The Reform Movement of Terre Haute

12/21/2021

UPDATE: This page was created in June 2020 by several local activists who met during local protests after the police murder of George Floyd. The plan was to use this page to help call attention to the harm caused by policing and racism here in Vigo County and to organize local residents to respond.
Since then, hundreds of people have turned to this page to learn, connect, and take action, helping to foster new organizing in our community.

Going forward for the time being, this page will not be active and the folks behind it will not be taking action in the name of The Reform Movement but will instead be showing up where good work is happening to build solidarity towards new possibilities for our community. In particular, please connect with:

Vigo County Jail Prisoner Solidarity Project
Terre Haute DSA
Pride Center of Terre Haute Inc.
Clay County, IN - Jail Expansion

Note: This page will remain live to provide access to earlier posts.

10/29/2021

CALL TO ACTION TO HELP CLAY COUNTY RESIDENTS STOP THE PROPOSED JAIL EXPANSION - Who do you know in Clay County? Invite them to contact the Clay County Commissioners this weekend (before their 9am meeting on Monday) to urge the commissioners to stop the proposed jail expansion that will burden Clay County residents with massive debt and human rights abuses for decades to come.

SAMPLE EMAIL
Dear Commissioners Allender, Heffner, and Sinders,
My name is _____ and I live in Clay County. Please vote to stop the proposed jail expansion. Our tax dollars should instead go towards services and projects that benefit our community. Thank you.
[Name]
[Address]

COMMISSIONERS' EMAIL ADDRESSES ARE: [email protected], [email protected], [email protected] (Bryan Allender, Marty Heffner, Paul Sinders)

LEARN MORE AT www.facebook.com/claycountyjailexpansion

A Jail Expansion is the Wrong Answer for Clay County Take Action Attend the regular Commissioner meeting THIS MONDAY, Nov. 1, 9am at 609 E. National Ave, Brazil. Call the Clay County Commissioners (812-448-9008) and the County Auditor (812-448-9001) or email [email protected] and tell the...

10/24/2021

Full text of letter:

Hats off to Reanda Kirchner and Brandy Pierce, who, unhampered by prejudice about immigrants or a desire to make money off them, saw the injustice of treating them badly and spoke up about the issue.

There are so many reasons why the Clay County jail is not a proper place for immigrants being detained by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). These are mentioned in the excellent Tribune-Star article of Monday, Oct. 18, and include an insufficiency of trained medical staff and lack of opportunity for outside recreation. It is also noted that ICE does not adequately follow up on known deficiencies.

As Reanda and Brandy pointed out, these people are not criminals. If somehow we have twisted our laws to make them qualify as such, shame on us. Sheriff Harden is confident he can handle many more of these immigrants. Do we really think that we can treat poor, needy people like shelf stock without in some way diminishing ourselves?

“No man is an island,” the poet says. “Ask not for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee.”

— Carol Nolan, S.P., Saint Mary-of-the-Woods

Speaking out about Clay jail

10/23/2021

“They’re not thinking about the community, they’re not thinking about the families, they’re not thinking about the people that are being detained and how families are being torn apart,” she said. “It’s the dollar signs.”

As officials in Illinois prepare to shutter the state’s two remaining immigration detention centers, Clay County, Indiana, is moving forward on a proposal that could more than double the capacity

10/22/2021

Copied from Jamie Drendel:

For those keeping track at home, this is 15 years fewer than Jeremy Ross received for trumped up charges of attempting to kill a police officer.

In this case, the victim was a woman, there were witnesses who said Pitts told them what he did, and there was no lack of physical evidence. Pitts’ victim, Alice “Anita” Oswald, even had a protective order against him.

In Jeremy’s case, the “victim” was a male police officer, and there were no witnesses or physical evidence that Jeremy pulled a gun or tried to fire one.

Female landlord with protective order against killer is murdered, man gets 30 years.

Male police officer lies about physical evidence in attempted murder case and lives, man gets 45 years.

It’s hard not to wonder about whose safety this community prioritizes.

A Terre Haute man received a 30-year prison sentence today for his guilty pleas to voluntary manslaughter and burglary in the November 2017 slaying of a local landlord.

10/22/2021

This is Alex. He was in Vigo County Jail since June. He was taken there on a probation violation warrant when he had a stroke and was admitted to the hospital. He was not given his medications. He was not taken to medical appointments scheduled by the hospital for more testing and monitoring. He began having 2 seizures a day inside the jail and medical staff and COs refused him care or to take him to a hospital. They treated him as though he was faking it. Eventually his blood pressure dropped so low it was clear his heart was not working. He was finally transported to ICU on the brink of death. They discovered he had a blood infection that had gone undetected for months and had destroyed a valve in his heart and had traveled to his brain risking an aneurysm. He was on IV antibiotics for 5 days to bring down the infection enough to perform emergency open heart surgery. He could not speak or stand. Alex is very lucky to be alive today, and has come through surgery and after a few days is now able to say "Hi momma" which is a very good sign he will recover his speech. Vigo County Jail's medical neglect and cruel abuse of prisoners nearly led to Alex's death. It must be exposed and stopped. Alex needs rehab, not jail. This county's criminalization of addiction leads to stories like this. May Alex recover. May the Vigo County Jail not be allowed to do this to anyone else.

10/21/2021

"Death Sentence" examines a significant and growing problem in Indiana: the number of people who die in our county jails.

10/21/2021

Please read this short history of jail expansion in Vigo County, and learn how our community chose to build a bigger jail instead of improving our schools, spurring economic development, increasing mental health and drug treatment services, or funding alternative interventions that would actually improve public safety. As Dr. Christ says in the article: “Nobody considers relocating to an area because it has a great jail." Thanks to Vera Institute for paying attention to what's happening here.

The cycle of jail expansion and construction in Terre Haute, Indiana