the reality tunnel

Procrastinating as usual, I went to change my voter registration address today, the last possible day to do it.  I asked what would have happened if I hadn’t changed my address and the answer was that, at least in Monroe County, you are allowed to vote once at your previous polling location.  The challenge is that, with redistricting, your previous district’s polling location may now be the polling location for a new district.  So, in that case, one would most likely have to wait in line, only to be sent to a new location.  In any case, I was told that having different addresses wouldn’t keep you from voting, but could delay voting.  Info about this was mailed out to registered voters, but in a community like Bloomington where, for students, and many of my peers, housing situations change a lot, it’s easy to not get the info.  So, for those who moved, but didn’t change their voter registration address, I would just call the local election office and find out where the polling place is for the address under which you’re registered.  If you go there, you should be able to vote.

The book group I’m facilitating at the county jail met again this past week, interrupting an Uno game going on in the common area of the cell block.  I had just played a game of Uno that afternoon, sprawled out across a post-picnic blanket on a grassy patch just above the lake.  Kids splashed below in the warm water, teenage girls lounged allofly in inflatable furniture, and in the distance, people careened back and forth across the wake of motorboats.  This is one of the things that is the most difficult about going into the jail - things that are completely familiar to me, like the Uno game, in a context that is completely different to my everyday reality.  Actually going into the jail has made me realize the boundary between solidarity and being in the same boat.  I think everything that I’ve encountered about jails and prisons firmly establish where you stand.  You are a guard, you are incarcerated, you are incarcerated and in the “therepeutic” block, you are in solitary, you are in the general population, you are a family member or friend here for visiting hours, you are a volunteer.  The roles, the mobility associated with each, and the expectations of each group by the others seem hard and rigid, ruts torn deeper and deeper with all the inertia of the prison industrial complex.  I want to just think that I’m just down, but even going in with the interest of supporting incarcerated folks is mediated by the fact, told bluntly by the corrections officer who did the volunteer training, that my ability to go in is largely based on the realization that programming in the jail tends to placate the incarcerated population there.

The reading group happens in the block and has a variable number of participants.  This is affected by what people have going on at the moment and the fact that people are constantly coming in and out of the jail, coming from a DOC facility for court or returning to a DOC facility after court.  This week, only 4 folks sat down at the table, with only 1 of them having read the book to be discussed.  The book might have been part of the problem.  A few weeks ago we had decided to read A Walk in the Woods by Bill Bryson, a travel account of two middle-aged men who decide to hike part of the Appalachian Trail.  It was funny enough, and met the criteria that was established by those initially interested in the group, of having a subject that seemed to be far, far from the reality of incarceration and didn’t have the self-help twelve-steppy overtones that mark some of the other programming they participate in.  Still, a few folks expressed that they couldn’t get into the book.  My favorite response to the book that I heard was one word - “quitters”, as the protagonists seemed to spend as many nights sleeping in hotels and eating at diners as they did in the woods.  As I read through the book myself, I was a little worried that the book centered on this activity that represented an idleness and mobility; to spend weeks just hiking without worrying about jobs, families, or the things that a lot of the things that people in the jail talk to me about as concerns; that it would seem just insensitive.  Still, it’s unfair and just not true to make assumptions about people’s situations or their reactions in the context of their lives.

So what is my place here in the jail?  Reading, for all the reasons that anyone loves it, with the additional weight of it being an activity that can happen, relatively unhindered, even within the constraints of incarceration, seems to be an important part of people’s lives at the jail.  People talk about the books that they read, and pass them around.  I remember a conversation starting with “Remember that Marilyn Manson biography …”, the book having apparenly made its rounds through the block.  There’s no question that books are important to people in jail.  Having someone come in to facilitate a discussion group about books seems of more questionable value. For the men in the cell block where the programming happens, their days are filled with different groups, many of them focussed around rehabilitation, I think that one more structured activity that involves a group and a discussion just doesn’t seem that appealing.  Volunteering in the jail, there seems to be such an impasse between what corrections officials and non-profits think people who are incacerated need and what people who are incarcerated say they need.  I think that more than anything, people need to not be incarcerated, because dealing with all the other things in life become frustratingly cumbersome to impossible.  Beyond that I think the concerns of incarcerated people are the same as a lot of people that I know, obviously with varying degrees of severity: economic security, a safe, comfortable place to live, help sorting out relationships and family.  Those are such large, ambiguous things, but it’s the way I can most accurately express it.

