Official Statements

The Path to Local Abolition

Let’s work together towards abolition!

Challenge the claim that police keep us safe. The safest communities don’t have the most cops. they have the most resources.

Terminate police officer and child abuser Josh Squires immediately. And remove the position from the budget. This will reduce police funding. This can reduce policing.

Demand that the original vision of the Alternative Response Team, separate from police, be reinstated. NO SOFT POLICE! A non-police Alternative Response Team can increase genuine public safety.

Stop the city from building a multimillion dollar police station; invest those funds in our community, NOT COPS.

Invest in housing, child care, non-coersive mental health and addiction services, and our collective care.

Community Not Cages means Community Not Cops

Divest/Invest: Restart the ART!

Abolition is our future.

To get there, we must take critical steps to divest from institutions that are harming us and invest in our safety. The Alternative Response Team is a starting point.

What is the conversation about the ART? Why isn’t it public?

In 2020, Engage Winona was hired by the city to facilitate a steering committee and formulate a plan for what became known as the Alternative Response Team (ART). Community members, representatives from the Advocacy Center, Hiawatha Valley Mental Health, the Family and Children’s Center, city council, and the police comprised this committee. Over the course of several months, they developed a promising program. The final vision, formed through consensus, was a completely alternative response, separate from police and dispatched from 9-1-1, to help with crisis calls. The ART aimed to create a trusted, confidential, community-based resource available to all city residents.

This program was approved unanimously by city council in 2020 and was given its own separate funding category and the opportunity to prove its efficacy. A few months later, it was cut when the city council claimed a budget crisis. Council has not publicly discussed it since that time. Furthermore, City Manager Chad Ubl continues to have private meetings about new “mental health initiatives” without informing the public or working for the vision that community stakeholders had already approved. If the city council truly cut the fledgling program due to a budget crisis, then they can certainly pick that conversation back up now that $180,000 is available from American Rescue Plan funding. Budgets are moral documents, and funding our community, not the police, needs to be a priority for social change. Investing in policing is harmful to our entire community, as it interferes with the ability to invest in our collective safety through education, health care, housing, child care, and community green spaces. Winona has not prioritized such public safety needs. Economic development, the site of Winona’s investment in housing, is only 3.8% of the 2022 budget, contrasted with the police budget which is 32.4% of the city’s budget.

Take action!

Speak at public comment!

Write a letter to the editor!

Contact City Council!

Mayor Scott Sherman 507-313-0676 ssherman@ci.winona.mn.us

Steve Young, 1st Ward 507-312-4491 syoung@ci.winona.mn.us

Jeff Hyma, 2nd Ward 507-313-1202 jhyma@ci.winona.mn.us

Pam Eyden, 3rd Ward 507-454-6758 peyden@ci.winona.mn.us

George Borzyskowski, 4th Ward 507-454-4463 gborzyskowski@ci.winona.mn.us

Aaron Repinski, At-Large 507-458-7485 arepinski@ci.winona.mn.us

Jerome Christenson, At-Large 507-246-6482 jchristenson@ci.winona.mn.us

They’re doing what?!

Context:

Last week, city manager Chad Ubl presented a proposal to the county board regarding potential collaboration on the city’s proposed plan to create an unnecessary additional police station, four times larger than the current WPD space. We appreciate the county board members who stated they did not want to invest further in carceral systems, as the county is already $28.5 million in debt for the new jail, and who have recognized the community needs other investments outside of law enforcement. County board chair Chris Meyer stated, “I don’t think I would ask them to invest in law enforcement again, given that we are just in the process of making this big investment in the jail. So from that standpoint, I don’t think I am interested as a commissioner in advancing an agenda to make a big investment in law enforcement.” Meyer said she saw preventative social services and mental health care as more urgent needs.

Claim:

If the city and county build a new facility, they could provide more space for other services.

Rebuttal:

The county’s exploration into uses for the space in the LEC, which would be left vacant if the WPD relocates, are troubling as the discussions continue on a combined police and sheriff’s department. Our community must demand to remove health and other public services from the discussion. According to the Winona Post, County Administrator Holte “raised the possibility of renting a smaller portion of a new city facility. Since the county downsized its buildings in 2018, it has been renting space: at the Winona Mall for the License Center and at Winona Health for public health offices, for example. At Meyer’s suggestion, staff has been studying the county’s overall space needs with an eye toward possibly relocating rented offices to the LEC, where the new jail project has freed up excess space.” We must prevent local government from further extending its carceral reach into necessary and life-affirming resources.

Claim:

The Winona Police Department needs a new police station.

Rebuttal:

The city of Winona’s plans for a new police station, or potential combined “public safety” building (see Community Not Cages previous statements regarding the harm in housing the police with fire or ambulance services), seem out of step with other communities in the state in regards to size, scale, and cost. For example, four other communities requested state bonding for fire, ambulance, and community centers for a total of $26 million in state bonding, yet Winona has requested $21 million for a standalone police station (including a gun range and covered parking garage for the city/county’s tank/MRAP). This enormous request was not included in the governor’s initial bonding proposal. BKV’s proposals for large police complexes are not in line with our community’s interests and needs. The city must return to the drawing board and present proposals which do not see us in massive debt for large scale police complexes that do not serve us.

Claim:

The city of Winona is more likely to receive bonding for a combined facility.

Rebuttal:

When the city was considering tearing down our East End Rec Center for the proposed police/fire complex, city manager Chad Ubl repeatedly told the public that a combined facility was more likely to get state bonding. Yet the governor’s current bonding proposal seeks to support various communities’ proposals to build standalone fire and ambulance services, as well as standalone community centers. Did the city follow through with its promises to apply for state funding to invest in the East End Rec and Friendship Center? Or was that not considered further when we refused to let them put a police station on that site? There must be accountability for those commitments; we must continue to demand investment in our community, not cops.

City Council

ssherman@ci.winona.mn.us, syoung@ci.winona.mn.us, jhyma@ci.winona.mn.us, peyden@ci.winona.mn.us, gborzyskowski@ci.winona.mn.us, arepinski@ci.winona.mn.us, jchristenson@ci.winona.mn.us

County Board

Email all: CountyBoard@co.winona.mn.us

Or individually: CMeyer@co.winona.mn.us, DVoegeli@co.winona.mn.us, GOlson@co.winona.mn.us, MWard@co.winona.mn.us

Email Zap: ART Letter to City Council

Hello Council Members Hyma and Christenson,

I am writing to congratulate you on your new position as a representative for the city of Winona and also ask that you consider advocating for the reinstatement of the Alternative Response Team (ART).

Some backstory:

In 2020, a steering committee was formed with Engage Winona, who were hired to facilitate discussions and formulate a plan for what became known as the Alternative Response Team (ART). Community members, representatives from the Advocacy Center, Hiawatha Valley Mental Health, the Family and Children’s Center, city council, and the police comprised this committee, and over the course of several months, they developed a promising program. Community members fought for a completely alternative response, separate from police and dispatched from 911, to deal with various nonviolent situations. The ART aimed to create a trusted, confidential, community-based resource available to all city residents.

City council initially approved funding for the program, but claiming a budget shortfall for 2022, it cut the funding before the ART had a chance to begin. Now, with $180,000 worth of funds available from the American Rescue Plan Act, the community has a chance to see the ART reinstated. To make this happen, city council members have to bring it back to the table. Recently at council, City Manager Chad Ubl announced he was in discussion with HVMH and Winona Health to consider what to do with the $180,000 set aside for “Mental Health Initiatives.” This dollar amount happens to be roughly the amount needed to start and staff the ART program. 

The city had already worked with HVMH to create an implementation plan and begin the hiring process for the ART when the program was initially approved for funding in 2020. To now include Winona Health in the conversation, creating new mental health initiatives, is a pattern of consistently reinventing the wheel and stalling progress. Furthermore, city officials have continually conflated the Alternative Response Team to the Winona County crisis response team. The existing crisis response team is admittedly understaffed and has a large service area, with up to 50-minute response times. This is not adequate. Again, I am asking that you support the needs of Winona by bringing the ART discussion back to council. Our community needs these resources now. 

Thank you for considering,

{insert name}

Contact: 

Jeff Hyma, 2nd Ward 507-313-1202 jhyma@ci.winona.mn.us

Jerome Christenson, At-Large 507-246-6482 jchristenson@winona.mn.us

Mayor Scott Sherman 507-313-0676 ssherman@ci.winona.mn.us

Steve Young, 1st Ward 507-312-4491 syoung@ci.winona.mn.us

Pam Eyden, 3rd Ward 507-454-6758 peyden@ci.winona.mn.us

George Borzyskowski, 4th Ward 507-454-4463 gborzyskowski@ci.winona.mn.us

Aaron Repinski, At-Large 507-458-7485 arepinski@ci.winona.mn.uS

Chad Ubl, City Manager 507-457-8258 cubl@ci.winona.mn.us

Keep Cops Out of Schools

In 2020, the School Board unanimously voted to end WAPS’ contract with the Winona Police Department for a school resource officer (SRO) stationed mainly at Winona Senior High School. This decision followed Minnesota Department of Human Rights findings of racial discrimination, including students being followed home by the SRO. Community members demanded cops be removed from schools to address the systemic racism, classism, and ableism of WAPS.  

