County Board Cuts off Public Input on Health Care of Jail Inmates

Several residents of Dane County tried to bring their concerns to their elected officials on Thursday and were denied.  And the Public Protection and Judiciary meeting is cancelled this week. How do residents communicate with their elected officials in the world of coronavirus?

RESIDENTS DENIED OPPORTUNITY TO SPEAK

Here is my article about the county board meeting on Thursday.  First Sawyer Johnson attempted to speak and was cut off because their statements were not about the agenda item they were speaking.  “Al” later attempted to speak and was cut off.  At the end of the meeting, County Board Chair Analiese Eicher announced there were other people who wanted to speak on items not on the agenda and they simply adjourned.

I asked Sawyer about the experience of trying to give public input to our elected officials and they said “Analiese Eicher started the meeting by saying that every item would pass unanimously unless otherwise commented upon—and that was just the case. It’s easy to ignore the public when you can hang up the phone.  Eicher hung up the phone on us. Several other people who registered to speak weren’t even called upon: Jessica Williams nor Annika Lee nor Katherine Charek Briggs.”  Sawyer added “It’s unnerving to watch a board pass unanimous items about landfill expansion while you know there’s a hotbed of infection waiting to happen at the Dane County Jail. It is beyond time to free them all.”

WHAT WOULD THEY HAVE SAID TO THE COUNTY BOARD

I asked for a statement about what they would have said and was provided with the following:

The Party for Socialism and Liberation tested the waters with the county board to see what is being done about the 700+ people in the Dane County Jail. In light of the pandemic, Sheriff Mahoney’s plan is to stick sick people in solitary confinement–never a just or healthy option, let alone when you’re showing symptoms for COVID-19.

Internationally, nations like Iran are releasing all 70,000 of their incarcerated people. In the US, people across the nation are demanding the release of all prisoners who are at a high risk for permanent health issues and, frankly, death. How the US is responding to this pandemic is a clear failing of capitalism–both Democrat and Republican “leaders” are underprepared to take care of our most vulnerable, but certainly prepared to sell off stocks in secret after learning about a pending pandemic.

PSL is joined by our friends in the Free the 350 Bail Fund and the Madison IWW General Defense Committee in demanding:

1. Release ALL people in the Dane County Jail held on cash bail.

2. Expand immediate access to healthcare for all people jailed, including testing for the Covid-19 virus. Assure full access to free hygienic products. Test for the virus for all people who are incarcerated and all workers and Sheriff’s deputies in the jail.

3. Eliminate all pre-trial, parole, probation check-ins, and mandatory court appearances until further notice.

4. Each individual released MUST have the option of meeting with a social worker from an agency of their choosing and/or community advocates of their choosing to establish safe housing options upon release. The Dane County Board and the Sheriff must divert funds to hotels for individuals who will be homeless upon release.

HOW DO RESIDENTS COMMUNICATE URGENT NEEDS TO ELECTED OFFICIALS IN THESE UNPRECEDENTED TIMES?

Personally, I know that feedback of any kind to elected officials (city or county) is met with – well, not their best behavior.  More on that in another post tomorrow.  Questions are now seen as being hostile or unkind or suspect.  I’ve gotten that feedback from both staff and elected officials.  Common themes when attempting to get information or raise an urgent issue are met with “trust us”, “we don’t have time to communicate” and “this is stressful and we’re doing the best we can.”  However the public is being left out of the discussion and given no mechanism to either give input, raise issues they feel should be a priority or even get answers to questions.  With committee meetings cancelled and not being allowed to give input at county board meetings, how do residents raise urgent issues that need to be addressed?  Matters that are literally (meaning literally in the original meaning of the word) life or death decisions.

Normally here is where I urge action of some type if people feel so inclined.  I don’t know what the action here would be.  Perhaps ask (call? email?) your alder or supervisor what they would suggest?  I know we can email our elected officials, but they are likely overwhelmed with email and many times emails don’t get responses if they are sent to all alders or all supervisors.  On several occassions this week my attempts at emails have been – shall we say, not successful.

What’s the public to do? Now is not the time to shut down our democratic processes, in fact, they are needed now more than ever.  We can’t urge actions through the committee processes, emails to electeds and staff are turning out to be tragically ineffective, and the city and county agendas when the are meeting do not have agenda items directly addressing the situation we are in.  (See city and county examples)