Long time UUCville member Kate Fraleigh has worked tirelessly on local criminal justice issues for years. Now she invites you to join her at a community forum on plans for the regional jail on February 12th or 29th. You won’t need to speak, but simply being there shows that many citizens care about this issue. If you have an interest or would like more information contact Kate Fraleigh at katefraleigh@gmail.com.

The Albemarle Charlottesville Regional Jail is holding community forums on Monday Feb 12 and on Thursday Feb 29th. Both are from 5:30-7:30pm at the Carver Recreation Center. You can also participate via zoom at: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/2246822826?omn=89010423034

There are plans to spend millions renovating the jail, but precious tax payer dollars should be spent instead on community based programs that prevent crime in the first place instead of on incarcerating people. Renovations to maintain health (like the HVAC system) are necessary. But those things could be addressed without increasing the indoor square footage or spending so much money. Click here to read more about this. Here’s the press release about the forums.

Watch Kate’s interview on the jail.

There will be a presentation about three possible plans for the renovation/expansion project. The cost of tier 3 is $49 million dollars and $73 million dollars if you count the interest. Tier 2 is less and tier 1 is the least expensive at about $20 million dollars. After the presentation, there will be a comment, question and answer period. Comments can also be sent anytime in writing to acrjcomments@acrj.org.

After the community forums, the ACRJ will choose, possibly in March, which tier to move forward with. Then the Charlottesville City Council, the Albemarle Board of Supervisors, and the Nelson County Board of Supervisors will vote on the funding for that tier.