Cleveland area activists to protests over 7 Cuyahoga County jail deaths and unconstitutional jail conditions on December 11, 2018, a protest that will be led by Puncture the Silence, the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, CAIR, Black Lives Matter, Refusefacism.org, Black on Black Crime Inc., and the Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition....Activist and journalist Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads the Imperial Women Coalition and who organized and led pickets against the county jail this past summer, said that "we urge activists to peacefully target all necessary stakeholders relative to this issue, including policy makers, inept jail administrators, county officials, overzealous and unfair judges, and the county prosecutor's office"....By Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog
CLEVELANDURBANNEWS.COM-CLEVELAND, Ohio-An activist coalition, led by Puncture the Silence, the Cuyahoga County Progressive Caucus, Black Lives Matter, Black on Black Crime Inc., CAIR, Refusefacism.org, and the Northeast Ohio Black Health Coalition, will hold a press conference and protest at 4:15 pm Tuesday, Dec. 11 at Cuyahoga County Administrative Headquarters in downtown Cleveland before the Cuyahoga County Council meeting to protest seven recent jail deaths that county officials and jail administrators ignored, and an investigative finding last month by U.S. Marshals of unconstitutional jail conditions.
Other participating activist groups include Showing Up for Racial Justice, Survivors and Victims of Tragedy, Ohio Organizing Collaborative, Ohio Student Association, and Cleveland Led Safe Network.
Activists will also speak at the County Council meeting that will follow, organizers said in a press release.
Community activists have been picketing the county jail over its conditions.
"We urge activists to peacefully target all necessary stakeholders relative to this issue, including policy makers, inept jail administrators, county officials, overzealous and unfair judges, and the county prosecutor's office," said activist Kathy Wray Coleman, who leads the Imperial Women Coalition and who organized and led pickets at the Justice Center in downtown Cleveland against the county jail this past summer. "The momentum is building and the Black community and our children, and others, remain at risk."
The overcrowded county jail last year merged with the Cleveland jail, which paid the county $5.6 million during the transition and merger period and is now paying the per diem rate.
Cuyahoga County, which includes Cleveland, is governed by a county executive, Armond Budish, and an 11-member county council, a relatively new county governance structure that took effect in 2011 after voters scrapped the 3 county commissioners and the elected offices of the county sheriff, auditor, treasurer, and clerk of courts.
Those offices, and all but the judges and county prosecutor, which is now Mike O'Malley, are appointed positions under the purview of the county executive.
Data show that the jail was in chaos before, during and after the change in county governance, and that Blacks in particular have been disenfranchised for decades regarding systemic problems in the now infamous Cuyahoga County Jail.
Two weeks ago Chief Cuyahoga County Court of Common Pleas Judge John Russo, via a letter to his judicial colleges, urged the other 33 judges on the general division bench to clear their dockets of people they have illegally jailed, a demand or gesture in response to an ongoing FBI investigation over seven county jail deaths in the last six months, inhumane and unconstitutional jail conditions, and an impending lawsuit seeking a federal takeover of the jail.
The city of Cleveland is currently under a court monitored consent decree for police reforms with the U.S. Department of Justice over its police department and questionable killings by police of Black people, including 12-year-old Tamir Rice, Malissa Williams and Timothy Russell, who were gunned down by police shooting 137 bullets in 2012, Tanisha Anderson, rapper Kenneth Smith, and Brandon Jones, whose family recently reached a million dollar settlement with the city.
What role the federal government will play, other than the federal court itself, in any oversight of the jail, is not clear.
Activists want both jail and court reforms via consent decrees with the federal government that are monitored by a federal judge.
A damning report released last month by U.S. Marshals on county jail conditions generated local and national news, a dreadful look at how inmates are mistreated such as withholding food for punishment, jailing juveniles with adults, rat and roach infested jail facilities, and a paramilitary jail corrections officers unit dubbed "The Men in Black" that intimidates and harasses inmates.
Pregnant women are jailed on the floor, heath care is inadequate, and the jail is one of the worst nationwide, data show. This is coupled with malicious prosecutions, excessive bonds and heightened criminal sentences that disproportionately target the Black community.
Indictment fixing by prosecutors, judges and the office of the county clerk of courts is routine, public records reveal.
Data show that Blacks in particular, and others, are often jailed illegally, sometimes to appease the prosecution, other times for political favors, and generally to perpetrate a money enterprise that centers around resources the county gets for jailing people.
Those fiscal jail resources, which further greed and public corruption, investigators have said, include a per diem rate to the county for each inmate, a jail shopping store that delivers food and other goods weekly to inmates, and expensive phone calls simply for inmates to talk locally to family members, and sometimes even to their lawyers.
Clevelandurbannews.com and Kathywraycolemanonlinenewsblog.com, Ohio's most read Black digital newspaper and Black blog with some 5 million views on Google Plus alone.Tel: (216) 659-0473 and Email: editor@clevelandurbannews.com. Kathy Wray Coleman, editor-in-chief, and who trained for 17 years at the Call and Post Newspaper in Cleveland, Ohio. We interviewed former president Barack Obama one-on-one when he was campaigning for president. As to the Obama interview, CLICK HERE TO READ THE ENTIRE ARTICLE AT CLEVELAND URBAN NEWS.COM, OHIO'S LEADER IN BLACK DIGITAL NEWS.
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