Page last updated on November 7, 2022 at 3:00 pm
Each week, Mayor Hamilton and Deputy Mayor Griffin provide video updates on recent news and key initiatives. Access all of the weekly video updates at bloomington.in.gov/videoupdates.
In today's video update, Mayor Hamilton discusses community criminal justice with Deputy Mayor Griffin. Deputy Mayor Griffin recently authored an op-ed published in Wednesday's online edition of the Herald-Times.
“Planning for a new, future local jail should not hold up investing in public health and restorative justice now…Building a new facility will take several years and there are immediate, urgent needs. We should not wait to improve mental health and substance use disorder services both for those incarcerated and those we want to help avoid incarceration.”
Deputy Mayor Griffin’s full op-ed is available on the Herald-Times website at https://bton.in/CMOPu or click here for a PDF version.
Transcript
John Hamilton:
Hi, I'm Mayor John Hamilton of Bloomington, and here today with Don Griffin, Deputy Mayor of Bloomington. And Don, I wanted to talk with you because you had a column that just came out about criminal justice reform and what's going on in the city and the county, and you had some ideas about it. So what prompted you to do that?
Don Griffin:
Justice reform. We're calling it community justice reform.
John Hamilton:
Okay. All right.
Don Griffin:
Because we're not always dealing with so-called criminals.
John Hamilton:
Yeah.
Don Griffin:
... so we have to look at it as a more holistic thing. There's a lot that's happening. The county is looking at putting together a brand new jail, which is necessary. When it was built, it was undersized.
John Hamilton:
It's overcrowded right now.
Don Griffin:
It's so overcrowded right now.
John Hamilton:
Yeah.
Don Griffin:
So we definitely have a need for a new jail.
John Hamilton:
Okay.
Don Griffin:
However-
John Hamilton:
But that wasn't what you mostly focused on, right?
Don Griffin:
No, what I think we as a community need to focus on is helping out folks right now, with the wraparound services. We can't wait to do these things in three or four years. And we've got money to do this, John, I think we've got $25 million with the ARPA funds.
John Hamilton:
The federal money that came into our whole county.
Don Griffin:
That's right.
John Hamilton:
Yeah.
Don Griffin:
And then I think we have about $10 million a year going from ED Lit that the county is going to also get. This is additional funds that they're going to get yearly.
John Hamilton:
So the plan is to build a new jail, which I think everybody understands the current jail's not adequate, doesn't reflect us. But you talked about how, as you just said, we shouldn't wait. A jail's going to take years to get, but there's stuff we should be doing right now. So what kind of stuff are you talking about?
Don Griffin:
Well, we need more mental health services, we can put money towards mental health. We can put money towards opioid settlement and other substance abuses that are causing havoc on our community, those that are suffering from these as well as other folks. So I think it's our duty to say, "You know what? Let's start right now."
John Hamilton:
One thing that I really took, was, "America and Indiana incarcerate more people per capita than almost anywhere around the world." I mean, America just incarcerates a lot of people and you're kind of making the point that, look, as we're building a jail, let's do all this stuff to try to reduce the need for people to be incarcerated.
Don Griffin:
Absolutely.
John Hamilton:
Because they really need... A lot of people, they're overrepresented in jails, right?
Don Griffin:
That's right.
John Hamilton:
People with mental illness, substance use disorder.
Don Griffin:
Folks of color. I mean, I don't want to say that's happening. All the trends that happen in the rest of the country, they don't necessarily come down to what's happening in our community. I think we've got great public servants and we're trying our best. But I think we just need that little bit of focus. Most of the people that we see going in and out of the jail systems are suffering from either mental health or substance abuse here locally.
John Hamilton:
So you're saying while we're building the jail, we ought to be doing-
Don Griffin:
Before we-
John Hamilton:
Before we build.
Don Griffin:
Before we build.
John Hamilton:
Before we build a jail-
Don Griffin:
Yes.
John Hamilton:
... we ought to be investing in mental health services, and substance use disorder services, and we have the resources to do it.
Don Griffin:
We have the resources at the county level, and the city is willing to be a partner in that.
John Hamilton:
Great. Well, there's more information I know, and maybe linked to the column. But thanks for doing that and sharing it with us today.
Don Griffin:
That you for having me.
John Hamilton:
Have a good one.