Let Me Add Your Name To This List of Organizations and Citizens In Support Of Alternatives to Local Jail Expansion

 

Until this facility was built in 1994, we had a local jail population of well under a hundred. Now we have over 400 inmates, and a new multi-million dollar facility is being considered. The deadline for a final proposal is December 31 of this year.

“For far too long, the only answer to decreasing crime was to put more people in prison. We built prisons at rates we didn’t need and couldn’t afford, especially for non-violent offenders.  Now, we know there are alternatives that cost less and work better.  I am proud to sign on with the Right on Crime initiative to help fix this problem by making cost effective, data driven public safety decisions that reduce recidivism rates.”

- Ken Cuccinelli, former Virginia Attorney General

If you agree with Cuccinelli, and can support the statement below, please provide your name and local post office in the "Post a Comment" section at the bottom of this blog (if you have a Google account), or on my Facebook page, OR send me an email (harvyoder@gmail.com) or a letter, in order to get your name on this page, which I will update regularly:

To members of City Council and County Board of Supervisors:

"We the undersigned organizations and citizens of Harrisonburg and Rockingham County urge you to take at least until the end of 2015 to collaborate with community citizens and organizations to identify strategies to reduce the incarcerated population and develop the most humane and cost effective alternatives possible to resolve the problem of jail overcrowding."                         

ORGANIZATIONS

Harrisonburg Harriet Tubman Cultural Center

Harrisonburg Martin Luther King, Jr. Way Coalition
Virginia Organizing, Harrisonburg Chapter

INDIVIDUALS

Akerson, Lars     Harrisonburg
Banks, Heather     Harrisonburg
Barner, Ann     Harrisonburg
Bierly, Hilary     Harrisonburg
Blakely, Elaine     Harrisonburg
Blundeen, Bruce     Harrisonburg
Bolton, Brian     Harrisonburg
Brazill, Tim     Bridgewater College
Briggman, David     Keezletown
Brubaker, Erma     Harrisonburg
Brubaker, J. Allen    Harrisonburg   Erma and I affirm the above and further appeal that our local, state and federal officials urgently pursue changing our penal system (local, state and federal) from a punitive one to a restorative one. We heartily recommend Howard Zehr's treatment of the subject in The Little Book of Restorative Justice (2002, Good Books, Intercourse, PA).
Bucher, Matthew   Harrisonburg
Buller, Burton     Harrisonburg
Buller, Mary J.     Harrisonburg
Busching, Bruce      Harrisonburg 

Byler, Daryl     Harrisonburg
Castillo, Isabel     Harrisonburg
Clymer Kurtz, Christopher       Linville
Clymer Kurtz, Maria       Linville
Cortez, Ricardo     Harrisonburg
Crawford, Lois Carter     Harrisonburg   We have too many in jail here.
Cross, Mary Jean     Harrisonburg
Dansby, Laura     Keezletown
Davis, Brett      Harrisonburg
Davis, Evan      Harrisonburg
Davis, Jennifer     Harrisonburg     Thanks!
Dellett, Jon     Bridgewater
Dellett, Pat     Bridgewater
DeMes, MuAwia     Harrisonburg
Dent, William H.  (former prison chaplain) We seem unable to resist filling whatever detention facility we have... it makes sense to me to be sure that we are using every promising alternative first before we authorize expanding incarceration here.
Dove, Linda     Penn Laird
Dula, Peter     Harrisonburg
Edwards, Christine     Harrisonburg
Fairfield, John     Bridgewater
Fairfield, Kathryn     Bridgewater
Fields, Darlene     Harrisonburg
Finger, Lareta     Harrisonburg
Fitzgerald, Deb     Harrisonburg
Fitzgerald,  J. G.     Harrisonburg
Foley, Bill     Harrisonburg
Gerald, Katrina L.     Harrisonburg
Giannakouros, Poti     Harrisonburg
Gingerich, Ray     Harrisonburg
Gingerich, Wilma     Harrisonburg
Graber, Barbra     Harrisonburg
Hagmaierlk, Aaron     Harrisonburg
Hendren, Douglas, M.D.      Harrisonburg
Hollowood, Judith     Harrisonburg
Holsinger, Brent     Harrisonburg
Hoover, Eliza     Harrisonburg    PLEASE let's not let our community contribute to the sad and disgraceful increase in the percentage of our citizens who are locked up. We can do better than that.
Horst, Alicia     Harrisonburg
Horst, Ray       Harrisonburg
Horst, Violet     Harrisonburg
Hueston, Robert L.   Bridgewater
Jenners, Hadley     Harrisonburg
Jenner, Janice     Harrisonburg
Jones, Christopher, B.     Harrisonburg
Jost, Timothy     Harrisonburg