Currently, there are safety positions at the middle and high school level and safety-related behavioral positions at the elementary level. These positions play the role of soft policing, which is the illusion of a nonpunitive position that perpetuates surveillance without a badge or oversight. This was not the community demand in 2020, and we do not accept these roles as a safer alternative. We maintain that investing in counseling and curricular resources is the best way to create safety in our schools. 

As covered in the October 28th Winona Post, school board member Denzer said, “And I wouldn’t be opposed to addressing having security officers. I think we have to be open-minded and readdress things, if they come up in the future.” We can’t go backwards; the decision to remove the SRO in 2020 must remain. And further investments for students’ health and safety are needed. 

TAKE ACTION: Residents Organizing Against Racism (ROAR), Our Voices, and Community Not Cages ask that you join them in protecting this 2020 win by writing to ALL school board members and demanding that they keep cops out of schools, invest in counselors, and fully implement compassionate schools with restorative practices, a commitment already made in 2017 by the school board with no material action. 

Furthermore, according to the recent Winona Post article, “How WAPS used COVID funds; what’s next,” over the past two years, WAPS used ESSER, federal Elementary and Secondary School Emergency Relief funds, to fund programs such as more counseling services, English learning, as well as student success coaches. All of those programs were reduced in funding this year compared to last year, as ESSER funds are depleted. We demand that all the student support services that were created or received more funding since 2020 remain in place and receive their own funding in the WAPS general budget to invest in genuine school safety. 

Addresses:

nancy.denzer@winona.k12.mn.us

michael.hanratty@winona.k12.mn.us

tina.lehnertz@winona.k12.mn.us

pete.watkins@winona.k12.mn.us

jim.schul@winona.k12.mn.us

stephanie.smith@winona.k12.mn.us

karl.sonneman@winona.k12.mn.us

annette.freiheit@winona.k12.mn.us

2022 Year in Review

IN 2022, WE COLLECTIVELY STOPPED COP BLOCK! TOGETHER, WE CAN WIN SO MUCH MORE!

We ended 2021 on a high note, we had stopped the county from building a regional juvenile detention center and reduced the size of the new jail. In November 2021, we came together in the freezing rain with Twin Cities abolitionist Jason Sole, founder of Humanize My Hoodie and Institute of Aspiring Abolitionists, to envision the horizon of a safer and more just community. He reminded us all of the importance of staying “grounded in the work.” For this reason, Community Not Cages (CNC) slowed down for our collective care, committed to political education, and cooked and shared food together to begin 2022. 

In February, after the city council unveiled a horrific plan to use public space to build a ridiculously overpriced new police station, Community Not Cages hosted a “People’s Public Comment” event on the steps of city hall with more than sixty community members in attendance. This direct action was necessary, because public comment was not allowed at city council meetings yet. 

The key demands at the “People’s Public Comment” were:

  • Use American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) funds to reinstate the Alternative Response Team (ART);
  • Affordable housing NOW;
  • Allow public comment at council;
  • Collective care through empowering people;
  • Keep cops out of community centers.

In honor of May Day, CNC hosted a community art installment at the site of the county’s new $28 million jail.  It offered us space to remember past struggles, scatter wildflower seeds, and demonstrate our hope for a better future. A day to remember that an injury to one is an injury to all. We asked local kids to create a picture of what they would have created in the space in which the new jail was being built. Some of the responses were a hospital, community gardens, a park, an LGBTQ+ center, a cat cafe, a food forest, a pool, a children’s museum, a vet clinic, or somebody’s loving comfy home. What would you have liked to see in the space? 

Winter/Spring Radical Library Building at the WPL

Community Not Cages organized support to provide abolitionist knowledge for children and adults for the Winona Public Library, ensuring that abolition is accessible to the entire community! Some titles included A is for Activist, Water Protectors, and Abolition. Feminism. Now. Check them out at the library today!

Mutual Aid: Solidarity, Not Charity 

Throughout the year, we hosted multiple pop-up community events. Members of our community shared food and educated community members about the campaign to stop cop block and save the rec. Nearly 150 community members were fed this summer, and together we dreamed up a people’s budget! 

Juneteenth was a three-day celebration led by Our Voices and in coalition with Residents Organizing Against Racism (ROAR) and Community Not Cages. Our Voices hosted a book drive and public lecture, and on June 19th, they offered space for political education about the campaign to stop cop block, awesome food, and incredible performances.

Later in the summer, we assisted with a back-to-school event that provided free haircuts, backpacks, and lunch; many thanks to Uncle Gills Cutz for this collaboration. 

Win to STOP COP BLOCK

We stopped cop block: The multi-million dollar project that would have demolished a cherished rec center in Winona’s east end neighborhood, and replace it with a three-story police/fire complex, which would include a gun range, a gym, and parking for the Winona Sheriff and WPD’s Mine Resistant Armored Vehicle (MRAP).  Cop block was branded by the city as a “public safety” building.  Community Not Cages reminded our community that the rec center is already a place of public safety. The rec is the only free, indoor space for children to use regularly with an adult attendant, making it an integral resource for working families. It also hosts the winter’s farmer market, vaccine clinics, youth and adult sports, and other programming, it acts as an emergency shelter, and it maintains a space for community gardens. Preserving this space is a huge collective win for our community!

Most historic was the July 5th, 2022 public hearing! After months of demands for a public hearing on the proposal a date was set for the hearing, despite an attempt by some city council members to hold the hearing directly after a holiday, more than 200 people showed up at city hall, filling the council chambers and spilling out into the hall. During the almost three hours of public comment, 68 testimonies were made to save the rec, while only three supported the proposal. Children, moms, grandmas, farmers, teachers, artists — WE spoke truth to power. 

Community Not Cages is committed to ongoing political education, as the best praxis is grounded in the strategies, wins, and pitfalls of other movements. We learned from the campaign to Stop Cop City in Atlanta, GA, which provided an analysis of the prison industrial complex’s interconnected state violence via policing, militarism, and settler colonial environmental injustices. Our campaign to “stop cop block” was created using lessons learned from Atlanta’s struggle. Our rural organizing win wouldn’t be possible without this network of brilliance. Stop cop city! Save the forest! 

On December 15, 2022, our organizing labor was acknowledged by the Advocacy Center of Winona, who awarded CNC with their new “Creating a Safer Community” Award! 

In 2023, we must continue to fight to fund our collective care. Demand the city and county governments DEFUND THE POLICE and INVEST IN:  

  • Affordable housing and child care
  • Fund parks, green space, and community gardens
  • Continue to invest in and improve the Rec and the Friendship Center
  • Non-coercive mental health and addiction services 
  • Fund the Alternative Response Team, as envisioned in 2020
  • Restorative practices available for repair in our community 
  • Clean air, clean water, food security, and unapologetic abortion access. 

To join us in 2023, find us on Facebook/Instagram: communitynotcages OR check out our website: winonacommunitynotcages.org

New Email Zap

City council members,

I am reaching out regarding the proposed ordinance to consider eviction and rental license revocation for nuisances on a property.  This proposed ordinance seems ill conceived, the proposed solution for minor nuisances on rental properties is to remove people from their homes, this is hardly a solution and leads to much bigger problems for our community to hold. For people who are living on a fine financial line eviction can be the start of a spiral of homelessness. The lack of affordable housing in Winona is well known. Many people cannot produce the necessary funds to pay required rental deposits with short notice, the ability to find a new rental will further be compromised if they have an eviction on their rental record.  This ordinance has the potential to increase the individuals and families that will experience homelessness in our community.  I’m not sure that the full ramifications of this ordinance have been considered.  I urge you to vote against this proposal and work with the broader community, including housing advocates, to determine a more reasonable solution for managing complicated issues on rental properties.  Thank you for your consideration of the matter.

Mayor Scott Sherman 507-313-0676 ssherman@ci.winona.mn.us

Steve Young, 1st Ward 507-312-4491 syoung@ci.winona.mn.us

Eileen Moeller, 2nd Ward 847-890-5478 emoeller@ci.winona.mn.us

Pam Eyden, 3rd Ward 507-454-6758 peyden@ci.winona.mn.us

George Borzyskowski, 4th Ward 507-454-4463  gborzyskowski@ci.winona.mn.us

Aaron Repinski, At-Large 507-458-7485 arepinski@ci.winona.mn.us

Michelle Alexander, At-Large 507-474-9179 malexander@ci.winona.mn.us

Chad Ubl, City Manager 507-457-8258 cubl@ci.winona.mn.us

A Response to the Comprehensive Plan and ARPA Funds

This year, the city of Winona began updates to the Comprehensive Plan, which was last completed in 2007. The Twin Cities-based firm HKGi is the primary consultant, and Engage Winona has lead engagement and public input.

