SisterLove, Inc.'s Statement on the Atlanta Close the Jail Rally
Atlanta, Georgia - The Atlanta City Detention Center (ACDC) has served as an institution that has disenfranchised Black, unhoused, sex-working, migrant, queer, and trans people in our community.
This jail was built to clear Black transient people off the sheets ahead of the Olympics. In 2019, Dickens sponsored legislation to close the jail, now, 3 years later he is spearheading efforts to expand the jail.
Black people make up 90% of the jail’s daily population despite making up only 52% of the city’s population.
Of the 700 beds that Mayor Dickens is proposing we know that the majority of the beds will be filled with Black people. Rather than moving people around, we need to address the root causes of overpopulation. There is absolutely no evidence that shows that Sheriff Labat has tried to address overcrowding on his own. The overcrowding at Fulton County is due in large part to the fact that the majority of people arrested are being held and punished because they are poor, unhoused and unable to afford bail.
The appropriate response to overcrowding is release, not rehousing inmates in another detention center.
SisterLove is the oldest sexual and reproductive health organization in the Southeast, as such we would be remiss not to mention the sexual and reproductive harms caused by incarceration. Incarceration limits access to essential health services increases health risks (especially in the middle of a very active pandemic) and disrupts the health routine of many engaged in care.
Research shows us that imprisonment undermines a person’s sexual and reproductive health. Incarceration is a complete revocation of a person’s autonomy and restriction of a person’s liberty. We cannot allow incarceration to infringe on the already limited rights of our most marginalized community members. It is imperative that the nexus between our fight for reproductive justice and abolition of the carceral state is made because we’ve already been warned, threatened, and intimidated by heightened state-sanctioned violence, repression, and oppression in this post-Roe era.
At SisterLove, we embrace a public health approach to solving community issues.
The Atlanta City Detention Center staying open is just another mechanism for the state to police, abuse, and/or misuse their authority to further harm those living within the community. A public health approach requires the involvement of public health leaders, human rights advocates, and direct service organizations coming together in collaboration to attack the issues impacting the community which is the function of this rally.
Closing ACDC should remain a priority for the mayor.
Public health and public safety go hand in hand. A community is only as healthy as its members. Right now we are facing an ongoing and co-occurring pandemics COVID, housing insecurity and food insecurity along with a litany of others. Incarceration costs money that could be better spent reinvesting into our communities. The $16 million that taxpayers are putting into the jail each year needs to be redistributed.
SisterLove supports John Lewis’ family in replacing the jail with the John Lewis Center for Health and Wellness with zero beds allocated for jail or incarceration.
Atlantans have been and continue to demand that the jail be shut down. Mayor Dickens is actively trying to feed our people into the carceral state. Let’s make sure we hold our elected officials accountable and make sure that they are working for our votes and ensure they are reflecting the views of their constituency.
We hope that moving forward there will be a stronger stance on true progressive policy reform and abolition.
