Grassroots Leadership In The News

The Travis County Commissioners Court voted last week to issue a debt package that includes initial funding for a new women's jail – despite the objections of justice advocates who, for more than a year, have identified the proposed facility as a troubling move away from efforts to decrease incarceration in Travis County.

Several Travis County agencies, along with the Austin City Council and groups such as Grassroots Leadership, have embraced programs and policies aimed at reducing jail bookings for minor offenses such as driving with an invalid license, public intoxication, and marijuana possession. This is in part a budget measure – incarceration costs to taxpayers will grow $10 million this year over 2018 – but also reflects the community's commitment to restorative justice.

These strategies seem to be making a difference; female bookings for misdemeanors are down 24% since 2016, and 2019's average overall daily population is the lowest it's been in six years. That's what makes the Commis­sion­ers Court's move to fund a new jail for women inmates controversial and why the county responded to advocate concerns and held off on funding last year. But on April 23 the court put the jail, currently budgeted at more than $80 million, back on the list of projects to be funded by certificates of obligation; then on April 30, commissioners voted to issue the CO package, with $6.6 million in design and pre-construction funding. Read more about Women’s Jail Closer to Funding

Travis County commissioners voted unanimously to increase capacity at a planned women’s correctional facility at an April 23 meeting.

County staff requested the facility have 360 beds, an increase from the 336 beds recommended in a master plan adopted by the Commissioners Court in 2016.

Commissioners chose instead to approve 350 beds for the facility and include funding for a study on the housing needs of diversion programs, emphasizing they want to divert individuals from jail while also improving conditions for those who are incarcerated. Read more about Travis County staff recommend increased capacity for planned women’s correctional facility

Judging from Monday night’s “conversation” about the possibility of creating a Travis County Public Defenders’ Office, the myriad stakeholders still want to make progress toward that goal – and even managed to agree that any such office must be “adequately” funded. How to get from here to there … remains to be determined.

The Carver Library forum, sponsored by the Travis County Democratic Party, the Black Austin Democrats, and the University Democrats, spent a couple of hours going over the very basic details of what needs to happen – and what it would likely cost – to lay the groundwork for a new PD office. The multi-party sponsorship, the multi-panelist conversation, and the considerable attendance of current courthouse players, suggested both that (to borrow a phrase from Albert King) everybody wants to get to heaven … but nobody is yet eagerly volunteering to endure the necessary transition. Read more about Travis County Revisits Creating Public Defenders’ Office

Claudia Muñoz, immigration programs director at Grassroots Leadership, notices the uptick in pushback against migrants who advocate for their rights. "It seems like ICE field officers are now more emboldened than ever to do what they want, thanks to SB 4 and the anti-immigrant tone overall that has changed the culture," says Muñoz, "even in a progressive city like Austin."

U.S. Reps. Joaquin Castro and Lloyd Doggett contacted ICE Field Director Daniel Bible to request reconsideration of Gámez and Ramirez's deferred action; however, Bible declined. Warrants for their arrest will be issued and their cases have been referred to fugitive operations in Austin, Muñoz was told. The three Austin residents have returned to sanctuary and will continue to remain there for the "foreseeable future."

"If thousands of community members and elected officials determine that we are welcome in this community, why is ICE not listening to them and terrorizing us?" asks Ramirez. "They know we are not a priority for deportation and granted us discretion, and then, without reason, they took it away. ICE doesn't think they have to listen to anybody, and that's dangerous. I am going to continue fighting because I have a community behind me and because my faith is bigger than any terror they can inflict on me." Read more about Austin Struggles to Adjust as SB 4 Takes Its Toll on Immigrants

Between 1942 and 1946, nearly 80,000 Japanese Americans were held in concentration camps dotted along the West Coast. The decision to hold these citizens is seen as one of the darkest moments in American history.

The White House’s decision to hold the children of migrants in camps has reminded many of this moment in time. Six Japanese Americans who were imprisoned during Japanese internment joined close to 100 other protesters in Dilley, Texas this weekend. Read more about Survivors of Japanese Internment Protest Migrant Detention Center

Japanese Americans across the United States last week folded thousands of origami cranes to be strung together and hung across a fence outside a detention center in Texas on Saturday in protest at the detainment of immigrant families.

"It is important to show solidarity with detained migrant children, women and families because of (Japanese Americans') history with unlawful detention and family separation during WWII," Stanley Shikuma, a third-generation Japanese American whose family was incarcerated during the war, told Kyodo News on Monday. Read more about Japanese Americans make origami in show of support for immigrants

By becoming a long-term landlord for government agencies like KDOC, the company is ensuring a cash flow for decades—which is particularly crucial as the private prison industry faces threats to its long-term profitability, including changing attitudes toward mass incarceration, declining prison populations, and the souring of public opinion regarding private prisons and detention centers. “The private prison industry, at least before the election of Donald Trump, was really rethinking its strategy,” explains Bob Libal, executive director of the anti-private prison advocacy group Grassroots Leadership. Now it seems very likely that additional arrangements like the one at Lansing will be a part of the company’s longterm plans.

Justice Strategies and Grassroots Leadership released new infographics demonstrating that more than 109,000 migrants were prosecuted for improper entry or re-entry in 2018.  At a time when the Trump Administration is advancing the border wall, increased immigrant detention, and policies such as Remain in Mexico, the sharp increase of entry and reentry prosecutions are a lesser known component of the Administration’s crackdown on immigrants and asylum seekers. Read more about “Zero Tolerance” policy greatly accelerates migrant criminalization through end of 2018

Family detention centers “routinely” utilize solitary confinement or “medical isolation” on parents and their young children, according to advocates and attorneys who spoke to Rewire.News.

Court documents obtained by Rewire.Newsdetail the turmoil of families held in isolation, typically in medical quarantine and with no information about their case or when they might be released.

In February 2018, the Berks County Residential Center, a family detention center in Leesport, Pennsylvania, held at least two families in medical isolation. In one instance, a Haitian father and his 3-year-old son were quarantined for two weeks. In another case, a Haitian mother and her 3-year-old son were isolated for more than five days. Read more about ‘It’s Horrifying to Think About’: Migrants and Their Young Children Are Held in Isolation at Family Detention Centers