Imagine the shock to find out that the vision of the Comprehensive Plan actually takes us backwards from years of “engagement.” The Winona Post reported on October 7, 2022: “One idea considered to coordinate mental health resources was to add a social worker to the 911 emergency dispatch center staff to better help direct calls, somewhat similar to the proposed Alternative Response Team (ART), which was cut from the city’s budget last year.” This proposal is separate from the original ART, which was cut in December 2021.

Rewind….
In good faith, individual members of Community Not Cages (CNC) joined the 2020 committee which created the ART and was facilitated by Engage Winona. CNC members advocated for the program to be located separate from the carceral apparatuses of the police and Department of Human Services. It is important to note that despite Community Not Cages organizing efforts to remove police from the process, there was a police representative. Furthermore, there were no harm reduction advocates (those supporting non-coercive addiction services) and very little effort on the part of facilitation to include impacted communities, those that have experienced racist, sexist, and ableist state violence, despite it being framed locally as a “diverse committee.”

The Engage process was billed as consensus, and on November 20, 2020, the committee agreed on some of the following terms:

  • Provide an alternate first response to police in appropriate cases
  • Assist and support the police department with crisis intervention, follow up with individuals and families after incidents involving police
  • Create a trusted, confidential, community-based resource available to all city residents with minimum interaction from the government
  • Emergency Response—The ART will have the capability to provide an alternative response to nonviolent 911 calls with existing caseload, mental health crisis assistance, as well as assist with crisis intervention planning both in person and remotely. The ART will be dispatched through the county dispatch center and tasked with providing emergency-level response time. The ART will provide confidential services, support, and follow-up.

As Community Not Cages argued, the original 2020 plan to place social workers in the police department was to “soften” the image of policing. The Alternative Response was given its own separate funding and the opportunity to prove its efficacy, with potential to divest from the police budget in the future and invest in public safety outside of carceral institutions. Then it was cut.

Fast Forward….
On October 26, 2022, the Winona Post reported that the city aims to partner with Winona Health and Hiawatha Valley Mental Health Center to discuss how exactly the city could spend the $180,000 earmarked COVID relief funds for mental health initiatives, the exact amount that was needed to fund the ART. The ARPA funds make the original plan possible without the city’s budget crisis affecting the launch of the program. The city council and city planner, Chad Ubl, seem determined to not fund the ART, despite original city council approval and widespread community support.


Before subcommittees started reworking Winona’s comprehensive plan, Engage Winona was hired to seek input from residents, and their work was included in introductory materials to the groups. We shared our visions, where is the accountability that those visions were compiled accurately, presented and considered by the various subcommittees shaping the new comp plan? Why are we reinventing the wheel? Fund the already crafted model of the Alternative Response Team, which is NOT a co-responder model!

Furthermore, the Downtown and Riverfront Subcommittee include in their “Goals, Objectives, and Strategies”: “encourage foot patrolling of the downtown area so that public safety officers are integrated into the downtown community and are a visual presence.” According to the Comprehensive Plan Engagement Report, over 2,000 people were spoken to. A large percentage of the comments asked for increased access to affordable and safe housing and mental health resources, not increased surveillance and policing.

We continue to demand that the city fund the ART, community recreation resources for all ages, and not invest funds into a new building for police. Fund our community, not cops.

To learn more about Community Not Cages history of demanding a legitimate alternative response team:

  • September 2020
  • August 2021 (Check Instagram @communitynotcages)
  • January 2022 (Check Instagram @communitynotcages)

What can you do?

City Council voted to drop the plans to demolish the Rec!

At the September 19th city council meeting it was unanimously voted to drop the plans to demolish the East End Rec to build a police/fire station.

This is a huge win for our community!

Thank you to everyone who showed up, sent an email, made a call, provided food and resources for our community dinners, or spoke at the public hearing. Our collective action made this possible.

EMAIL ZAP TO CITY COUNCIL:

“I would like to thank you for unanimously voting to end the plans to tear down the rec center. Over the past year, there has been much discussion from council about improving the rec and its offerings. Now that the plans are dropped to build the police/fire complex in that lot, I hope those promises of revitalization are not forgotten. Renovation of the building and upkeep of the playground, basketball courts, and community garden space are just as important now as they were when discussing a new rec. Continued programming at the rec is so valuable to our community. I look forward to the council’s commitment to this much loved community hub.

As discussion about what to do for the police and fire departments moves forward, I’d like to urge the council to keep the two departments separate and at the locations where they currently stand. We have yet to hear the county and city discuss the importance of collaboration, to ensure city and county resources, and funding, are best used for the people. As evidenced by public comment, not all citizens are comfortable with the two departments being housed together. Listening to public sentiment before developing new plans can help stave off another setback in city planning.
Thank you for hearing the demands of the people you serve,
{Your name}

Winona City Council Contacts:
ssherman@ci.winona.mn.us
malexander@ci.winona.mn.us
syoung@ci.winona.mn.us
emoeller@ci.winona.mn.us
peyden@ci.winona.mn.us
gborzyskowski@ci.winona.mn.us
arepinski@ci.winona.mn.us

New Claims/Rebuttal (posted 7/20/22)

Context: The Winona City Council has plans to tear down the East End Rec and replace it with a combined police/fire complex. Despite the fact that it is more economically, environmentally and morally responsible for each department to stay where they are, they aim to build a 3-story police/fire complex with a gun range. That doesn’t belong in a neighborhood! This plan includes building a new rec across the street, which will increase surveillance of kids and will increase criminalization of youth. Winona has a documented history of youth criminalization and complicity in the school-to-prison pipeline. Community Not Cages continues to reject the branding of this plan as a “public safety building.” The current rec is already a site of public safety! It supports the social, emotional, and physical needs of children and families and is a community meeting space that facilitates relationships.

On July 5th, more than 200 community members packed city hall for a public hearing. The public hearing occurred after six months of community organizing and demands to be heard. The city council still does not allow a public comment period during their regular meetings. Public records show there have been 139 comments in opposition to this plan, and only six in support. And yet, the city council continues to push forward with this unpopular plan. 

Claim: According to WEAU’s reporting on July 13, 2022, without any evidence, Sherman stated that  “there are also a large number of people in Winona who support the proposal, [and]  it’s the most feasible path for upgrading the East End Rec while simultaneously improving public safety.”

Rebuttal: In response to Mayor Scott Sherman’s  claim, there is little to no evidence that even a significant minority of the community support the current “public safety” building proposal. The July 5th public hearing clearly showed an overwhelming community presence in opposition to the plan, with very little support. When the tallies were in from the combined comments made in person and online there were 139 comments in opposition to the proposal, and only 6 in support. We support the vision that City Councilperson Pam Eyden expressed in the July 20th Winona Post, “in retrospect, given the strength of the community’s response to that and their good arguments, I think we should return and look at alternative sites,” Eyden also argued these three projects should not be combined and the most valuable city improvement would be an enhanced Rec Center and Friendship Center. 

Claim: According to the July 20th Winona Post, City Councilperson Michlle Alexander stated: “we heard from the group that requested the public hearing, and now it’s just going out and meeting with different groups…” There will be additional public input sessions.

Rebuttal: Why? A public hearing is not designated to a group of people, and July 5th was one of the largest attended council meetings of the whole community. Despite public outcry, more than 200 folks in attendance, and 139 statements of opposition, city staff continue to plan for this proposal amid growing community dissent. The hours worked by staff to investigate funding and land purchases are paid by Winona residents, who don’t support this plan! They have refused to afford us a public comment at regular meetings, despite saying they are working on a procedure for public comment months ago.  Why spend energy planning more sessions when they won’t even let us democratically speak in city council meetings?

Claim: The new rec will be bigger and better.  Also according to WEAU’s reporting, Mayor Scott Sherman stated, “While we would remove the current East End Rec facility, we would build it bigger and also improve upon what is currently there.”

Rebuttal: A “new rec” is uncertain as the proposed site for the construction of a “new rec” does not currently belong to the city, and funding for the plan is unknown.  Furthermore, there will be less space overall for the new “community center” being proposed, with the intention of combining the Friendship Center and the East End Rec. The outdoor space would be smaller with no community gardens or basketball courts. 

Indeed, we NEED more spaces like the rec center and Friendship Center. These services deserve to be economic priorities of transformative development; however, visions for a new Rec and Friendship Center HAVE NOT been the priority in this proposal; they are a mere afterthought to prioritizing a new police station. Interestingly, the “new community center” is proposed to have 29,000 sq ft for the entire community, while the new police/fire complex is proposed to have 69,888 sq ft (Winona Post May 4, 2022).

Winona’s population is not likely to increase, according to estimates by state and local demographers (as cited in the city’s Comprehensive Plan introductory sessions). Most recently, population has declined by over 2,000 residents, and any increase would simply return the city size back to its 2010 numbers. Funding police further and building a new, larger police station does not line up with the future needs of Winona.