I like going into the jail because it has made me have to reevaluate how I think about other people and about prison issues as “issues”.  But, even though I feel like I’m getting something out of my volunteer work, the exchange doesn’t exactly seem equal.  One of the men interested in the reading group said he would talk to others in the block to guage the actual interest and to get some input about what format would be best.  We talked about two things that would be an improvement - meeting once a month instead of biweekly and reading shorter works of fiction.  One thing that seems like something that I can really offer is just giving people access to books.  The Monroe County Public Library has a sweet jail library program, but the men I work with said that while they used to get to go to the library once every two weeks, they now can only go once every 4 or 5 weeks.

I’ve also sporadically tutoring math in the jail, and had been working with someone who just passed his GED exams.  Working in this capacity seems like I can offer people something of myself that seems more useful, but it’s still hard.  The person who just passed his GED said that one of the reasons he wanted to get his GED was so he could go into the armed forces when he was released.  I don’t want to see anyone join the armed forces, but I’m afraid that, facing the realities of the current economy, and the additional challenges that someone with a criminal record faces getting a job, the options are limited.  It’s so frustrating that I, and the things I believe in, can’t offer an alternative.  This makes me feel like I’m not in a position to do what people really need.  I can give people books, or some tricks to solving math problems, but I can’t give people jobs or build houses.  It makes me feel like I’m not doing the right thing. Everyone, and I mean everyone everyone and not just incarceration people, need inspiration and tools, to be sure, but it seems really narrow sighted to think that they’re enough.

I went to a forum today about FSSA’s recent privitization of the administration of Indiana’s food stamp, medicade, and other benefits. Here are my notes from the forum. I tried to be as accurate as I could, but in many cases, couldn’t keep up with names, positions, or people’s entire stories/statements.

Before I offer my notes, I wanted to give a little of my own analysis. The panel of experts represented various township and state government officials who were presented as experts. While one panelist aknowledged that they were only experts because they had heard so many criticisms and seen so many problems faced by their constituents, I still thought that the lack of people directly affected by the FSSA privitization on the panel was very telling of a system that continues to fail to put people using the services at the center of the disucssion and in control of driving the program’s future. There were a few people who had personally struggled trying to maintain FSSA benefits through the privitization rollout, but many of the voices were from people who worked through agencies or informally as advocates or who were friends, like myself, of people who had to deal with FSSA privatization. The sheer number of people affiliated with agencies or other nonprofits was encouraging because there seemed to be such a consensus that the current system was very flawed.

On the other hand, I think the non-profit to individual ratio represents how voices get masked behind the web of non-profits in Bloomington. Ideally, I would love to see people, not just represented by the non-profits that serve them, but representing themselves, with support (childcare, transportation, media access, employment) from the social services to allow people who are affected by issues of healthcare access or food security to direct their own voices to decision makers. The reason for this seems complicated. Bloomington non-profits definitely lack the resources to be both service providers and support for communities organizing themselves. Still, I think many non-profits are trapped in the mindset of helping the less fortunate or “humanizing the system”, as one commenter stated, rather than being part of more radical and fundamental change by helping those most affected be at the forfront of the dialog and the decision making or critically reshaping the social values and assumptions that underly inequality in Monroe and the policies that preserve it.

The role of non-profits remains a difficult one. As many people at the forum explained, the privitization of FSSA services also involved the removal of local FSSA caseworkers from communities across Indiana. This created a situation where the FSSA representatives that most people dealt with (mostly over the phone) were both unfamiliar with their cases and could not effectively help with problems. Charlotte Zietlow, who works with the Middleway House, made the additional analysis that removing local caseworkers has placed the burden of casework on other local agencies that are already struggling to find the resources to do the work that they’re doing. Exaserbating resource scarcity for supporting people in Bloomington creates a fearful and competitive atmosphere, where non-profits don’t communicate or collaborate and where they choose to hold the course of their work rather than pushing the boundaries of what could be or expanding their work to challenge root causes instead of helping people survive.

