Did you miss the 5th meeting of the Reimagine ACDC Taskforce? We got you covered. Here's our recap of The Good, The Bad, and The UGLY.
THE GOOD
Based on community input and a LOT OF WORK, the Taskforce has been presented with 4 amazing proposals for how to transform this once-jail into a Center for Wellness, Equity & Freedom. Two of the proposals involve remodeling/renovating and two involve demolishing the building and rebuilding either on the same site, or in small sites across the city.
Check out this amazing presentation starting on slide 23 for the juicy details of how this Center could incorporate food sovereignty, knowledge building, financial freedom and access to justice!
Communities Over Cages partner Designing Justice/Designing Spaces, the only abolitionist architecture and design firm in the nation, has done an AWESOME job analyzing what the community said this project needs and putting forth these proposals.
What's next?
The Taskforce gave feedback and the proposals will be refined and submitted to the Mayor in April for her review and choosing. COMING SOON: Look out for an opportunity to VOTE on the proposal YOU think best transforms the harm done by this jail and provides real opportunities and justice for those communities who have been most impacted!
THE BAD
The Mayor’s office is still not committing to a deadline to close the jail and stop caging our people!
NOW IS THE TIME!
We are so close to victory….and yet every day the jail stays open is a day that dozens of our most vulnerable residents are locked in a cage for being poor, or struggling with unmet mental health or substance use needs. Enough is enough!
COMING SOON: Look out for other opportunities to tell the Mayor’s office and the City council that the jail must be closed by June 30th and the $20 million used to operate it in 2019 be reallocated to our communities!
No budget should pass City Council that pays for an operating jail facility!
THE UGLY
It's almost too ugly to share.
But for those who missed it, while advancing reform on many criminal justice fronts, the City of Atlanta has bizarrely decided to promote and celebrate the modern day version of convict leasing.
Through this program, people detained at ACDC are being used as free labor to clean up private property and are not being paid a cent for their work. As a reminder- no one is inside ACDC for violating anything other than a city ordinance or a traffic offense, and most are not serving sentences longer than several days, so the idea that those detained are benefitting from the program by earring “good time” adds insult to injury.
Contact the Mayor’s office at 404-330-6100 or mayorbottoms@atlantaga.gov to tell them to STOP exploiting our city’s most marginalized residents and put an immediate end to the “Love Your City” modern day convict leasing program!
SAVE THE DATE NEXT TASKFORCE MEETING APRIL 6, 2020 Details TBA
P.S. Miss the latest campaign update? Check it out here.