Claim: Community Not Cages wants to “defund the police.”

Response: That is correct. Policing is a continuation of racist, colonial, classist, and sexist harm. Investing in policing is harmful to our entire community,  as it interferes with the ability to invest in our collective safety through education, health care, housing, childcare, and community green spaces. Winona has not prioritized such public safety needs. Economic development, the site of Winona’s investment in housing, only increased by $190K from 2018-2020, contrasted with the police budget which increased by nearly $1 million over the same period of time. The $38-42 million dollar plan prioritizes the interests of police and includes: the removal of the community gardens and green spaces, a private gym for police and fire department, a parking garage for the Mine-Resistant Ambush Protected US military vehicle the city owns, and a below surface gun range. 

Budgets are moral documents, funding our community, not the police, needs to be a priority for social change.  As scholar and historian Robin DG Kelley has argued, defunding the police and abolishing carceral systems is about “attacking the systems and symbols of racism and white supremacy.”

Claim/Rebuttal for Proposed Police/Fire Complex

Claim: If the city were to use the current site of the East End Rec to build a new police/fire complex, then a new combined rec center and friendship center will be built at the site of St. Stans.

Rebuttal: The city has had plans to renovate the current East End Rec to make space for the Friendship Center long before the talk of a police/fire complex was proposed at the site (Aug 26, 2020). The cost of the updates to the proposed combined Rec at that time was approximately $5 million.  The city does not own the property at St. Stans, and there are no guarantees they can purchase the property or for funding renovations to that property. If the St. Stans property was purchased and used to build a newer rec center, the footprint would be smaller, creating less outdoor space, with no room for basketball courts or community gardens.

Claim: The Winona police department needs a new police station.

Rebuttal: There is space to expand and opportunities for remodeling at the current Law Enforcement Center (LEC). According to the Winona Post article, “Extra Space at the Law Enforcement Center” (Feb 2022), there is room for the Winona police department and the sheriff’s office to expand at the LEC, now that the new jail is being built, at a cost of $28 Million. Old cell blocks have already been remodeled for the new dispatch center, and there are more that can be remodeled. City officials have stated the cost of expansion for the WPD at the current LEC location would cost approximately $4 million. Interestingly, the city’s WPD contract with the county expires in 2024. We have been silenced without the ability to speak for 6 months now. Make no mistake, the proposal to begin building in 2024 clearly means the city has been planning this project without community feedback for a very long time. 

Claim: The Winona fire department needs a new station

Rebuttal: The city of Winona bought the properties behind the current fire station with the intention of expanding the station at its current location in 2006, at a cost of $536,000 (Winona Post April 27,2022).  The estimated cost of renovations to update the current fire department was $2.3 million in 2019 (Winona Post April 20, 2022).

Claim: The city is likely to receive state bonding to cover the costs of the police/fire complex.

Rebuttal: Bonding funds are not guaranteed. The estimated cost for the new combined police/fire complex and new rec center is currently at $38-$42 million.  Renovations of the current buildings are estimated at $11.3 million, $26.7-30.7 million dollars less!  The city has proposed that they would help to cover the cost of the project by applying for state bonding.  Even if this controversial project were to be awarded funding through state bonding, a competitive process, the bonding would only cover up to 50% of the cost. The rest of the funding would put taxpayers on the hook for $19-21 million, almost twice the cost of keeping the departments where they are at and our Rec whole as a site of true public safety. We already have a huge $28 million county jail being built with no plans in place for how to pay for it. Why is there always money for jails and police? 

Claim: BKV Group and ISG (the architects of this proposal) have our community’s best interests in mind. 

Rebuttal: They are an outside firm that proposed to demolish our rec center and previously Sinclair Park (purple dinosaur park). ISG architects profit from structural racism and settler colonialism, as they have profited off of prison designs and the Dakota Access Pipeline. 

Claim: The county will gouge prices on rent, so renovating the current police station isn’t an option.

Rebuttal: The conversation between the city and county to explore these options has not happened. Chief Williams’ conjecture that the city’s rent will go up and that the city will have to pay for all renovations is unproven. According to Sheriff Ganrude, “he offered the Winona police department the entire basement of the LEC, but said the conversation didn’t go any further.” (Winona Post Feb 23, 2022)

The city will be holding a public hearing session during the City Council meeting on July 5 at 6:30 p.m. on the third floor of city hall and will also gather public input online now through June 29 at ​​tinyurl.com/453fn8ez

Stop Cop Block by organizing your neighbors! 

Context:

The Winona City Council has announced potential plans to demolish the East End Recreation Center and replace it with a $26 million “public safety” building. On May 16th, officials presented a plan to buy the neighboring St. Stan’s school and make it a community center, with a new police-fire station demolishing the East End Rec Center, parks, and community gardens. Public safety is grounded in a healthy community, in which people are housed, fed, and our collective needs are met. The East End Rec Center is currently a site of safety; it provides a safe space for youth and adults alike. It is a place for kids to play and is the location of our community gardens. It houses the winter farmer’s market and vaccine clinics, and it acts as a polling place. It offers adults a space for community education and sports, and it has been a warm and welcoming space for the free lunch program. The city of Winona claims that “public safety” is defined by policing and the fire department, hence their plans to build a new combined facility which they are framing as a “public safety” building. White supremacy and oppression dictate current carceral definitions of “public safety.” Criminalization, containment, and surveillance are core components of carceral apparatuses; as such, for whom are they “safe?” 

Talking to your neighbors builds community safety! 

  • According to Winona City Council agenda packets:
    • “Public facing reception counter does not have ballistic-resistant assemblies leaving a potential risk to staff.” What about the neighborhood!?!
    • “Training spaces are not provided to support the department’s current goals such as situational and defensive tactical training.” According to City Manager Chad Ubl, Cop Block will be three stories tall and house a gun range. Next to children!? Is this what we want to invest in? 
  • The commitment to a community rec center and the friendship center has come AFTER public pressure. The January 31st drawings of the plan presented parking lots at the sites of the now proposed rec center. Even if they tell the public that they WILL build a new rec center after the “public safety” building is done, there is no guarantee they actually  will. Police interests have been the guiding vision for this plan, not the safety of children and the community. 
  • The most recent proposal eliminates the existing basketball courts, playground, and community garden at the ERC. Yet we are to believe the city is going to give us a new shiny community center? Council Person Michelle Alexander claimed May 16 they would break up the community gardens and disperse them in neighborhoods. This dispersal defeats the community building and learning opportunity community gardens provide!  Furthermore, the current community gardens became a reality due to organizing efforts by citizens and outside grants, they were not originally planned or funded by the city.  The city has historically not invested in community gardens, why would we believe that they will in the future?
  • Prioritizing the police station (equipped with a gun range) over kids and the rec center will continue a dangerous pattern of police surveillance, violence, and attempts to invest in youth incarceration in Winona; it mirrors the racist, ableist, classist, and patriarchal youth control complex. Victor Rios defines this as a “ubiquitous system that functions to monitor, stigmatize, criminalize, and collectively punish young people of color.” Winona has a documented pattern of the youth control complex, which is interlocking to the school-to-prison pipeline:
    • From 2017-2018: Black students were 8.5 times more likely than white students to experience suspensions at WAPS, linked to the racial discrimination and policing in schools.
    • July 2020: Minnesota Department of Human Rights investigation documents police harassment in Winona Area Public Schools. After organized community pressure, WAPS School Board voted to remove police from schools.
    • April 2021: With continued pressure from the community, the Winona County board members declare they will no longer consider building a juvenile detention center.
    • The current proposal places children next to police: “I think the city has lost its mind if it wants to put cops on top of children”–Tara Bailey and her husband, Andre, lead a drumline that’s based out of the ERC (Winona Post, May 18)
  • Community Not Cages has been told there is potential for state bonding, and that when making that request for state funding, one building is cheaper than two. Using this same logic, we contest that zero new buildings are cheaper than one, economically and environmentally.
    • City Manager Chad Ubl has not provided ample evidence for the claim that state bonding is more likely! The city will need to wait and request state bonding funds in 2024 AND can still be denied. Like the jail, will we sit with a large complex and no plan for payment!? The community did not ask for this project! 
    • Chad Ubl’s claim that the total cost of three separate projects — $47-55 million — would be $9-12 million more than the cost estimate for the combined police-fire-community center project (Winona Post May 18). This claim is again new and not based on evidence or adequate research. In February and March, the police and fire station remodels were discussed at a total cost of $6.3 million dollars, a quarter of the proposed project. Invest in our community, not in cops. 
  • What do these proposals do to make us safer? The safest communities don’t have the most police; they have the most resources. Tell the city council, support Kids NOT cops! 

Organize! 