Here are the notes:

Panel

• Vi Simpson
• Peggy Welch
• Matt Pierce
• Dan Combs
• Linda Sievers?
• Zach Main - FSSA - “The guy in charge of the project”

Comments from agencies

Luanne Morrow (Fiscal Coordinator w/ Stonebelt)

• Deals with developmental disabilities who live in group homes and who are medicade funded.
• Notices from FSSA come from P.O. Box, look like junk mail and are often thrown away.
• Only one phone number for the whole state
• Used to deal with local agencies
• Recently the FSSA line has also been used for natural disaster issues, which has hurt access
• Why can’t regional and local offices have seperate phone #’s
• Monroe co. Medicade office moved and was hard to locate.
• Need e-mail address contacts
• 800# menu is really confusing
• Records are accessed by case # (not medicade #). It’s hard to find this case # because it’s only on the mailings.
• 10+ minute wait on 800 #.
• Can only talk about 3 “consumers” at a time.
• Her caseload is 66+ “consumers”
• Have different points of contact so the same situation has to be explained over and over again.
• FSSA reps wouldn’t talk to her as “consumer” representative because paperwork wasn’t filed
• No phone number for offices.
• Would only allow phone interview
• Only called office phone, when she wasn’t there.
• Thrown into reactive mode for advocating for her consumers
  • Forced to neglect other duties

Q (Peggy Welch): What has gotten better? What should we preserve in the system?
A (Luanne Morrow): Hasn’t seen anything that works better yet. “Everything has caused more work.”

Q (Vi Simpson): Why do you have to contact the office so frequently?
A : Each consumer has to have annual review with Medicade. Consumers have expenses with Stonebelt that they owe. This is funded through FSSA. Also, income, child support, etc. changes frequently.

Q (Dan Combs): Is there a specific group or contact for developmentally disabled individuals?
A: There used to be at the local office. There is allegedly a contact at the 800# who is a specific contact for group homes, but she hasn’t contacted them.

Q: Are there some people who navigate this w/o professional advocates?
A: Yes.

Comment (Linda Sievers): Works for an agency that has gotten access to the system to be able to pull up the FSSA records and pull up individual info by case #. This has been able to help some people.

Comment (Zach Main): Not here to argue or defend the system. “We’re working very hard.” Listening to feedback.

Chris Holly - Private advocate for medicade

• Lots of people shouldn’t need me (if the system worked)
• Personally likes to use the internet and feels tech savy, but the web forms on the FSSA site doesn’t work well.
• FSSA doesn’t honor paper applications from the old days, even when the computer system doesn’t work.
  • This is important because things are time sensitive.
• Biggest problem is that we can’t call someone at FSSA to finish a case.
• Appointed rep doesn’t get notices.
• For him, phone interviews are okay but
  • Reps aren’t familiar with the part of program he’s dealing with. He gets bumped to a specialist but can’t contact them directly.
• Reps haven’t looked at documentation
• Only get one chance for a call in a 2 hour window and one callback in 10 minutes.

Q: Peggy Welch: Does “failure to cooporate” describe people’s rejections from FSSA? Call doesn’t come through, often call the next morning instead, don’t reach the person, and the client get’s “failure to cooperate”. What does failure to cooporate mean?
(Lots of people in crowd raised hands in response to the first question)

A (Zach Main): Defined failure to cooperate as when reps say that they’ve sent them multiple notices and people haven’t met their responsibilities.

Q: Peggy Welch: In the past people could call to respond to find out why they got a failure to cooperate (what signature was missing, etc.). Now they can’t. What we’re missing is caseworkers (or a person responsible for a person). This is what missing, not the online forms.

A: Chris: This is a problem. There isn’t one person who understands the case and one person who is responsible. Social security has undergone similar modernizations but still has case workers.

Jody from Community Health and Wellness center in Bedford (also does WIC program)

• One postive thing - likes being able to check WIC eligibility on the Internet
• 17/52 prenatal patients are ineligible
• One patient has applied 3 times.
  • Internet form didn’t let her enter info
• Another patient is Asian and there are head of household communication issues
  • Jody has tried to support this family
  • Has had wrong doctor and wrong managed care assigned to her
  • Has been billed for ultrasound personally when she was eligible
• Computer issue, website issues, enrollment center training issues, local agencies aren’t trained, provider issues, panel issues, accurate adding of people to
• Using federal grant money to cover charges for ineligible folks “Who’s going to pay for them anyway.”

Vi: Why are they ineligible?

Vi: What about being in the 3rd trimester?

