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M Adams says the debate over whether to build a new, smaller jail in Dane County is simple: “A vote for the jail is a vote for racism.”

“It doesn’t matter if [county supervisors] think they are doing the right thing. It doesn’t matter if they have black friends. It doesn’t matter if they like black people,” says Adams, an organizer for Freedom Inc. “None of that matters if they put tens of millions into a system we know is violent towards black people.”

A coalition of activists has formed under the banner “Derail the Jail” to oppose the $76 million proposal to consolidate the county’s jail operations under one roof at the Public Safety Building. The project will be voted on as part of the 2018 Dane County budget later this month. The proposal — expected to be the most expensive in county history — will change how solitary confinement is used, add programming space and mental health beds for the first time and shutter the 60-year-old, maximum-security jail on the top two floors of the City County Building.

The Derail the Jail coalition argues that’s exactly the wrong approach and wants the county to spend its energy keeping people out of jail and combating racial disparities. The campaign includes support from Freedom Inc., Groundwork, Student Labor Action Coalition, Socialist Alternative and local political party Progressive Dane. Derail the Jail says that two-thirds of inmates “could be released today,” freeing up millions to spend on affordable housing, mental health care and alternatives to incarceration. Supv. Heidi Wegleitner is the leading voice on the county board opposing the new jail.

“Why do we continue to spend more and more on mass incarceration instead of treating people in the community?” Wegleitner asks. “We know incarceration is ineffective. It results in people losing their jobs, housing, their benefits. Yet we continue to pour money into solutions that just don’t work and just further the economic and racial disparities in our society.”

Sheriff Dave Mahoney and other county officials counter that the opponents are making factual errors in their arguments. Mahoney sees a vote against the jail proposal as “a vote for the status quo.”

“If the community wants to end solitary confinement, I need space to do that. If we want to treat people with mental health needs like human beings, I need space to do that, too,” Mahoney says. “[Opponents] are being naive.... I don’t see any gray area in this debate. Either we are okay with housing people in unsafe conditions or we need an alternative.”

The Wisconsin Council on Children & Families’ Race to Equity report, released in 2013, shows that black men accounted for 43 percent of all adult prison placements from Dane County in 2012 although they make up only 4.8 percent of the county’s total adult male population. The same report also found that black adults were arrested in Dane County at a rate eight times that of whites.

County Board Chair Sharon Corrigan agrees the criminal justice system “desperately” needs to be reformed but argues the board is making progress on that front. However, in order to shut down the antiquated City County Building jail — which Mahoney calls “inhumane” and “dangerous” — Corrigan says the county has little choice but to approve the first phase of the jail proposal in its next budget.

“The county board doesn’t get to decide who goes in the jail or how people get sentenced. But we are required by the state to maintain a jail,” Corrigan says. “We are obligated to provide a safe, humane space for inmates. There’s no way around it. And we are reducing the number of beds in our jail [system] by nearly 100. So continuing to drive down the jail population isn’t a choice. We have to do it to make this new facility work.”

Mahoney says the Derail the Jail coalition’s contention that 22 percent of inmates are “in jail only because of unpaid money bail” is “pure fantasy.”

“No one is in the jail just because of a $200 bail. That doesn’t exist and it’s rarely that simple. If we can get people out, they’re out,” says Mahoney, who adds that everyone booked in the jail is screened for eligibility to be put on the bail monitoring program.

“If someone is sitting in the jail on a $200 bail, they may have a warrant from another community or they are on a probationary sentence. So even if they could post the bail, there is a hold and they wouldn’t get out anyway.”

Mahoney says conditions at the City County Building jail keep him “up at night.” In the past two months, Mahoney says there have been more than 10 incidents of inmates hanging themselves on bars in the old jail — an architectural danger that won’t exist in a new facility.

“In three of those cases, the individuals were dead and deputies had to bring them back using a defibrillator, CPR and respiration. They were literally brought back to life,” Mahoney says. “Those risks exist 24 hours a day currently.”

Adams says the sheriff and county supervisors are missing the big picture.

“Jail is for punishing people. You shouldn’t be punishing people because they are homeless. You shouldn’t be punishing people with mental health issues because they have mental health issues,” Adams says. “I’m sorry, somebody who is locked in a cage and is suicidal, they aren’t going to care if the new paint is yellow or blue. They won’t care if there are bars or a concrete door. It won’t save people’s lives.”

Nino Rodriguez, a Derail the Jail organizer, says part of the problem is that elected officials believe they are doing the right thing.

“So many of our county supervisors, and the sheriff, consider themselves progressives. This is what the system of white supremacy forces people to do,” Rodriguez says. “The structure is set up so that even well-meaning, progressive white folks feel like there are no realistic alternatives to spending tens of millions on better cages for people.... Is this the legacy we want to leave to future generations?”

Corrigan says voting against the jail proposal won’t save money or prevent people from ending up behind bars. Since the City County Building houses maximum security inmates, Corrigan argues that diversion programs won’t be enough to close the 350-bed facility. She also says it will take $16 million a year in extra staffing costs to make the City County Building jail compliant with the federal Prison Rape Elimination Act.

“And we won’t get the mental health and medical beds. We won’t get any space to implement the programming that will address some of the root causes of why people are incarcerated,” Corrigan says. “It’s easy to say the county isn’t doing anything because there are needs out there. But we have stepped up spending on affordable housing, jail diversion and other programs. We’re moving forward. Is there more to do? Absolutely.”

Wegleitner, Corrigan’s colleague, supports closing down the City County Building jail but doesn’t accept that a new facility is the only way to do it.

“We need to imagine a much different future. If we don’t have that imagination, we know what we are getting: more of the same,” Wegleitner says. “This jail proposal perpetuates awful, shameful racial disparities. And that’s the reality that some are ignoring.”