  • Talk to your neighbors
  • Submit digital form for public input. Note: we reject the continued rhetoric that policing is public safety.
  • Pack the City Hall for the Public Hearing July 5 at 6:30pm!
  • To get involved, contact: winonacommunitynotcages@gmail.com

“Listen to Us“

“LISTEN TO US”: On February 26, 2022, Our Voices, a Winona Black youth organization,  wrote and performed the following act in honor of Black History Month. Some excerpts shared  with permission. Learn more about contacting city council members about the East End Rec.

Ugh! You know! We really have  to start speaking up more. Just because we’re young doesn’t mean we’re voiceless.

For real though. Because all of the destruction that’s taking place around us will be left for us young people to fix.

The thing that gets me is when grown ups get together and come up with “plans” for us without even talking to us!

Yeah like how do they know what we want or like if they don’t even talk to us!

Did you hear they’re building a bigger jail here?

We KNOW who they’re going to fill it up with.

Yeah did you hear they’re also talking about possibly tearing down the East End Rec? Making it into like a police-fire station kid center type thing. Sounds weird.

NOOOO! The rec use to be fun to hangout at.

Who Makes these decisions? Are any kids talked to when these plans are being made?

It’s sad because a lot of us kids are struggling mentally. Many kids deal with stuff quietly and unfortunately many kids drown out these struggles with toxic things. 

Yes, stuff like drugs, alcohol, and other addictions. It’s like we’re screaming out to be seen and heard and no one is listening. Instead they want to talk about ISS, suspension, detention centers and prisons. 

How does any of this help us! 

You can’t ride your bikes in a group without someone asking if you’re a gang. And don’t have too many young people hanging out at the lake or the parks because then you’ll have someone threatening to call the cops on you because your group scares them…mmm hmmm. We all know what they really mean. 

Instead of talks of bigger prisons and preparing us for it through the school to prison pipeline with these exaggerated suspensions. Why not talk about needed things?

Things like Rec centers where kids can go and do art, play instruments, group therapy, animal care, yoga.

I wonder why therapy is never mentioned but they’re quick to talk about locking people away. 

I’m tired of feeling like I’m in a big bubble having my every move watched. Feeling like we’re in cages not allowed to be kids who make mistakes without the mentioning of jails. Why is there never mention of mental health services?

We are not too young to advocate for ourselves. Yeah, we’re not voiceless!

IT’S TIME FOR US

TO USE OUR VOICES

TO ROAR LOUD!

Because we stand for COMMUNITY NOT CAGES! 

Take action! 

  • Listen to kids!
  • Center and amplify kid’s voices
  • Contact city council and demand they stop plans that harm kids
  • Mutual aid for Our Voices!
    • CashApp: $LaSharaMorgan

Save the East End Rec Center: Kids Not Cops

Description: Picture of painted sign that reads “Community Not Cages: Reimagining Public Safety” surrounding with plant life and cosmic magnificence.

City Council Proposal

On January 31st, Winona City Council announced potential plans to demolish the East End Recreation Center, one of the only sites for kids to play, and to replace it with a combined police and fire station with a new shared recreation center space. The current East End Recreation Center is a treasured site and is well-used by the East End Community.  The residents that use the Rec were not consulted in their vision of how the site could better suit their needs. Instead, a consulting firm from Minneapolis was contracted to determine the best location for the new $23-26 million combined police and fire department. The East End Rec site was at the top of their list, but an out-of-town company does not understand the value the Rec Center provides for us and only considered city-owned lots and response times. We know there is more to public safety than response times. The Rec center provides a safe space for youth and adults alike. The rec center supports neighborhood youth. It is the location of a community garden, the winter farmer’s market, vaccine clinics, and a polling place. It is a true community resource that provides safety.

Description: Site feasibility summary for 210 Zumbro St, the current location of the East End Recreation Center, which is being proposed as the most feasible location to build a combination police and fire building.

This proposal to combine police and recreation centers isn’t new, and Winona is a microcosm of systemic racism. As abolitionist Benji Hart argues of these combined proposals in “FORCING BLACK PEOPLE TO INTERACT WITH POLICE IS ITSELF STATE VIOLENCE”:

“The prevalence of this type of pro-policing propaganda appears against the backdrop of school closures, shuttered mental health clinics, and ever-rising gun violence, paralleled by a police department budget that — despite austerity measures in every other sector — has increased every year since 2012. At the same time that such stunts work to rebrand police as a community resource rather than an occupying force — using Black and brown children as props in the process — they are also undeniably a response to massive, militant uprisings from Ferguson to Minneapolis, demanding the defunding and abolishing of police departments, who continue to kill Black people even while boasting of progressive reforms.

Despite the steady failures of increased police spending to curb interpersonal violence, and of “community policing” to stop officers from murdering the residents of the municipalities they patrol, those outside of movements — and often outside of the most impacted communities — continue to push for more spending and coerced interactions with police as the only imaginable solutions.”

Similarly, we do not accept the assertion that maybe a rec center can still fit on the same block, a plan the city is currently exploring. We reject the copaganda espoused by Mayor Scott Sherman who said last Monday: “I literally can envision one of the officers before a shift …  is over at the basketball court, knocking down some threes with kids before he heads out.” Putting a police station on the grounds of the rec center will remove one of the few resources local youth have, ending any safety they may have once had there. Placing a police station next to the rec center will continue a dangerous pattern of police surveillance, violence, and county attempts to invest in youth incarceration in Winona; it mirrors the racist, ableist, classist, and patriarchal youth control complex. Victor Rios defines this as a “ubiquitous system that functions to monitor, stigmatize, criminalize, and collectively punish young people of color.” Winona has a documented pattern of the youth control complex, which is interlocking to the school-to-prison pipeline:

From 2017-2018

  • Black students were 8.5 times more likely than white students to experience suspensions at WAPS, linked to the racial discrimination and policing in schools. The ACLU defines this as a school-to-prison pipeline: “a disturbing national trend wherein children are funneled out of public schools and into the juvenile and criminal justice systems. Many of these children have learning disabilities or histories of poverty, abuse, or neglect, and would benefit from additional educational and counseling services. Instead, they are isolated, punished, and pushed out.”

July 2020

  • Minnesota Department of Human Rights investigation documents police harassment in Winona Area Public Schools.
  • After organized community pressure, WAPS School Board voted to remove police from schools.

April 2021

  • With continued pressure from the community, the Winona County board members declare they will no longer consider building a juvenile detention center.

February 2022

  • Winona City Council announced potential plans to demolish the East End Recreation Center, one of the only sites for kids to play, and to replace it with a police and fire station with a new shared recreation center space.

The city of Winona is framing the proposed combined fire and police station as a “public safety” building. Community Not Cages rejects the claim and continued branding of police as instruments of public safety; the police do not keep us safe. We consider public safety to be grounded in a healthy community, in which people are housed, fed, and our collective needs are met. None of these have been historically provided by police departments. Alternatively,  fire departments provide an important and necessary service and should be independently housed. The fire department remains a trusted institution that, if housed with the police, will lose the public trust, making us all less safe. People should not have to fear state violence from the police when they reach out to the fire department.

Winona is considering spending $23-26 million on the combined fire and police station.  Investments in health, community support, harm reduction, livable wages, housing and food, clean air and water are all more sound investments than continued purchases of new buildings, upkeep for militarized weapons, drone surveillance and carceral apparatuses (carceral: of or relating to prison or imprisonment, or to other formal methods of social control like policing). To be a safer community, we must push elected officials, who control budgets, to invest in true public safety measures. True safety and healing is the presence of care and community support, not police. The recreation center gives kids a safe place to play and be kids. It allows community members space to grow healthy food. It is a space that strengthens community bonds, encouraging us to keep each other safe.  We know what’s best for our community; an outside firm that specializes in designing police and fire buildings does not. The East End recreation center is a gem we must keep. It won’t be sacrificed for the expansion of the police.

Call to action:

The city council says they will seek public input on this proposal.  SPEAK UP! Reach out to your elected representatives, and state your opposition to this plan. Stay tuned for more opportunities to be heard!

ssherman@ci.winona.mn.us

syoung@ci.winona.mn.us

emoeller@ci.winona.mn.us

peyden@ci.winona.mn.us

gborzyskowski@ci.winona.mn.us

arepinski@ci.winona.mn.us

cubl@ci.wiona.mn.us

malexander@ci.winona.mn.us

Fund Collective Care with American Relief Funds

Winona, we have an opportunity to demand investments in our collective care through life-affirming institutions: genuine public safety, housing, and community-based non-coercive mental health care and addiction services. The city of Winona is getting nearly $3 million in COVID relief from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARP). The city plans to use just over half of its ARP funds on the $1.6 million Masonic Temple HVAC upgrade, and according to current City Manager Chad Ubl, the city does not have plans for the remaining $1.3 million. The city will spend $50,000 on consultants to interpret federal rules and advise on how the funds can be spent. 

