LOCAL

New coalition urges lawmakers to act on mass incarceration

Times Herald-Record

GOSHEN - A new coalition of social justice groups rallied Wednesday, calling on state and local lawmakers to act on a progressive agenda to address incarceration and systemic inequities.

The new group, Decarcerate the Hudson Valley, announced their formation with three small, socially distanced rallies: One at the corner of Main Street and Scotchtown Avenue, next to the Orange County Government Center and the county court complex; one at Sing Sing Correctional Facility in Ossining; and one at the governor’s mansion in Albany.

Vanessa Cid talks during a rally at the Orange County Government Center in Goshen on Wednesday. The rally was a part of the new coalition of community advocoacy groups called Decarcerate the Hudson Valley and addresses mass incarceration, and other social justice issues.

“The new coalition will be building power throughout the Hudson Valley to demand action by local and state elected officials to address the crisis of mass incarceration. Following the November elections, advocates and impacted people urge state legislature to act on a progressive mandate,” according to a statement the coalition put out in advance of the events.

The coalition’s goals include addressing inequities in how resources are allocated for mental health, social work and housing programs, said Vanessa Cid, 23, of Middletown, an organizer with Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, one of the founding groups.

Protester Alisha Kohn, a transgender woman, talks about the abuse she suffered when she was incarcerated in a men's jail. She was among those at a rally Wednesday at the Orange County Government Center in Goshen, by the new coalition of community advocacy groups called Decarcerate the Hudson Valley

'Give people the proper tools'

“If you give people the proper tools, they would know how to hold themselves above water,” Cid said. Health care helps, too, she said. “Someone’s socioeconomic status should not be their death sentence.”

Cid spoke at the rally about people she knows who have spent time in jail during the pandemic, saying they were not given masks or other preventive care.

Alisha Kohn, 31, of Poughkeepsie, spoke about her experience as a transwoman sentenced as a teenager to 10 years in a men’s prison ‘for destroying property.”

“I was raped, physically assaulted, placed in solitary confinement for nine months during my 10 years,” she said.

Punishing people who cause harm by harming them doesn’t work, said Kohn, who is the director of the Queers for Justice with the Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center. Society needs to find a better way to achieve its goals than the current prison system, she said.

“We’re talking about how we hold people accountable in a way that doesn’t cause more harm to the community,” she said.

The coalition said the Hudson Valley has seen a 36% decrease in the number of people jailed pre-trial since 2019, but as of October there were 13,000 people incarcerated in the Hudson Valley, about 2,200 of them in county jails, with “stark racial disparities” in who is locked up.

The numbers and the cause, as well as new Democratic supermajorities in both houses of the New York State Legislature, led to the coalition. Decarcerate is made up of numerous groups from Westchester to Orange and Dutchess counties, including Beacon4BlackLives, Black Lives Matter Hudson Valley, Dutchess County Progressive Action Alliance, End the New Jim Crow Action Network — Poughkeepsie, Newburgh LGBTQ+ Center, Nobody Leaves Mid-Hudson, Mid Hudson Valley Democratic Socialists of America, and NYCLU Hudson Valley Chapter.

The rally was meant to spread the word to the community, Cid said.

“We’re also letting our elected officials see: We’re out here. We see them,” she said. “We’ll continue to fight until we see results.”

hyakin@th-record.com