Jody: Yes

Tara Doyan: Crisis Pregnancy Center

• Previously an enrollment site. Weren’t given info on how to do this in transition.
• Needs caseworkers with knowledge of TANIF, childcare, hoosier healthwise, etc. that is a broad knowledge instead of having to be bounced around
• Only given notification of interview call for 2 hour time frame a day before or 2 days before. This doesn’t work for working moms.

? from Southern Indiana Pediatrics

• services thousands of kids (like 9000) on medicade
• wants to provide same level of service to kids regardless of payer
• Things have improved
  • Can now work with Anthem, MDWise, MHS, (Maybe one other)
  • Reimbursement rates improved under privitization because rates can be negotiated based on quality of care, level of utilization,
  • They’ve worked hard to develop relationships
  • Anthem and MHS works well (communication and websites)
• Decrease in caseworkers has hurts patients
• Autoassignment hurts patients
  • Assigned to care in a different county
  • Switched from provider they’ve used for years.

  Walked away from plans who have been bad business partners. They’ve steered parents away from MDWise because they haven’t gotten paid correctly from MDWise.

Jason Karns - Caseworker for Baron Hill’s office

• Since conversion 2-3 issues a week (vs. 2-3 issues a month before)
• 812.336.3000 - Contact Baron Hill’s office if you’re having a problem

Steve Sharp - Indiana Legal Services

• 1.800.822.4774 - ILS contact # for help
• Read letter from coworker who is a lawyer and wasn’t able to make the forum
  • Since mid may saw a sig. increase in cases due to clients losing benefits
  • Due to “Failure to cooporate”
  • In most of the cases of “failure to cooperate” people sent requried documents by deadline
    • i.e. document blurred in fax transaction = ‘failure to cooperate’
      • rejection letter was returned to sender so she never got the notice
      • didn’t find out until she tried to buy food and didn’t have funds
      • reapplied for expedited food stamps in May but never got a response
      • took a week for the release form to allow advocate to represent him
      • Call center rep verified that person had sent the required documents but couldn’t fix the error
    • No prompt way to resolve even agency errors
    • Old system: caseworker could solve this
    • New system: explainers and fixers but people can’t do both.
    • In the old system caseworkers could contact people when there was a problem. In the new system, people don’t run into problems.

Response (Zach): If a case takes too long to resolve, it does count against the error rate for IBM. If IBM’s success rate drops below 95%, they could lose funding

? - Rep from Area 10/2-1-1

• Questions, need help, call 2-1-1
• Calls, faxes, computer data gets “lost”
• Better results when things are “wireless” (I assume she means face to face communication)
• Food stamps is a big problem
• Monroe county had a flood but even worse in Owen county
• “Hispanic” community in Owen county even more vulnerable (esp. homes condemmed)
• Dan Denny with HT has been able to get help for people by contacting FSSA directly
  • FSSA Ombudsman hasn’t been as helpful
• Ever since the transition 2-1-1 has seen more calls.

Liz Jones - Area 10/2-1-1

• Immediately on rollout got calls
• Confused about system
• Confused about lack of caseworker
• 2-10 calls a day related to FSSA services
• Mostly foodstamps
• Lost benefits
• Ultimately refered to local food pantries

Janet ? - Bloomington Housing Authority

• 1350 section 8 families served by BHA
• 17% (~945 familes) are disabled or elderly
• “volumes you can’t believe” of folks coming with stacks of paperwork asking BHA to send (fax) paperwork for them
• HT has been helpful
• Not getting info from FSSA in a timely manner because these benefits effect people’s standing with BHA
• Don’t always have case #, used to accessing by SSN#

Jacob ? - Legal aid coordinator w/ Shalom

• As soon as the rollout happened, Shalom inundated with calls for assistance
• IU law student has dedicated his summer to help folks with understanding the system and dealing with appeals
• 20 cases active in last week
• 3 “areas of concern”
  • Lack of local caseworkers
    • Frequent complaint from people the shalom center works with
    • Forms themselves are way too complex.
    • Folks need local caseworker to help understand forms
  • Homeless folks don’t have phone or internet, phone number to receive call back
    • This is the biggest concern
    • Rollout was handled by mass mailing
    • Transient population didn’t get the notice.
      • I.e. family lost housing so they didn’t get packet
      • lost benefits for them and their kids, still working to get benefits back.
  • In the past time between application and interview was ~ 2 days, now it’s 20 (even with expedited application)
    • Also, 7 day “limbo period” after app. submission
      • can’t confirm receipt or any errors

Charlotte Zeitlow - Case manager w/ Middleway House

• Burden for caseworking has effectively been transferred to local agencies at a time when their resources are even more limited.
• Women who get services from MWH need services but aren’t sophisticated electronically.
  • Don’t have time to get access to computers or needed training
  • Many women don’t have telephones
• Asking people with the fewest resources to do the most complicated things technologically.