Community Not Cages has been consistent in platforming demands that are invested in our collective Care. According to the US Department of Treasury, the ARP funds can be used for the following:  

  • Promoting healthy childhood environments, including: child care, home visiting programs for families with young children, and enhanced services for child welfare-involved families and foster youth.

In 2021, Community Not Cages met with children to discuss the county proposal to build a juvenile detention center. We asked kids what they would invest in to make their lives better. They were clear: a juvenile detention center would not provide safety! They wanted more support for their families through counseling and childcare, tutors for education and mental health support, and a center to learn, play, and grow together. Their voices and priorities must be central to the city council’s investments! 

  • Addressing health disparities and the social determinants of health, including: community health workers, public benefits navigators, remediation of lead paint or other lead hazards, and community violence intervention programs.

In August, 2020, community members, now organizing as Community Not Cages, proposed an alternative response team without police, citing CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On the Streets) as the vision for public safety in Winona. In the CAHOOTS model, the community can access services through a non-emergency number that is di​spatched through an emergency center. Each team consists of a medic (either a nurse or an EMT) & a crisis worker (who has at least several years experience in the mental health field). Locally, in June 2021, the city of Winona approved funding for the Alternative Response Team and a contract with Hiawatha Valley Mental Health was approved as an alternative first responder model.  Despite this designation, dispatch was inadequately trained to determine how to direct calls and the program was repeatedly misrepresented by city council, the WPD, and news agencies as a co-responder model. By November 2021, they cut the program, citing budget concerns. 

Non-police responses are necessary and critical for individuals experiencing mental health and/or substance use disorders, homelessness, and other situations caused by unmet needs. Community Not Cages believe the Alternative Response Team should be a priority in ARP funding; however, it must adhere to the original vision: separate from the police as an investment in public safety outside of police and jails. 

  • Building stronger neighborhoods and communities, including: supportive housing and other services for individuals experiencing homelessness, development of affordable housing, and housing vouchers and assistance relocating to neighborhoods with higher levels of economic opportunity

We can learn from existing movements. In January 2021, the Austin (TX) City Council voted to cut millions of dollars from their police department budget to reinvest in various forms of community care, including the decision to purchase “one hotel and turn it into 60 units of permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessnes”. In this way, basic needs such as shelter for the community were prioritized. Winona has a well-known affordable housing shortage, and housing should be a priority. 

Funding housing prioritizes survivors of violence. Via Interrupting Criminalization: “A majority of survivors describe housing, health care, income and immigration status as things that would enable them to prevent, avoid, escape and mitigate violence.”

Historically, Winona has not prioritized basic needs such as housing. Economic development, the site of Winona’s investment in housing,  has increased by $190K from 2018-2020 (0.32M-0.51M), police funding has increased by nearly $1 million over the same period of time. Public safety is achieved by supporting and affirming the needs of community members.

Get Loud 

The City Council does not have a public comment period. This anti-democratic practice ensures that the demands to fund community resources go unheard by the public. A majority of Community Not Cages supporters have never heard a response to their emails from elected officials, the only voice we’ve been afforded. It is time to show up on February 7th and demand our voices be heard and our community needs are funded! 

Contact the city council!

Dear City Council Members,

The City of Winona must spend its American Rescue Plan funds providing for our collective care, following the intended spirit of this financial relief. I expect the city to use the funding to invest in genuine public safety. I want the Alternative Response Team reinstated, as it was originally intended: as an alternative first response, separate from police. Furthermore, the affordable housing shortage in Winona must be addressed, and funds must be appropriated to low-income and/or households in need of assistance paying rent.  I do not accept that my correspondence with city officials goes unheard by the public without accountability or response from officials. For this reason, we need a public comment period to be added to city council meetings, ensuring that demands are stated on the public record.

We urge you to contact council members, the Mayor, and the City Manager to echo these demands. Send an email using the following email addresses:

ssherman@ci.winona.mn.us

syoung@ci.winona.mn.us

malexander@ci.winona.mn.us

emoeller@ci.winona.mn.us

peyden@ci.winona.mn.us

gborzyskowski@ci.winona.mn.us

arepinski@ci.winona.mn.uscubl@ci.winona.mn.us

Complete Comprehensive Plan Survey for City of Winona

via mpd150.com

Winona, we have an opportunity to document the need for investments in our collective care through life-affirming institutions: jobs, education, housing, health care.

Please complete the Engage Winona survey on the comprehensive plan. 

Community Not Cages thoughts on some of the topics to include:

  • Land use and development – updating recommendations for growth, downtown development
  • Not a jail and two parking lots as the “welcome.”
  • Land back
  • Housing – addressing gaps in housing, celebrating neighborhood characteristics
  • We need more safe and accessible housing!  
  • Accessible Government – increasing participation and representation in city activities
    • 13D.021 MEETINGS DURING PANDEMIC OR CHAPTER 12 EMERGENCY.04.§Subd. 5.   –   Public comment period during health pandemic or emergency. If attendance at the regular meeting location is not feasible due to the health pandemic or emergency declaration and the public body’s practice is to offer a public comment period at in-person meetings, members of the public shall be permitted to comment from a remote location during the public comment period of the meeting, to the extent practical
      • Make this happen! Public comments! Drop in hours with elected officials and city staff!?
      • City council has discussed ending online participation in public comment periods post covid. Online accessibility important…
        • Keeping the Zoom option allows for people with limited mobility, interrupted access to transportation or childcare, and people with compromised immune systems to attend meetings. Removing virtual participation to City Council meetings is sending a message that participation in local government is contingent upon certain types of access.
        • Weblinks to observe council meetings not functioning: how does this contribute to accessibility?  
      • Demand public comment period during every city council meeting
      • Currently no accountability for elected officials to follow through with public demands during public forums/etc
        • Ask what needs to be in place for this to transpire?
  • Arts and Culture – increasing variety and access to arts
    • As discussed in the juvenile “justice” sessions with Engage Winona, we want more art resources and youth programming!
    • Land back
    • Support the creation of a Dakota language and cultural center
  • Park and Recreation – maintaining and improving park facilities, connecting parks through the community
    • Green spaces! The current interstate entrance is multiple paved parking lots and a jail!

TWO CRITICAL QUESTIONS TO RESPOND TO…

What one project or issue, if addressed, would make the biggest difference in Winona?

Dream big – imagine nothing is in your way. What does Winona look like in 15-20 years?

Contact WAPS to Fight Jail Profiteering

Who are Wold Architects and Engineers?

Winona Area Public Schools have entered a contract with Wold Architects and Engineers. WAPS has about $63 million in deferred maintenance needs, based on an estimate from Wold.

“We are proud of our long-standing tradition of being at the cusp of innovative jail design. For example, Wold worked with Stearns County, Minnesota, in 1983 to deisgn an dbuilt the first direct supervision pods in the state.”

Wold Architects and Engineers are a private company profiteering off from public funding of mass incarceration. The current U.S. carceral system imprisons over 2.3 million persons in local jails and state and federal prisons. The “school-to-prison nexus” exposes the myriad practices that schools and prisons have in common, which uphold institutional oppression.

Contact the school board with these demands:

  • Parents/guardians/advocates of students will be contacted and must be present if minor children are interviewed by police.
  • The district handle their own attendance concerns and do away with requests to the County Attorney that refer children to the juvenile injustice system.

School Board Contacts

No (NEW) Jail in Winona Gathering with Jason Sole

Much love and solidarity to our comrades that joined us in the rain to say NO JAIL IN WINONA. Jason Sole (he/him/his), a formerly incarcerated abolitionist, joined to stand in solidarity.

He said of the new Winona County Jail: “For them to even consider breaking ground right there to enslave people is absurd. I was told there are 21 people that are in your jail right now. Why would you build an 80 person facility? Why? Who do you all think is going to go in this facility? People that will look like me. Slaves. Right here, modern times. That’s why I’m an abolitionist. Why would I be trying to work with my oppressors? Bigger police departments. Bigger jails. That’s old thinking. That’s the war on drugs. I’m an abolitionist. I’m committed to doing something different….standing against the jail is the right thing…Ask the people that are building this: are you going to put your family members in there? Hold them accountable.”

We released a new zine last night, email us at winonacommunitynotcages@gmail.com for a copy.

CALL TO ACTION! – City of Winona & Winona County Budgets

Both the Winona City Council and Winona County Board will be meeting to finalize their plans for the 2022 annual budget, we must remain steadfast in our demands to divest from carceral violence and invest in genuine public safety. As we stated this year of the city’s priorities:

The city of Winona is considering funding a new combined fire and police station which they are framing as a “public safety” building. Community Not Cages rejects the claim and continued branding of police as instruments of public safety; the police do not keep us safe. We consider public safety to be grounded in a healthy community, in which people are housed, fed, and our collective needs are met. None of which have been historically provided by police departments.

