Efforts are now underway to ‘Close the Workhouse’
October 11, 2018
The Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, Stated Clerk of the General Assembly of the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), speaks at the No Cash Bail March in St. Louis on June 19. (Photo by Michael Whitman)
It has been described as one of the major highlights of the 223rd General Assembly (2018) in St. Louis. Hundreds of Presbyterians, including the Rev. Dr. J. Herbert Nelson, II, General Assembly Stated Clerk; Co- Moderators Vilmarie Cintrón-Olivieri and the Reverend Cindy Kohlmann; and Presbyterian Mission Agency Executive Director the Rev. Diane Moffett walked to the City Justice Center. With more than $47,000 received at the assembly’s opening worship service, Nelson turned the money over to local organizations to begin bailing out individuals who had been prescreened for release because they could not afford their cash bail.
Since then, local organizers like the Bail Project and the St. Louis Act Council have run into roadblocks as people who are released find themselves facing incarceration again at another facility.
“People who are most marginalized are still stuck in jail, so we are in a re-strategizing moment where the folks who were recently released are in constant danger of being slapped with another charge,” said Michelle Higgins, co-chair of St. Louis Act. “Some have gone back to jail a few times because they didn’t know they had another warrant in another municipality.”
Higgins says the inability to pay bail has been a driving force in mass incarceration over the past 15 years, resulting in job loss, fines and child custody issues. The Bail Project has been screening incarcerated individuals and seeking to help those whose bail is less than $5,000 so more people can receive assistance.
“Our major focus now is how to fully and more finally disrupt the cash bail system and we are certain that involves moving our folks into membership of a campaign,” she said. “We are not just bailing people out — we want them to get organized and lead a campaign that closes the local jails. Approximately 95 percent of the people in there are constitutionally innocent.”
Higgins refers to the medium-security institutions as workhouses of forced labor and believes now is the time to close them and do away with cash bail.
“The people living in these facilities tell us we need to do more than just get them out of this jail. We have to close the jail,” she said. “We were able to interact with hundreds of people who told stories about being treated inhumanely simply because they are poor. The last thing we want to do is to pay cash into a system that continues to misuse and misappropriate funds in order to criminalize, dehumanize and marginalize people of color and low income levels.”
Nelson said he supports the efforts in St. Louis and other cities. “We marched for and supported the release of folk from the detention center in St. Louis during the General Assembly because we believe in following the mandate of Jesus Christ to bring release to the captives and to set the prisoners free,” he said.
“Our actions to help individuals must be accompanied by actions to bring down the systems — cash bail and mass incarceration among them — that continue to oppress and dehumanize people of color and those who live in poverty. Jesus Christ would not tolerate it and neither should Christ’s church.”
“Racism and criminalization of poverty is so strong and etched into the very fabric of our nation that it doesn’t matter how much money you have — it matters how serious you are about confronting authority publicly,” said Higgins. “We have the power to close this jail. We are not just going to bring money to set these people free, we are going to demand that we divest from cash bail by ending the cash bail system.”
Higgins says many of the people behind bars are being held for “petty and low-level nonviolent crimes.”
“The average length of stay in a jail is over 200 days, and we were discovering that the length of time behind bars destroys the person on the inside — it makes them question themselves, interrupts their emotional health,” she said. “It is so painful for them to go out and still live in fear of other charges within the municipality.”
Higgins says she’s grateful for the support of faith leaders and churches like PC(USA) and hopes to garner more support.
Rick Jones, Former Mission Communications Strategist, Presbyterian Mission Agency
Today’s Focus: Close the Workhouse
Let us join in prayer for:
PC(USA) Agencies’ Staff
Simone Adams, PMA
Denise Anderson, PMA
Let us pray:
Heavenly Father, in all that we say and do, may we reflect Christ’s love for all people everywhere. Help us all to look beyond our differences and concentrate on the commonalities we share as your children. Amen.
Daily Readings
Morning Psalms 97; 147:12-20
First Reading Hosea 9:1-9
Second Reading Acts 24:1-23
Gospel Reading Luke 7:36-50
Evening Psalms 16; 62
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Categories: Mission Yearbook
Tags: bailout, close the workhouse, GA 223, jail, mission yearbook, st. louis