John Cardwell - Indiana Home Care Task Force, Generations project (looks at privitization issues)

• Problems articulated at this forum have been articulated in Muncie/Anderson/Kokomo particularly affected because they are the last community affected by the rollout
• People affected by this should work with caseworkers or representatives to file a “formal complaint:to “Food and Nutrition Service of U.S. Department of Agriculture” (Tim English, I think he said). Chicago office. Send foodstamp complaints here.
• Center for Medicade and Medicare Services (CMMS) - has Chicago office. Will take formal complaints.* Above 2 orgs initiates fed investigation into Indiana problems.
• Biggest problem is lack of caseworkers
• As a test, gave highly educated people the 16 page app. They would have all received a failure to cooperate notice because they couldn’t interpret the application
• Thinks IBM/ACS contract needs a “thorough public audit”.
• Federal law
• How $’s are being used
• Staff in Marion call center aren’t trained
• Caseworkers who were transferred have left
• Wants formal legislative hearings on this.

Comments from individuals

Mike Biggs - interested in this issue

• Indiana didn’t knock people off rolls initially and was successful and keeping good track of who should/shouldn’t be on the rolls. This got worse with privatization.
• Replacing trained FSSA staff with IBM workers and volunteers. This change hasn’t helped people. One state number instead of local service. Offices inaccessible because they’re hard to find and harder to get to.
• Goal of this was to knock people off of the rolls

Mary - Medicade User

• Forum balance on agencies rather than users
• Spent 2 hours on phone this morning and was referred to 6 different numbers to get one medicade answer
• Can’t have a needed procedure until another (lower cost) procedure was done first
  • Trying to be a good steward of medicare money, response was “just do the procedure anyway”.
• Couldn’t get info about restricitons and her particular case
• Given the run-around on the phone
• Don’t know what department to direct her to on the phone
• Wants to find a caseworker.

Catherine - Restuarant Owner

• Crime in neighborhood has increased since FSSA changes
• Increase in mentally ill people visiting her restaurant
  • Feels these people are getting knocked off of FSSA rolls
• “I’ve never seen poverty like I’ve seen in Indiana”
• There’s a “war on the poor people in Indiana”.
• IN should find a model in other states that works and be adopted in IN.
• Case workers are very important to bring back.

? - Received foodstamps and medicade services for children

• Ivy tech student, had to miss classes to attend forum
• Didn’t receive call at the time that they said.
  • Threatened with loss of job

? - Works with immigrants

• Children (even undocumented) are able to have some benefits
• When calling, call center doesn’t speak spanish, asks for SSN which people can’t give (even though their undocumented kids are eligible)
• Technology difficult to navigate, even for those with computers
• Need computers and tech support at local offices
• Need people who can interpret different languages

Dianna Goodman - Ivy tech student

• Classmate couldn’t take full course load, so she lost eligibility

Bob - medicade user

• Dyslexic, found out today that he was denied for 2 years for his medicade

Panelist Comments

Linda (Panelist) - Township Trustee

• Township can help
  • Food pantry
  • Rent/mortgage assistance
    • Makes decision about this in 72 horus
  • Shelter

Vi Simpson (Panelist) - State rep

• Thanked FSSA for their flood relief, esp. one stop shop for Brown county
  • Flood relief proves that we can accomplish things when we work together
• system faced “sudden and emotional changes”
• system is broken
• Because so many lives and vulnerable people depend on these programs working well and efficiently, by working together we can improve things. This is really the reason for today’s meeting.
• Hope that by bringing caseworkers here today, they could solve specific problems, but also wants to identify systemic problems
• I learned today: 2 page document to apply for children’s health service -> 18 page document
  • Vi was on comittee that recommended a 2 page app.
• This summer there will be hearings on this issue
• Contract needs to be funded in the budget so this could come into play in the budget hearings
• FSSA has suspended rollout to further counties

Matt Pierce (Panel) - Rep

• The way we serve the neediest members of our soceity is the fundamental gauge of our government
• General assembly must provide oversight
  • Understand what’s happening in system
  • ensure that changes are made if needed
  • Hearings this summer, this is the beginning of the process.
•  Goal: to have as few people as possible slip through the cracks -> contact his office if you need help
• Biggest concern: people reduced to data points. We might have moved into a structural system that has caused this to happen.