Amidst the largest movement to divest from policing, the city of Winona has greatly increased funds for policing. While investments in public safety via housing and non-coercive mental health and addiction resources are limited. According to City of Winona Director of Finance, the expenses for the police include:

  • 2020: $6,374,417
  • 2019: $5,714,045
  • 2018: $5,452,414

“Economic development” (in blue) is the site of housing investments in the local budget. While economic development has increased by $190K from 2018-2020 (0.32M-0.51M), police funding has increased by nearly $1 million over the same time frame. Public safety is achieved by supporting and affirming the needs of community members over oppressive carceral systems.

As Interrupting Criminalization, a BIPOC and survivor-centered movement, have argued, our collective care depends on safe housing for everyone. Public safety must include affordable, quality housing, particularly for adult and youth survivors of violence, and in disenfranchised communities:  “Defunding police is a survivor led anti-violence strategy that stops police from looting resources survivors need to prevent, avoid, escape and heal from violence – and puts more money into violence prevention and interruption, and meeting survivors’ needs.”

Winona County has invested in the notion of “public safety” through the funding of surveillance technologies and militarization of the police. As documented in the Community Not Cages Visions for 2021, we opposed the county budgeting for surveillance technology via drones and the purchasing of assault rifles. The December 10, 2020 County Board packet included the sheriff’s intent to purchase assault rifles with scopes for ⅓ of the county police (Ganrude 542-543) which was approved. How does this make the community safe?

As Community Not Cages has continued to argue: “Budgets are moral documents and our demand is still the same, invest in the community not cops.” Please take a moment to share your concerns with the Winona City Council, demand that they invest in actual public safety and collective care such as affordable housing, non-coercive mental health and addiction services, among others. The city has set a date for public comment on the budget for December, 10th at 6:30pm. It is crucial that the council hears your demands. Use the contact information listed here to reach out and/or show up to the December 10th meeting.

Example Email:

“Hello Council Member/Commissioner,

 As budget deliberations are underway,I am reaching out as a constituent to state my support for divesting from carceral systems and investing in genuine public safety.  Public safety is  grounded in a healthy community, in which people are housed, fed, and our collective needs are met.  Furthermore, I do not support the use of ARPA funds to balance budgets, pandemic relief funds should provide direct support to people devastated by coronavirus.  

(insert salutation. name)”

Scott D. ShermanCity of Winona Mayorhttps://cityofwinona.wufoo.com/forms/q1jtpnfz1352c5l/507-313-0676
Steve YoungCity of Winona Councilor, Ward 1https://cityofwinona.wufoo.com/forms/q1jtpnfz1352c5l/507-312-4491
Eileen MoellerCity of Winona Councilor, Ward 2https://cityofwinona.wufoo.com/forms/q1jtpnfz1352c5l/847-890-5478
Pamela EydenCity of Winona Councilor, Ward 3https://cityofwinona.wufoo.com/forms/q1jtpnfz1352c5l/507-454-6758
George BorzyskowskiCity of Winona Councilor, Ward 4https://cityofwinona.wufoo.com/forms/q1jtpnfz1352c5l/507-454-4463
Michelle AlexanderCity of Winona Councilor, At-Largehttps://cityofwinona.wufoo.com/forms/q1jtpnfz1352c5l/507-454-9179
Aaron RepinskiCity of Winona Councilor, At-Largehttps://cityofwinona.wufoo.com/forms/q1jtpnfz1352c5l/507-458-7485
Chad UblWinona City Manager507-457-8258

Contact the Winona County Board Members prior to Tuesday, October 26th. You can also show up to bear witness at the Working Session on Tuesday, October 26, 2021 at 5:30 p.m. when the board will discuss the 2022 Draft Budget. The Working Session will take place in the County Office Building Board Room, located at 202 W. 3rd Street, Winona, MN.

A RingCentral virtual meeting is available: https://meetings.ringcentral.com/j/1493058881 Or Dial: 1 (720) 902-7700 Meeting ID: 149 305 8881

Chris M. MeyerCounty Commissioner – 1Dcmeyer@co.winona.mn.us507-701-1228
Marie H. KovecsiCounty Commissioner – 2Dmkovecsi@co.winona.mn.us507-450-2292
Steve E. JacobCounty Commissioner – 3Dsjacob@co.winona.mn.us507-534-2554
Greg D. OlsonCounty Commissioner – 4Dgolson@co.winona.mn.us507-452-4454
Marcia L. WardCounty Commissioner – 5Dmward@co.winona.mn.us507-459-6086
Karin SonnemanCounty AttorneyKSonneman@co.winona.mn.us507-457-6310

The American Rescue Plan Act & Winona County

The American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) was signed into law in March 2021 in order to provide $1.9 trillion in economic relief and aid to local and state governments. For this reason, in July, Engage Winona launched a “community needs survey” inquiring how to best use $9.8 million  ARPA funds locally. Community Not Cages advocated investing in our collective care, like non-coercive mental health and addiction services, housing for all, and community-based restorative justice practices outside of the Department of Corrections.

Recently, the Winona County board passed a 3% tax increase and the use of $3 million in ARPA funds to reduce its deficit.  After all the talk of “community engagement” and data collection, it is not obvious how the county is using pandemic-related funds for collective needs. Throughout the Engage Winona “juvenile justice listening sessions,” Community Not Cage’s demands were met with the tiring claim that there were no funds for life-affirming resources: housing, family support, and non-coercive mental health and addiction services. Considering the decision to balance the budget with these critical, one-time funds reveals the true character of our county leaders. Pandemic relief should provide direct support to people devastated by coronavirus, not balance budgets. 

Furthermore, Winona County is using debt (bonds) to pay contractors for the new jail construction, and will pay off those bonds over years with either property taxes or sales taxes. If ARPA funds are used to reduce the county’s deficit and how much it has to raise taxes next year, one could argue that this is aiding in paying for the jail. The decisions of the county board do nothing to redistribute wealth,  nor do they shift our priorities away from carceral apparatuses and toward collective care. Budgets are moral documents and our demand is still the same, invest in the community not cops. 

In the recent board meeting, Commissioner Kovecsi stated: “There are a lot of services that we provide for people, and the number of people that need those services is increasing. I want to commend our staff. They’re doing more with less every year.” We can live in a community of abundance, one that does more with more, which necessitates that we continue to shift our priorities.

Community NOT cages.

Reimagining Public Safety

The city of Winona is considering funding a new combined fire and police station which they are framing as a “public safety” building. Community Not Cages rejects the claim and continued branding of police as instruments of public safety; the police do not keep us safe. We consider public safety to be grounded in a healthy community, in which people are housed, fed, and our collective needs are met. None of which have been historically provided by police departments. 

Alternatively,  fire departments provide an important and necessary service and should be independently housed. The fire department remains a trusted institution that, if housed with the police, will lose the public trust, making us all less safe. People should not have to fear state violence from the police when they reach out to the fire department. 

White supremacy and oppression dictate current carceral definitions of “public safety” 

The origins of policing in the US are in the South through slave patrols, colonial occupation, and violent repression of labor movements. State violence and policing have disproportionately targeted communities of color and queer and working class folks. Modern police departments have remained steadfast in their practice of violently enforcing unjust and racist laws. Criminalization, containment, and surveillance are core components of carceral apparatuses; as such, for who are they “safe”? 

Ryan Lugalia-Hollon points out, “After forty years of mass incarceration and roughly 150 years of police brutality, we are being called to imagine a public safety system without policing….How we hear the call to reimagine public safety is, in part, shaped by whether or not we have experienced the violence and racism of our criminal justice system. Yet there are also many subtle ways that our imagination is policed by white supremacy, the treacherous yet pervasive idea that white people are in any way superior to Black and non-Black people of color.” He offers a list of 26 questions to examine white defensiveness to reimagining public safety, concluding with “For white Americans, like myself, who have never been profiled, harassed, detained, or imprisoned—and never had loved ones endure any of these experiences—the need for a new reality can seem strange and foreign. Conversely, for Black Americans across the country, no matter their level of wealth or achievement, the deep flaws and bias that govern our country’s criminal justice practices are all too familiar, though their full extent can still be difficult to acknowledge.” Winona has the potential to examine and dismantle systemic roots of white supremacy inherent in the claims of “public safety” under the prison industrial complex.

Divesting in the prison industrial complex; Investing in collective care

Reenvisioning public safety beyond policing and the enforcement of white supremacy is both urgently necessary and just. It will take dedicated work to strengthen our collective imagination to create the future we deserve. As MPD150 states: “Some of the solutions we need don’t exist yet. There are some things we can do now, but this work is also about planting seeds. A vital first step toward a police-free future is simply being able to visualize what that future will look like. We must break out of the old mindset that police are this inevitable, irreplaceable part of society.”

Community Not Cages rejects militarization and the accompanying misuse of public funds. In May 2021, Winona law enforcement yet again deployed their Mine-Resistant Ambush-Protected (MRAP) vehicle, originally purchased through the 1033 militarization program. Local police defended the use as “de-escalation” and  protection. The claim that heavily armored military vehicles are needed in our community is absurd and horrifying, and it reflects an escalating desire to fund the lethal potency of local law enforcement with more tax dollars. According to an email from Sheriff Ganrude, the MRAP has cost $30,000 in upkeep over the past 6 years. This expense does not include gas costs. True safety and healing is the presence of care and community support, not militarized police. 

