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At Louisville SURJ we believe in system change. To make change at the system level, we need a lot more people power. Elections are one place where we can engage people in a conversation about what kind of community we need and want. We focus on the issues that we are engaged with in our campaigns, like immigrant justice and de-carceration, and build a broader base of people ready to act for change.
The LSURJ Community Defense Network leads the work to accompany vulnerable communities being targeted by ICE, or LMPD, facing repression for exercising the right to protest, or attacked for being transgender. We are also fighting for alternatives to incarceration, and against the building of a $500,000,000 to two billion dollar new jail. We want funding for noncarceral mental health, eviction prevention and affordable housing instead. The Mayor, Metro Council and Judges have a lot of power over all these issues. We need people in those positions who will actually do what is needed. These candidates understand why camp clearings must stop, why we need transitional housing as well as truly affordable housing. They agree that a new jail will not solve our problems, and why we must prioritize investing in noncarceral care and housing. These candidates are committed to, and in several cases, come from the communities most on the margins. They have shown that they will fight for ALL of our neighbors, and for ALL of us to have what we need to care for our families and be safe from carceral and/or police violence. Our process of endorsement included a survey to candidates about these issues, and an examination of their track record on listening to and engaging the community, and their relationship to the work to expand justice for all. Based on this process, and the record and commitments to a community where everyone matters, LSURJ presents the following: Mayor Shameka Parrish Wright Metro District 3 Shaun Spencer Metro District 5 Aprile Hearn Metro District 9 Andrea Parr Metro District 11 Melina Hettiaratchi Metro District 17 Merideth Booth Metro District 21 Betsy Ruhe Judicial Elections will be in the November general election and we will bring those endorsements to you this Fall. Where do I vote? https://jeffersoncountyclerk.org/wheredoivote/ General Voting Information https://elections.jeffersoncountyclerk.org/ In person and Absentee Voting https://elections.jeffersoncountyclerk.org/inhouse_absentee/
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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, April 2, 2026
FROM: Black Leadership Coalition of Kentucky (BLACK), Fairness Campaign, VOCAL-KY, Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice (LSURJ), ACLU-KY, Louisville Urban League FOR MORE INFORMATION: louisvillesurj.org and 502 558-7556 Katelyn Hall, a member of our Louisville community, is dead at the hands of Louisville police after Katelyn’s family called them for help in a crisis. While sidestepping questions about consequences for her killers, Mayor Craig Greenberg says that, in the future, LMPD needs to do better in response to mental health calls. We have heard over and over from the mayor that LMPD will do better, but the department’s actions reinforce the same institutional racism embedded in the way policing functions, and now another Louisvillian has died at the hands of those who were supposed to help her. There is no evidence of the changes the mayor has repeatedly promised. As the community mourns another young woman senselessly killed, we remember Breonna Taylor and the lack of consequences for her killers or the systems that trained and shielded them. We also remember the many others who preceded and continue to follow her. According to news reports, Hall was threatening to harm herself, not police or anyone else, when police shot her. How can any emergency responder justify killing a person to keep them from killing themselves? We demand that the mayor bring the community a full accounting of what happened, the changes he claims to be making to address calls for help during a mental health crisis, and what consequences there will be for the officers involved. FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FROM: Care Not Cages Coalition CONTACTS: Attica Scott, Director of Special Projects, Forward Justice Action Network [email protected] | (502) 625-5299 Becky Keyes, Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice [email protected] (502) 270-7502 RE: Invest in People’s Needs, NOT a New Jail The study by CGL Company funded by Louisville Metro Council and commissioned by the Louisville Metro Criminal Justice Commission has failed to address the root causes of incarceration and instead, wants our community to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new jail — something that goes counter to everything our community really needs. The study has four recommendations, which include strengthening citation-in-lieu of arrest practices, supporting the crisis call diversion program, and reviewing and reforming the bail and pretrial risk assessment, all of which we fully support. However, buried at the end of the report is a call to build a $400-530 million new jail! This recommendation fails to address the root causes of crime and must be rejected. “CGL is the biggest jail designer in the world,” said former State Representative Attica Scott, whose organization, Forward Justice Action Network, is part of the Care Not Cages Coalition. “How can we trust that a corporation that plans and designs jails is a neutral party here? This study should NEVER have been done by a company with so much to gain from a decision to build a new jail.” “Unless we address the root causes of incarceration, we will not create safety for anyone in our community,” said Celine Mutuyemariya of Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky. “A new jail is not the answer to address widespread community problems that disproportionately impact those most vulnerable.” “When we met with CGL in 2024, we expressed that the study needed to look at alternatives to incarceration,” said Noelle Tennis Gulden, a member of Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice. “But where is the focus on affordable housing? Or community based mental health? While there are recommendations for reforms, a new jail, with its massive price tag, will overwhelm other efforts and continue the failed policies of caging our way out of poverty.” Members of the Care Not Cages Coalition have long supported deflection/diversion investments, bail/pretrial risk assessment reform. We commend CGL for including these recommendations. And they must go further. A safer community for everyone is about safe, affordable housing to address the homeless crisis and community-based mental health services and neighborhood centers for our youth. “The problem in the current jail, where 21 people have died since 2021, is not about needing a new jail,” said coalition member Councilwoman Shameka Parrish Wright of VOCAL-KY. “The issues are that we are holding too many people in jail on bails they cannot afford, and the health care provider hired by the City has failed to do its job there, despite our efforts to make them accountable.” “Louisville cannot continue to incarcerate people who desperately need help and support the jail cannot provide. That has not and will not improve the safety of our city,” said Kungu Njuguna of the ACLU of Kentucky. “Investments in community support like deflection programs, crisis stabilization facilities, and mental health facilities and services are the way forward.” In April of this year, members of the Care Not Cages coalition met with the Criminal Justice Commission to discuss alternatives to incarceration. They provided Commission members with an extensive resource guide (Care Not Cages - Alternatives to Incarceration 2025-04-16.pdf) in the hopes that these can be thoroughly studied and pursued so our community can make an informed decision on the way forward. ### The ACLU of Kentucky, Showing up for Racial Justice Louisville, VOCAL-KY and other advocacy groups issued a joint statement arguing that spending millions of dollars on a new facility is “counter to everything our community really needs.”