Peggy Welch (Panel)

•  Panel of “experts” because they’ve heard from so many people about this
• There’s been an increase in calls. This represents some kind of systemic problem.
• Peggy serves on ways and means committee. Not sure if current contract represents the most efficient use of taxpayer money in terms of people getting services. These questions will be asked during the summer.
• This forum will be broadcast on CATS.

Dan Combs (panel) - township?

•  Most disturbing forum he’s ever been at
• Developmentally disabled left on their own w/o advocate.
• Sees this as a result of deinstitutionalization
• Vendors don’t neccessarily want to work in this area. They’re in it to make money.
• Has taken 20+ years to build relationships with vendors
  • Local mortuary was going to stop taking medicade burials because they couldn’t get paid
• Township couldn’t get ahold of FSSA via phone number after rollout
• Media coverage changed this and the township was able to get a direct contact
• Direct contact is key, this doesn’t exist for client
• Social services will never be cheap or cost effective
• Good people in Indiana, not out to do a bad job, but we need to look and see if the job we’re supposed to be doing is what we’re doing.
• Low income people couldn’t have made a later meeting either because of non 9-5 hours of many workers* “Maybe it’s even bigger than what I thought it was”.

Zach Main (panel) - FSSA

• Changes in the last 3 years had the goal of making life better for neediest Hoosiers
• “It’s not a perfect system”
• Local office channel of communication is still available (his answer for call to casework)
• Changes
  • FSSA will increase staffing of local offices
  • FSSA local office will be able to handle cases from beginning to end
  • FSSA will remind people of local office option
• Goal wasn’t to force people to use phone/Internet
• FSSA working on forming closer partnerships with advocate organizations
• “Today is not the end, it is the beginning”

Saturday, May 3, 2008
Free
A New Jail?!: Exploring Alternatives to Incarceration in Monroe County

Events At:

Boxcar Books
310A S. Washington St.
Bloomington, IN 47401
(812) 339-8710
http://www.boxcarbooks.org

The Cinemat
123 S. Walnut St.
(812) 333-4700
Bloomington, IN 47401
http://www.thecinemat.com

A day of popular education that will explore alternatives to the current proposal of building new adult and youth jails in Bloomington. Through interactive workshops featuring community members, non-profits, experienced activists, and YOU, we will explore: What is the history of incarceration in Monroe County? What are some existing community alternatives to incarceration in Bloomington and other parts of the country? What have successful campaigns to challenge other jail constructions looked like? Several workshops will offer education, training, and networking opportunities for local folks questioning the need for new jails. The day’s events will culminate with special guest speaker Kai Barrow from Critical Resistance. This is an open event, with people from all backgrounds and political beliefs encouraged to attend.

Workshop One- 11:00 am, Boxcar Books
A discussion and Presentation on the History of the Monroe County Jail System

This workshop will begin with an interview from Indiana University Criminal Justice Department faculty member, Hal Pepinsky. Following the interview will be a facilitated discussion on the history of the jail, encouraging input from community members in piecing together the jail’s history and the sharing of personal and familial experiences with the jail.

Workshop Two- 2:00 pm, Boxcar Books
A Panel Discussion on Alternatives to Incarceration

This workshop will explore community alternatives to incarceration in Bloomington, as well as highlight successful initiatives from around the country. Representatives from different organizations will speak briefly about how their work keeps people out of jail by offering positive responses to poverty, homelessness, hunger, and conflict that enrich and restore community. Workshop attendees will be able to offer their own perspectives on what makes a community safe and whole.

Film Screening- 4:00 pm, The Cinemat
Yes, In My Backyard, A documentary by Tracy Huling

Financially-strapped communities are now begging for prisons to be built in their backyards. With plundering agribusiness, military-base closings and major industry relocation, incarceration is seen as the salvation of rural communities. Through the eyes of one farming-community-turned-prison-town, this hour documentary explores the increasing and multi-layered dependence of rural America on prison industries and subtly probes the profound implications of this dependence for both the keepers and the kept, and for our society’s understanding of and response to crime.

