The building blocks of a sustainable and safe community include three tangible things: fair wages, quality education, and affordable housing. At this moment in Iowa City, we are facing a crisis in all three. While a new jail is something on the horizon to consider, it is not the most important issue we are facing right now.
Albert Einstein once said that we cannot solve our problems with the same thinking used to create those problems. In the United States, our carceral system is only slightly more evolved than where it started and, arguably, no more rehabilitative. In Johnson County, we’ve had numerous failed jail bonds; I believe this one will fail too.
That’s because the “new” jail is new by structure only: new 5,000 square-foot “wellness” facility (about 9% of non-jail space), new garage to store the MRAP, new cages for K9s (that are bigger than those for the people housed there), new location, new tax bond, new tax increases, new building that looks like a prison.
What isn’t new? Services. No real efforts to offer care or rehabilitation to community members who get booked into the jail: no employment programs, no therapy, no social workers, no batterers education programs, no financial literacy programs, no employment skills, no collaborative effort with housing experts. In fact, it has been my experience as a social worker that those booked into the jail are more likely to get denied access to services and service providers with whom they have been working. So, what’s new about the jail? A swankier facility for the sheriff and his staff, with slightly larger cages and space to grow.
I know we need an improved facility. And I know that we could reimagine a system in Johnson County that actually provides people the resources they need to rehabilitate and reintegrate into the community. But this facility is not that. I will be voting “no” on the jail bond. And I urge others to join me in doing the same, so that we might work together to build something better for our community, together.