Press Release: Invest in People's Needs, Not a New Jail

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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