Workshop Three- 6:00 pm, Boxcar Books
Potluck Dinner and Discussion with Kai Barrow from Critical Resistance

Kai Barrow, one of five paid staff persons for Critical Resistance, a national grassroots organization committed to ending society’s use of prisons and policing as an answer to social problems, will lead a discussion

For more press, interview, or further contact information, please use information below:

Judah Schept
(812) 219-3611
jschept@indiana.edu

Download a flyer for this event (PDF)

Better late than never.  Check out the cool scavenger hunt. Link to full size image of calendar. 

Some folks have started organizing to plan resistance to plans to organize against a proposed “justice campus” in Bloomington that would include a new, larger jail (as the jail is notoriously overcrowded and there is a federal lawsuit about conditions in the jail), a juvenile “treatment” facility (as youth from Monroe County who are sentenced to one of these facilities have to be sent out of county), and court and administrative facilities (to make transport of inmates between the jail and the courts (and other services?) easier).  Ideologically, I am opposed to the expansion of the number of incarcerated people and a sad reality in most communities is that larger prisons and jails are quickly filled (either by sentencing or by the moving of inmates to take advantage of available space or recover costs), but there needs to be some remediation of the conditions at the existing jail for the inmates and the Federal lawsuit may require some kind of action in the end.

So, I don’t want to frame this issue solely in terms of supporting or opposing jail construction.  If I oppose the jail construction and lose on this and don’t manage to push for increased programming and services for people in the jail and the community at large or assurances that the capacity of the jail will not be used to import people from elsewhere, this is a failure.  Similarly, calls for increased support of social services, to end injustices that are connected with incarceration, and to change the court system or make other changes to incarcerate fewer people are not dependent on jail construction either way.  These things need to be part of the dialog and I think it will be a failure if focusing on jail construction as the sole issue means there isn’t space for talking about things.

My personal goals when it comes to this issue are:

• Empower incarcerated people, their friends and family to have a central role in the dialog and policy shaping of the jail and criminal justice in Monroe County
• Include the voice of youth in the dialog about juvenile justice facilities
• Accurately depict the reasons that people are incarcerated in Monroe County and explode the cultural mythologies of crime and incarceration
• Explore alternatives to incarceration in Monroe County and move towards expanding and implementing them
• Address prejudices and stigma about crime, “criminals”, and incarceration
• Connect issues of economic and racial privilege in Monroe County, support (or lack there of) for social services or grassroots community-based support, and development policies and paradigms with incarceration

Ideally, achieving these things would result in a decision to not expand the jail or build a juvenile facility.  However,  because I see these things as important, I wouldn’t see the defeat of the jail proposal on fiscal grounds (as is the position of many Republican county government officials/candidates) as a victory because it would be likely that there would community support or support from the county officials who rejected jail construction for the things I mentioned above.

Update: pushing this to the top because I messed up the quadrillion babes upload.

I ripped a few tracks from the Quadrillion Babes and Gourmet Scum Performances at WFHB’s fundraising Local Live Live show:

• Quadrillion Babes - Party Song
• Quadrillion Babes - Water Babies
• Gourmet Scum - Hash Slinger
• Gourmet Scum - Slime Trail

I’m always a little skeptical about new businesses opening in Bloomington, but Amy gave Rachael’s high marks:

So I wanted to alert you to a couple of cool things going on in town
that haven’t received much press yet and a couple of venues/locations
that should probably be added to the Let’s Go! Calendar. One of them
is Rachael’s Café, located at 300 E. 3rd Street, 812 330-1882. Rachael
is a member of the Indiana GLBT community, a huge supporter of the
arts, and a complete and utter sweetheart. Everyone should meet her.

She’s got a mission statement, but I’ll just put the first part here.

“Rachael’s Café grew out of a desire to create a friendly, inclusive,
peaceful atmosphere for all. Our mission is to bring understanding,
education and acceptance over a cup of coffee.”

Rachael’s Café serves gourmet coffees and drinks, homemade soups,
salads, sandwiches and entrees. She loves ethnic foods and healthy
nutritional options. I’ve been working with her to develop a more
extensive vegan menu. I bake vegan treats for her and have convinced
her to work more with raw foods, live/slow foods (homemade) like
smoothies, kombucha and saurkraut. The best part is that she’s going
to start serving loaded vegan hotdogs and vegan chili dogs!!! (Can you
tell that I’m excited?) I’m quite sure that she’s the only business
doing this from here to Chicago. So basically, I’m stoked that there
will be a new late-night, cheap food destination in town. The café has
wireless internet, good lighting, lots of walls and a large floor
space, perfect for music, dancing, movies, art shows or pretty much
anything.