The study by CGL Company funded by Louisville Metro Council and commissioned by the Louisville Metro Criminal Justice Commission has failed to address the root causes of incarceration and instead, wants our community to spend hundreds of millions of dollars on a new jail — something that goes counter to everything our community really needs. The study has four recommendations, which include strengthening citation-in-lieu of arrest practices, supporting the crisis call diversion program, and reviewing and reforming the bail and pretrial risk assessment, all of which we fully support. However, buried at the end of the report is a call to build a $400-530 million new jail! This recommendation fails to address the root causes of crime and must be rejected. “CGL is the biggest jail designer in the world,” said former State Representative Attica Scott, whose organization, Forward Justice Action Network, is part of the Care Not Cages Coalition. “How can we trust that a corporation that plans and designs jails is a neutral party here? This study should NEVER have been done by a company with so much to gain from a decision to build a new jail.” “Unless we address the root causes of incarceration, we will not create safety for anyone in our community,” said Celine Mutuyemariya of Black Leadership Action Coalition of Kentucky. “A new jail is not the answer to address widespread community problems that disproportionately impact those most vulnerable.” “When we met with CGL in 2024, we expressed that the study needed to look at alternatives to incarceration,” said Noelle Tennis Gulden, a member of Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice. “But where is the focus on affordable housing? Or community based mental health? While there are recommendations for reforms, a new jail, with its massive price tag, will overwhelm other efforts and continue the failed policies of caging our way out of poverty.” Members of the Care Not Cages Coalition have long supported deflection/diversion investments, bail/pretrial risk assessment reform. We commend CGL for including these recommendations. And they must go further. A safer community for everyone is about safe, affordable housing to address the homeless crisis and community-based mental health services and neighborhood centers for our youth. “The problem in the current jail, where 21 people have died since 2021, is not about needing a new jail,” said coalition member Councilwoman Shameka Parrish Wright of VOCAL-KY. “The issues are that we are holding too many people in jail on bails they cannot afford, and the health care provider hired by the City has failed to do its job there, despite our efforts to make them accountable.” “Louisville cannot continue to incarcerate people who desperately need help and support the jail cannot provide. That has not and will not improve the safety of our city,” said Kungu Njuguna of the ACLU of Kentucky. “Investments in community support like deflection programs, crisis stabilization facilities, and mental health facilities and services are the way forward.” In April of this year, members of the Care Not Cages coalition met with the Criminal Justice Commission to discuss alternatives to incarceration. They provided Commission members with an extensive resource guide (Care Not Cages - Alternatives to Incarceration 2025-04-16.pdf) in the hopes that these can be thoroughly studied and pursued so our community can make an informed decision on the way forward. https://www.lpm.org/news/2025-11-13/firm-recommends-louisville-officials-build-new-jail-with-500-million-price-tag Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice (LSURJ) is deeply disturbed that Mayor Craig Greenberg has given in to the terror and attacks perpetrated by ICE on families in Louisville by submitting to the DOJ demand to reinstate 48 Hour ICE holds.
“Targeting immigrant and refugee communities is about the strategic politics of fear and blame and tears families apart and diminishes the humanity of all people who tolerate these attacks.” said Noelle Tennis Gulden, an LSURJ leader. “It is incredibly sad that our mayor is conceding. We know from witnessing authoritarian regimes through history that compliance saves no one in the end.” “The DOJ put us on the ‘Sanctuary City’ list as a threat and the Mayor capitulated immediately,” said Anice Chenault of the Louisville SURJ Coordinating Team. “Attorney General Pam Bondi is now holding up Louisville as an example to serve as a warning to other cities. This is outrageous.” “Our immigrant and refugee communities are part of all of us,” said LSURJ Community Defense Network member Dan Despain. “When people are part of us, we have to stand with them in times of challenge like this. I am so disappointed that our mayor is not doing so.” LSURJ has more than 200 people trained in community defense, including Know Your Rights, deescalation, documentation and response to ICE raids and other attacks on marginalized people. This statement is also endorsed by VOCAL-KY and the Kentucky Alliance Against Racist & Political Repression Mayor’s statement - https://www.instagram.com/reel/DMar5-VOEAt/... |
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