Karola, Anna M. PhD        Harrisonburg    Not only is jail expensive for the tax payers, it has been shown not be be rehabilitative. It is vital for Harrisonburg to consider alternatives. In addition, it will increase the population of people in this area on welfare or who are considering crime as families migrate to live where family members are incarcerated tending to affect the schools as well as the overall safety of the community.

Keller, Mark     Harrisonburg
Kniss, Philip L.     Harrisonburg
Kraus, Norman     Harrisonburg
Kraus, Rhoda     Harrisonburg
Kreider, Greta Leinbach      Harrisonburg
Leinbach, Sally     Harrisonburg
Leinbach, Russ     Harrisonburg
Lofton, Bonnie     Harrisonburg    I am 100% in favor of taking more time to study alternatives to simply warehousing more people in prisons.
Mack, Lara Celeste     Penn Laird
Mahoney,  Pete     Harrisonburg  The meeting of cost effectiveness and humanitarianism trumps the building of a multi million dollar jail.  
Martin, Earl     Harrisonburg
Martin, Pat Hostetter     Harrisonburg
Maust, Marge     Keezletown
May, Bob     Bergton
McNallie, Robin     Harrisonburg
Merrow, Eleanor     McGaheysville    While jail overcrowding is certainly unacceptable, let's consider our laws and how we do punishment before we invest more time, energy and tax dollars in another jail, before we devote more of our precious land to the incarceration of people.
Miller, James Michael     Harrisonburg   We need to think through better alternatives before building a new jail.
McGaheysville, Virginia
Moore, Dorita     Harrisonburg
Musselman, Nathan     Harrisonburg

Myers-Benner, Janelle     Keezletown

Nielsen, Anne     Harrisonburg
Orndoff, Diane    Bridgewater  Thanks for your lifelong commitment to this issue.
Orndoff, Jim     Bridgewater
Pascale, Ella      Harrisonburg
Pascale, Elmo     Harrisonburg
Reeves, John B.    Rockingham County
Reich, Steven A.     Harrisonburg
Rose, Lawrence     Penn Laird
Rose, Sandra     Penn Laird   Just like the middle school suddenly dropped from future sight on close public scrutiny, we suspect the same will happen to the plans for jail expansion if the  public is allowed in.
Rosenwasser, Bruce     Harrisonburg
Rosenwasser, Leah     Harrisonburg
Sanders, Ramona     Harrisonburg
Serrels, Valerie     Harrisonburg
Scott, Elizabeth     Harrisonburg
Shnaider, Charlotte     Staunton     It doesn’t make sense to keep so many people incarcerated when the same amount of money could help them turn their lives around.
Showalter, Sam      Harrisonburg     I am certain there are better alternatives to mass incarceration, and I'll be happy to help find those in any way I can.
Sider Jost, Jacob     Harrisonburg
Snell-Feikema, Michael L.     Harrisonburg  Meaningful public participation in this decision is essential and that takes time.
Stahl, John     Harrisonburg
Stoltzfus Jost, Ruth     Harrisonburg
Temple, Kathleen, Harrisonburg
Thomas, Karen     Harrisonburg

Trettner, Janet     Keezletown

Turner, Marilyn     Harrisonburg
Woodall, Diana     Dayton    Jails don't solve as many problems as they create.
Weaver, Judith   Harrisonburg
Wright, Judith     Dayton     I am very interested in this.
Yoder, Alma Jean     Harrisonburg
Yoder, Carroll     Harrisonburg
Yoder, Edwin M.     Harrisonburg
Yoder, Harvey     Harrisonburg
Yoder, Nancy     Harrisonburg
Yoder, Rick     Harrisonburg
Zehr, Howard      Broadway