Here are the dates for upcoming things at Rachel’s Café (missed the
deadline for last month, but I’ll post them anyway)

March
THURS 13th Shalom Writers Circle – Poetry Reading, 7:30-8:30pm
FRI 14th Bob Dylan Talent Show & Friday Night Open Mic (hosted by Alan
Ginsberg), 6pm
TUES 18th Gretchen Clearwater (Democrat for Congress, Indiana – 9th
District) hosts a political discussion about the pros/cons of the
Clinton and Obama campaigns, 7pm
WED 19th Verbal Terrorism Poetry by Jada B, 7pm
THURS 20th Babbling Banshee Dinner Theatre, serving @ 6:30pm, starting
at 7pm. Irish Stew and Boxters (Irish Potato Pancake) served.
FRI Friday Night Open Mic, 6pm
SAT 22nd Babbling Banshee Dinner Theatre, serving @ 6:30pm, starting
at 7pm. Irish Stew and Boxters (Irish Potato Pancake) served.
THURS 27th Babbling Banshee Dinner Theatre, serving @ 6:30pm, starting
at 7pm. Irish Stew and Boxters (Irish Potato Pancake) served.
FRI 28th Friday Night Open Mic, 6pm
SAT 29th Babbling Banshee Dinner Theatre, serving @ 6:30pm, starting
at 7pm. Irish Stew and Boxters (Irish Potato Pancake) served.

Crystal made this month’s Let’s Go! calendar of Bloomington events and it’s awesome.  She included a lot of free films and lots of diverse events that span outside the punk scene.  She was kind enough to send me a scan of the calendar:

Link to full sized scan of calendar.

The yard signs that Chiara and I made are getting distributed this week as part of IU’s Arts Week.  I saw the actual signs last night for the first time,  I guess their appearance around town is going to be tracked using a google map.  Today, I’ve been listening to Zounds and the song Fear is another articulation of ideas I connect to these signs:

Sing a song of violence and listen for the sound
All the little soldiers start to come around
Start it with a rumour, a whisper in an ear
Suspision don’t take very long before it turns to fear
??? Said I need a reason, made of up and low ???
??? Feel what they’re fighting, just tell them where to go ???
Give the chance of glory, give the chance of fame
Give the boy an enemy, give the dog a name
Keep the factions fighting, start them off the school
Keep the factions fighting so you divide and rule
Football teams are splendid and fashion just a tool
Keep the factions fighting so you divide and rule

Fear can be a bum thing
A silly and a dumb thing
Fear can be the one thing
That keeps us all apart

Frightened of the humans and frightened of their stares
Frightened of the poisons they pump into the air
Frightened of the chemicals they spray upon the land
Frightened of the power they hold within their hands
Frightened of bureaucracy and frightened of the law
Frightened of the government and who it’s working for
Frightened of the children who won’t know who to cope
With a world in rack and ruin from their technocratic dope, dope, dope

Fear can be a bum thing
A silly and a dumb thing
Fear can be the one thing
That keeps us in the dark

Frightened of the humans, frightened of their stares
Frightened of the poisons pumped into the air
Frightened of the chemicals they spray upon the land
Frightened of the power they hold within their hands
Frightened of bureaucracy and frightened of the law
Frightened of the government and who it’s working for
Frightened of the children who won’t know who to cope
With a world in rack and ruin from their technocratic dope, dope, dope

Fear can be a bum thing
A silly and a dumb thing
Fear can be the one thing
That keeps us in the dark

Fear can be a bum thing
A silly and a dumb thing
Fear can be the one thing
That keeps us all apart

Frightened of the humans, frightened of their stares
Frightened of the poisons pumped into your air
Frightened of the chemicals spayed upon my land
Frightened of the power hold within their hands
Frightened of bureaucracy, frightened of the law
Frightened of the government who’s actions lead to war
Frightened of the children who won’t know who to cope
With a world in rack and ruin from their technocratic dope, dope, dope

Fear can be a bum thing
A silly and a dumb thing
Fear can be the one thing
That keeps us in the dark

Fear can be a bum thing
A silly and a dumb thing
Fear can be the one thing
That keeps us all apart