Cooper Brown, Co-founder Kitty Corner Social Club, Iowa City
Mass incarceration has, predictably, proven ineffective at keeping communities safe and holding those who cause harm accountable. We are presented with a rare opportunity to curb the expansion of the corrections industry that has plagued this country since the 70s. We have the power to demand transparency and take a democratic approach to addressing the very real issues raised with the safety of the current facility, but Nathaniel Davis Jr. was not killed by the cracks in the walls.
Johnson County is constantly touting its liberal leanings. Yet, in this county, Black men are incarcerated at a wildly disproportionate rate— about 5 times that of white men. At the same time, there has been a concerted effort on the part of both ruling parties to criminalize homeless people across the country. One thing that has become painfully clear to me as I navigate the political landscape in Johnson County —specifically in Iowa City— is that poverty and homelessness are not policy failures, they are policy itself.
We live in an incredibly well-resourced community that is so obviously capable of providing a dignified life to all it’s residents. The only conclusion I could draw is that our community leaders are making decisions to maintain and reproduce a permanent underclass. These are community members deemed undesirable by the government whose condition serves as an implicit threat of what could happen to any one of us should we question the status quo and it’s beneficiaries.
By planning to divert more critical resources towards a racist and classist system, we would be directly contributing to the State’s capacity to inflict harm on our community while also ensuring that poverty continues to go unaddressed at its roots. In this current era of fascist power consolidation and climate collapse accelerated by the scourge of capitalism, you either stand on the side of life and the survival of future generations to come, or you are in opposition to humanity. This is not where our money nor our time should be spent in this moment.
We cannot discuss the living conditions of those incarcerated within the jail walls while ignoring the living conditions and policy decisions that drive our community members to make choices that lead to their incrimination (hint: its almost always lack of access to resources). We cannot discuss the living conditions within the jail without acknowledging Kunkel’s record of ICE collaboration and the societal conditions we have subjected immigrant, indigenous, and other marginalized communities to live under. The bipartisan expansion of DHS post 9/11 fueled by a rampant islamophobia and racism is still outrageously prevalent in every corner of this nation, including this “blue dot.”
We can only discuss the living conditions inside the jail when we have committed the time and resources to study and address the problems that necessitate a jail in the first place, especially one larger and more expensive than any of the data suggests is necessary. The path we are currently on is leading us straight off a cliff. It is the white supremacist culture that we have refused to address for too long — exemplified by our current administration — that is leading us there. But we have decades of ideas, and the application of them, from committed abolitionists all over the world and at home to guide our path forward. Rest in peace, Nathaniel Davis Jr. and Allen Lemburg.