FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: No Jail Deaths Coalition | nojaildeathstucson@protonmail.com | NoJailDeaths.Com
TUCSON, Arizona— On Friday, May 6 at 8PM, community members will gather outside Pima County Jail to continue the call for an end to this detention facility. 12 people have died in Pima County Jail since January 2021, some passing within a week of entering into custody of the jail.
“We have to keep coming out so that change is made,” said Julissa Madero whose boyfriend Jacob Miranda, 22, died in the jail in October 2021. “I don’t want anyone else to have to go through the hurt that me and my children are going through.”
Pima County has proven themselves both impotent, and idle to administer adequate care to those placed in detention. There is no aspect of Pima County Jail that is not lacking in their execution of responsibility to the lives they are mistakenly entrusted with.
On May 10, the Pima County Sheriff’s Department will be pursuing a $3.6M increase to their budget for staffing. We ask what good will it serve a dysfunctional at best, and deadly at worst, organization?
The Sheriff’s Department has demonstrated a clear inability to provide access to basic needs at the jail. The four most recent deaths in the jail have been attributed to overdoses. Narcan has only just become available to Correction Officers as of March 2022. What took them so long? We believe it is the pressure applied to the county over the last eight months of this effort that has finally brought this to fruition.
The author Judith Butler has presented us all with the question “…Who counts as human? Whose lives count as lives? And, finally, what makes for a grievable life? Despite our differences in location and history, my guess is that it is possible to appeal to a ‘we,’ for all of us have some notion of what it means to have lost somebody.”
Consider the offenses that could land a person in county jail–minor offenses. Everyday people find themselves in booking, and in this jail everyday people are losing their lives.
In an ongoing effort to spread awareness, mourn, and build connection, a sixth rally will be held at Pima County Jail this Friday. Join us, for the first time or the sixth time, in a show of solidarity for those who are currently incarcerated, and in support of the families calling for answers and an end to Pima County Jail’s tenure plagued by countless abuses and death.
What: Protest at Pima County Jail
When: Friday, May 6, 2022, 7:30 PM
Where: Pima County Adult Detention Complex, 1270 W Silverlake Rd, Tucson, AZ 85713
No More Jail Deaths Coalition is a group of grieving families and their supporters dedicated to seeing an end to death and abuse at the hands of the carceral system.
No Jail Deaths 