Leah Gehlsen Morlan, Clinical Social Worker, Iowa City

I am an independently-licensed clinical social worker in Iowa City and I've spent several years working in community mental health, and providing crisis counseling and suicide intervention here in Johnson County. I've lived in Iowa City for almost 30 years, I raise my family here, and I'm voting no because I think, as a community, we deserve better. 

I believe we've all been provided with a bit of a false binary in terms of our options related to the new jail. One option is to vote in favor of the jail and, with that vote, express our support for our local law enforcement's identified needs while taking on $124.7 million in debt (including interest). This affirmative vote may support saving the County a lot of money that was previously spent housing and transporting incarcerated individuals, and increasing the size and medical wing of the new jail.

The other option is to vote no and seemingly receive no new jail, no more space, no more beds, continued structural issues, and excessive annual spending on housing and transportation.

But the third option is to vote no and to continue exploring other options, to hold out for something better. The third option simply indicates that building a new jail, with all the space and the Situation Room and the huge offices and the increased number of beds, for $120+ million isn't reasonable. It reflects a higher expectation of our law enforcement, our leadership, and our community. 

The new jail proposal isn't reasonable because a new building, while potentially structurally more sound, won't make staff within the building more committed to diversion or prevention. A new building doesn't guarantee a commitment to new interventions, which are sorely needed. The new jail also doesn't bring more staff members with it, at least not according to attendant discussions, despite the increased size and ability to hold more incarcerated individuals.

Sheriff Kunkel has said that we can do both: build the new jail and work toward alternatives for diversion and prevention. But a new jail isn't required to do that work, so why hasn't it been done already? Surely we might consider other approaches, like sending alternative response teams to low-risk 911 calls (which is an approach that's been implemented in other communities and around which there is data, information on limitations, and various recommendations), attempting to prevent crises that cause criminal action, or using the millions we might spend on a new jail to provide some dignity and meet basic needs for individuals in our community.

We do need to address this issue as a community, but I don't believe we need to address it by building a new jail. Our spending must reflect our values, and at the very least, one of those values should be having broader conversations about solutions.