Women in Need – Need Community, Not Jail Time

As we, El Movimiento Sigué’s Transforming-Justice Team, hit the midpoint of our second year working to reduce incarceration rates, my perspective is, it often feels overwhelming. It’s hard to find the perfect starting point, when we consider the myriad of factors that are driving the incarceration rates of Pueblo County.

Through informal community surveys conducted at peer-focused gatherings, we hear repeated stories of women who have been failed by an entire range of inadequate social safety nets. They suffer from not having access to housing, in circumstances like loss of a spouse or house fires, to an inability to get services from domestic-violence resources, particularly, in cases of battery severe enough to require hospitalization.

Frequently people who start out as survivors of unfair and violent circumstances, wind up on the streets where they continue to be targeted for theft or interpersonal/sexual violence. Eventually, the women end up getting picked up and end up in the carceral system for victimless crimes of survival. Some of these women are ages 50 or older, and have just become involved in the jail system for the first time.

Ultimately, we know we need a systemic overhaul to fund and provide needed services for women, while examining the removal of criminal penalties that discriminate against the poorest citizens. To make matters worse, in the past year, new ordinances to curb loitering and shoplifting were put forward by two city council members. Lori Winner’s antiloitering ordinance did not pass, but Heather Graham’s mandatory 3-days in jail for shoplifting did.

Ordinances like those go through municipal court and often the offenders do not have the resources to fight in court. Instead, the city relies on private and costly contracted lawyers paid by city budgets. Piling on penalties on people already suffering from homelessness and poverty, doesn’t make these problems go away. It only adds to the strain on our municipal court system and contributes to overcrowding in jails.

We could be using the extra funding to address the root causes driving the proposals of these ordinances, in the first place. Our votes count! We’re keeping an eye on which council members consistently bring forth or support these types of harmful measures and strain city resources. We have seen some promising signs of change with the recent warrant forgiveness day hosted in Pueblo on June, 20th. (See related article)

Changes move slowly and swift action is needed to address dire circumstances. For instance, we are starting to put more effort into increasing our reach into parts of the community we see slipping through the cracks. We are offering needed services more frequently with weekly and monthly events, open to gender marginalized people (ie women, trans/nonbinary, and queer folks).

Please join us if you share one of these identities and have been impacted by arrest or incarceration in Pueblo County and need support, or if you want to offer support with food, beverage, supply, or service provision! You can keep up with any changes or updates to the event schedule by following our peer focused event pages FB/IG @p.m.gran.te or reaching out to us via email to p.m.gran.te@gmail.com.