Regarding your June 22 editorial on Cuyahoga County’s deal with Cleveland regarding the jail (“A step forward on jail agreement, but more needs to be done”), I want to thank the editorial board for remaining focused on the violation of people’s basic rights. Policy must focus on keeping people out of jail, not on making their incarceration a slightly more lucrative proposition for the county.
The County Jail represents the floor for how we allow people to be treated in our community, and that floor remains very, very low. Three jail deaths have already occurred this year. Two of the deceased were in County Jail due to what appear from the record to be altercations with medical staff at local psychiatric hospitals — indicating we are still using the jail as a place to hide away people who have already been failed by our social services…