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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. ###
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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/... On June 24, the Jewish Federation of Louisville released a public statement endorsing the U.S. bombing of Iranian nuclear sites. They framed it as a contribution to Jewish safety and global security.
We find that statement deeply alarming—and morally indefensible. It was released in the midst of a U.S.-backed genocide in Gaza, where tens of thousands of Palestinians have been killed, starved, and displaced. It was issued without any acknowledgment of civilian risk in Iran, or of the long history of Jewish life in Iran that such military actions endanger. And it claimed to speak in the name of Jewish safety—while reinforcing the false and dangerous idea that Jewish survival depends on war. This kind of language puts people at risk. It places Jewish identity in alignment with militarism at a time when state violence is being challenged around the world. It marginalizes the many Jewish people in Louisville and beyond who oppose war and occupation. And it causes real harm to Iranian Jews, who already face state pressure within Iran and anti-Iranian racism in the United States—and now see their lives, families, and history ignored by an institution that claims to represent Jewish interests. We reject this framing. We do not believe Jewish safety requires the bombing of another country. We do not believe war can be made in anyone’s name without consequence. We do not believe silence in the face of genocide is ever neutral. We are members of the Louisville Ceasefire Coalition—including both Jewish and non-Jewish members. We stand with Jewish Louisvillians for Peace whose public response gives voice to profound values embedded in Jewish tradition: "moral courage, refusal to dehumanize others, the ‘dignity of all people,’ and a deep belief in justice without exception.” See their statement in comments. We will not be silent in the face of war. And we will not allow statements like the Federation’s to go unchallenged. We oppose the U.S. bombing of Iran. We oppose the genocide in Gaza. We oppose the use of any people’s suffering to justify the suffering of others. To all those in our communities—Jewish, Iranian, Palestinian, Arab, and SWANA—who are grieving, resisting, and demanding a future beyond war: we are with you. We know these communities are not separate. Many of us live at the intersections—as Iranian Jews, as Palestinian Jews, as people whose histories defy the borders and binaries imposed by empire. We speak out because our struggles are linked, and because our safety depends on standing with each other, not in opposition to each other. — Louisville Ceasefire Coalition Concerned community members have been made aware of a facility program that turns people over to ICE in Old Louisville and will hold a press conference there on Monday, June 16 at 10am. The location is 933 South Third Street.
The Intensive Supervision Appearance Program (ISAP) (website) where people who are involved in immigration programs have routinely come to check in, is now turning some people in to ICE. “The idea that right here in the midst of us, people are being abducted, and torn away from their families, is chilling to me.” said David Horvath, a leader in Louisville Showing Up for Racial Justice (LSURJ) which was alerted to the ISAP role. “This place used to be a regular stop for immigrants to check in and now it is extremely dangerous to come here..it is entrapment." "ICE attacking individuals who have engaged with our system in good faith is a moral crime. ISAP must be ended, and ICE must be abolished." Said Galen ZS of Democratic Socialists of America (DSA). “People across Louisville are coming together to show up for our immigrant neighbors.” said Carla F Wallace, of LSURJ. “We cannot let them come for any of us, without coming through all of us.” LSURJ discovered what ISAP is doing in the course of its Louisville Community Defense Network (LCDN) work. LCDN trains community members in knowing legal rights, nonviolent direct action, and responding to its 24 hour hotline to news of attacks on vulnerable communities by ICE and other governmental agencies. # # # # |
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