is the same culture that would be transferred to any new facility if we do not continue to make inroads in changing that culture by painting a different picture of the reality of Black, Brown and Poor White people who find themselves in trying circumstances because of untreated addictions and mental health issues.

We believe, by The Grace of God, The Honorable Erie County Legislators heard us and instead of giving the new Sheriff the 2.5 million dollars he was touting to start the process where he would ultimately ask for 200 million dollars of tax payer money to build his new jail, the Legislators allocated $750,000 for a needs assessment study that includes input from our community, county wide, east side and west side, that looks at mental health programming, substance abuse treatment programming and meaningful wrap around re-entry services that will keep people from getting entrapped in the revolving door of recidivism.

We thank God for a beautiful day and a wonderful group of caring concerned citizens, Black, Brown, White and Indigenous folk who came together for a just cause and had our voices heard.