Not Down with the Lockdown: Fight against super-jail for 
kids advances

July 28 -- Oakland CA, Books Not Bars and the Youth Force 
Coalition, representing more than 30 youth organizations in 
the Bay Area, held a Not Down with the Lockdown jam to stop 
the building of a new Alameda County super-jail for youth. 
Attended by hundreds of people the event featured political 
music, spoken word, informational speeches, chanting and 
lots of education advancing the struggle against the new 
juvenile detention facility.

This move for a larger juvenile facility comes after 
California voters passed proposition 21 in March 2000 which 
moved 14-year-olds into adult courts and 16-year-olds into 
adult prisons. The move to expand incarceration of youth is 
just another attack on oppressed nation youth. Similar to 
statistics on imprisoned populations across the united 
$tates, Blacks make up 17% of Alameda County's population 
but are 60% of the kids incarcerated in the Juvenile Hall.

Alameda county, in northern California, encompasses Oakland 
and surrounding cities with a population of 1.5 million 
people. Currently the county has a juvenile facility with 
299 beds. That's in comparison to counties like Seattle's 
King county with 1.7 million people and only 160 juvenile 
hall beds. But Alameda county wants to spend more than $200 
million to build a new facility with 450 beds. And they 
want to locate it in Dublin, a 45-minute drive from 
Oakland, where the youth who will be locked up and their 
families live. 

Alameda county decided they needed this new big facility 
after asking the Rosser firm to do a study of how many beds 
were needed. Rosser is the main contender for the contract 
to build the new prison. When one of the county supervisors 
asked for a new study to determine the appropriate size of 
the facility he was voted down by the board of supervisors 
(3-2, currently two supervisors have been won over to 
opposing the new super-jail after much pressure from 
activists).

As speakers at the rally in Oakland pointed out, there is 
no such thing as an objective assessment of how many beds 
should be put in the new jail: if the beds are built the 
criminal injustice system will fill them. The current 
juvenile hall is unsafe and built on an earthquake fault 
line so Alameda County has to build a new one. But the 
debate should be over how to eliminate the jail for kids 
and replace it with education programs and social services, 
not how many more youth to lock up. Books not Bars and the 
Youth Force Coalition are correctly demanding this change 
of focus in the discussion of youth services demanding "the 
minimum number of cellblocks, with maximum number of 
alternatives to incarceration." MIM supports this demand -- 
from the perspective that we do not want the imperialist 
state to use this tool of social control against the 
people.

In May activists took the battle against the new super-jail 
for kids to the California Board of Corrections meeting in 
San Diego where they were expected to approve the Alameda 
County officials request for $2.3 million in funding for 
the new facility. The proposal had already been pre-
approved by the Board of Corrections executive steering 
committee. After many youth spoke out at the meeting, 
pointing out the falling crime rate among youth and the 
desperate need for funding for the crumbling school system 
in Oakland, the Board shocked everyone and voted 10-2 to 
reject the funding request.

In another recent victory for activists, in response to 
protests the county board of supervisors downsized the 
projected facility from 540 to 450 beds. But they are still 
determined to use local bonds to build the new expanded 
jail. 
While continuing to fight on all fronts, activists hope to 
pressure one more member of the County Board of Supervisors 
to change their position. With a majority (3-2) opposing 
the new super-jail the project would be defeated. They have 
selected the two most likely of the three opposing 
supervisors to focus on, sending postcards, faxes, letters 
and phone calls asking them to reconsider their support for 
the expanded the Juvenile Hall. 

Supervisor Alice Lai-Bitker seems like the most likely 
target with a history of advocating for youth and social 
services, but she has given no reasons for supporting the 
Super-jail and has actually said she would be willing to 
change her vote if another pro-incarceration supervisor 
changed their vote first. Clearly she's willing to follow 
peer pressure so activists are targeting her for pressure 
from the community. MIM encourages our readers to contact 
Alice Lai-Bitker and demand that she oppose the new super-
jail for kids. 

Phone: 510-272-6693 Fax: 510-268-8004 Email: 
bosdist3@alameda.co.ca.us

Notes: Books not Bars (http://www.booksnotbars.org)