Linda Newman, an activist with Cincinnati Progressive Action and the No Jail Tax PAC, recently published a letter to the editor in CityBeat.  She desired to have it posted here, too, for reaching the maximum number of readers with her concerns.

Kevin Osborne’s summary of positions on the jail tax issue in Hamilton County (City Beat: 9/12/2007), ended with Commissioner Pepper’s claim that “This is the only plan that addresses recidivism.” This should not be the last word in City Beat about the jail tax.  What plan?  For months now, a brochure and a power-point have been up on the Hamilton County government web site, with a promise to develop a more detailed plan.  It’s a plan to have a plan.

The details we do know that can be gleaned from the brochure, power-point and statements made by Pepper, Portune and Sheriff Leis, include jail expansion; housing still more federal prisoners; requiring video arraignments and video visits at the proposed, more- distant new jail; closing treatment facilities and moving treatment into the new jail; and adding money to Sheriff Leis’ budget for more militaristic sheriff’s patrols in Over The Rhine and other Cincinnati areas.  The counter-argument offered by Pepper and Portune seems to be ‘This will happen anyway.  Trust us, we’re democrats, and so with the money we raise beyond what it costs to do those objectionable things, we’ll do something good too.  And by the way, if the tax doesn’t pass, there will be “severe cuts” (Portune, quoted in article) to build this jail.’

The last time Hamilton County voters passed a sales tax in response to an ultimatum, the stadium tax was passed, and it seems that many now regret that vote.  Commissioner Portune has been the one liberal light in local politics for some years, and has done significant good trying to ameliorate the area’s attacks on the poor.  But this doesn’t mean he’s not wrong about jail expansion and this jail tax.

City Beat could do the electorate a huge service by investigating and reporting the numbers behind arrests and jail occupancy in Hamilton County today.  How many arrests for vagrancy and homelessness?(1) How many for jay-walking?  How many for spitting on the sidewalk?  And how many arrests have been caused by Cincinnati’s ridiculous marijuana ordinance?  How many of these arrests are made by sheriff’s patrols and not Cincinnati Police?

This chilling fact was reported in the Vera Institute of Justice’s Assessment, a report commissioned by Hamilton County:(2) In 2004 81% of total ‘jail bed days’ were occupied by those between booking and court review, while this figure was only 37% in 1999.  These are people who should be out on bail, but can’t afford a minimal ($100?) bond.  Is the Hamilton County jail really the Hamilton County Poorhouse?  Why not alleviate this alleged over-crowing problem by first not warehousing the poor, and second, by guaranteeing a speedy trial for those who are arrested?  And does that require more jail beds or instead, more public defenders and judges?

Only with such an assessment of how the system currently operates, can the voters reasonably decide if they really want to give the same government more money to do more of the same.

Linda Newman
Activist with Cincinnati Progressive Action and No Jail Tax PAC ( http://nojailtax.org)

1) See “Criminalization of Homeless Individuals in Cincinnati”, a study by the Greater Cincinnati Coalition for the Homeless:  http://cincihomeless.org/content/downloads/Criminalization_of_Homeless_Individuals_in_Cincinnati.pdf

2) See http://www.hamiltoncountyohio.gov/administrator/bsi/jail/D%20-%20Vera%20Assessment.pdf , p 15, paragraph 3

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