Winona does not have a behavioral health department in either of the medical centers that serve residents locally, and there are only limited options for urgent mental health care needs in the larger SE MN area. Before the COVID-19 pandemic, many arrests were alcohol and drug-related, yet addiction services are non-existent in Winona.  Non-coercive mental health and addiction services, without excessive wait lists, are a necessary investment. As journalist Maya Schenwar has said in  “My Sister Died of an Overdose. Defunding the Police Might Have Saved Her”: 

“It’s time to acknowledge we can’t arrest our way out of the overdose crisis…Fortunately, a better call to action is in the air, thanks to the work of abolitionist organizers: Defund the police, and redirect resources toward life-affirming priorities like housing, food assistance, education and noncoercive health care. Supporting people in meeting their basic needs, including housing and cost-free medical care, is one of the most important ways in which we can help people avoid overdose….Funds should also be channeled toward addressing some of the specific needs of people who use drugs, like offering widespread drug-checking to ensure drugs’ purity and distributing fentanyl test strips and naloxone. We need supervised consumption sites, with medical staff who can help prevent or treat overdoses and offer clean needles. Such sanctioned programs exist in at least 11 countries, with clear success and no recorded overdose deaths. Medication-assisted addiction treatment — including heroin-assisted treatment (which is currently available in seven countries, and is highly effective) — should be cost-free and accessible to all who want it.”

We can learn from existing movements. In January 2021, the Austin (TX) City Council voted to cut millions of dollars from their police department budget to reinvest in various forms of community care, including the decision to purchase “one hotel and turn it into 60 units of permanent supportive housing for people experiencing chronic homelessnes”. In this way, basic needs such as shelter of the community were prioritized.

In Oakland (CA), the City Council redirected $18 million from a proposed police budget last month to fund violence prevention. Anti Police-Terror Project. James Burch said this was a victory after a six-year campaign: “And it speaks to how difficult it has been for us to gain traction and demand common sense out of the city council.” This reprioritization will further fund the Mobile Assistance Community Responders of Oakland (MACRO) who respond to non-violent, non-criminal mental and behavioral health calls instead of police. This program is a similar initiative to Community Not Cages’ demand for alternative response team based on the White Bird Clinic. 

Let us look at organizing by  Yes 4 Minneapolis, who offers a new approach: “Our movement demands our city leaders move away from violent policing to create a department that addresses community safety holistically and with a public health approach. Our movement believes that the community should decide what safety looks like.”

To be a safer community, we must push elected officials, who control budgets, to invest in true public safety measures. Safe and affordable housing is a critical component of public safety. We can’t solve the mental health crisis without solving the housing crisis. Providing shelter for unhoused individuals directly improves the safety and wellbeing of everyone in the community. Investments in health, community support, harm reduction, livable wages, housing and food, clean air and water are all are more sound investments than continued purchases of new buildings, upkeep for militarized weapons, drone surveillance and carceral apparatuses. As Damon A. Williams, co-director of #LetUsBreathe Collective, has stated: “When I see police, I see 100 other jobs smashed into one thing with a gun.” 

The safest communities don’t have the most police, they have the most resources.

Community Not Cages Response to the Creation of the Alternative Response Team 

On August 7th, 2020, community members, now organizing as Community Not Cages, met with City Manager Steve Sarvi voicing concerns about the upcoming budget and plans to fund social worker ​positions within the police department. We requested that a steering committee made up of care workers and those most impacted by the proposed alternative response team, without police representation, because we were opposed to having an alternative response team housed in the Winona Police Department. 

In September, Community Not Cages launched a call to action requesting that community members join their vision for the steering committee and a true alternative crisis response team. We cited CAHOOTS (Crisis Assistance Helping Out On the Streets) as the vision for public safety in Winona. In the CAHOOTS model, the community can access services through a non-emergency number that is di​spatched through an emergency center. Each team consists of a medic (either a nurse or an EMT) & a crisis worker (who has at least several years experience in the mental health field). Numerous community members contacted the city council and because of organizing efforts a consensus-based facilitation was planned with Engage Winona. 

In good faith, members of Community Not Cages joined the committee as individuals, and advocated strongly for the alternative response team to be located, and be separate from the carceral apparatuses of the police and Department of Human Services. It is important to note, that despite Community Not Cages organizing efforts to remove police from the process, there was a police representative. Furthermore, there were no harm reduction advocates (those supporting non-coercive addiction services) and very little effort on the part of facilitation to include impacted communities, those that have experienced racist, sexist, and ableist state violence, despite it being framed locally as a “diverse committee.”

The Engage process was billed as consensus, and on November 20, 2020 the following items were agreed upon: 

  • Provide an alternate first response to police in appropriate cases
  • Provide resource connections and case management
  • Assist and support the police department with crisis intervention, follow-up with individuals and families after incidents involving police
  • Collaborate with existing community crisis and follow up resources and services, including: Hiawatha Valley’s Mobile Crisis Team; the Advocacy Center of Winona’s advocate program; the Winona Community HUB supported by Winona Health; and others.
  • Create a trusted, confidential, community-based resource available to all city residents with minimum interaction from the government
  • Act proactively to provide resources that will change the trajectory of a person headed towards or experiencing a crisis so that they avoid the long-term effects of it, and are supported in seeking followup resources in order to reduce future crisis needs
  • Emergency Response The ART will have the capability to provide an alternative response to non-violent 911 calls with existing caseload, mental health crisis assistance, as well as assist with crisis intervention planning both in person and remotely. The ART will be dispatched through the county dispatch center and tasked with providing emergency-level response time. The ART will provide confidential services, support and follow up.

Despite the model that was agreed upon in the Engage Winona facilitation, this is not the model that has recently been proposed to the public. The model noted in the Winona Post describes a co-responder model, in which trained mental health advocates respond with police officers.  The original proposal was intended to have an alternative response team respond without police intervention, unless requested by the crisis responders.

As Community Not Cages argued, the original plan of the city manager and the city council to place social workers in the police department was to use feminized care workers as window-dressing to “soften” the image of policing. This paternalism by police is further visible in Police Chief Williams Winona Post statements, where he argues that police must be involved at the outset: “Where does everybody call when they need assistance? They call the Law Enforcement Center.” Community Not Cages envisions a future where our community is served by life-affirming resources, which are not the police. As author and socioligst Alex Vitale argues in “You Cannot Divorce Murder From Policing”: 

“Police spend very little of their time dealing with serious crime and even less dealing with violent crime. The average police officer maybe makes one felony arrest a year. It’s estimated that violent crime calls make up less than 5 percent of the calls that police receive and represent even less of their time actually spent on the job..So mostly police are managing a set of low level social problems in an effort, not so much to produce safety in some broad sense, but to produce a kind of system of order, and a notion of order that benefits some players more than others.“

Finally, the alternative response team was not the vision of the Winona Police Department, the public framing of it centers the police and completely ignores those that have demanded alternatives to police in our community out of fear of state violence. The alternative response was given its own separate funding and the demand to prove its efficacy, with potential to divest from the police budget in the future, and invest in public safety outside of carceral institutions. 

Defunding police means redistributing funding to vital resources for our community. Community Not Cages is intentional in efforts to redefine public safety, we want our community to invest in: housing, non-coercive mental health and addiction services, child care, youth centers, education programs, community-based restorative justice programming (outside of the Department of Corrections), family support and counseling. Not cops. 

Juvenile Detention Center Win

June 9, 2021

In the past year, Community Not Cages has repeatedly criticized plans for a juvenile detention center. We demanded an adoption of a zero youth incarceration policy. The county leadership had consistently stated a “need” for a juvenile detention center closer to home. However, arguments for jails “closer to home” reinforce the idea that jails and police create “safety.” Investment in jails takes away the resources that can create well-being. Youth incarceration is not inevitable; rather, it is driven by policy choices made by adults. We don’t want children separated from their families ever. We want zero youth incarceration. 

One part of that demand was recently realized due to Community Not Cages organizing pressure to stop the plans for a previously proposed juvenile detention center. The Winona County Commissioners have publicly made clear there will be no future plans. At the April 29th Engage Winona discussion on Winona County Justice Programs, commissioners were asked:  “Is there intention to build a juvenile detention facility?” Commissioner Chris Meyer stated “The answer is ‘No.’ I don’t have a plan…” Additionally, Commissioner Marie Kovecsi stated the board had actively “discarded the idea.” 

Community Not Cages appreciates the county commissioners commitment to no further plans. We are especially grateful to Marcia Ward’s persistent demand for public transparency and a public hearing. We thank the 249 signatories of Winona Community members that signed a petition demanding no juvenile detention center be built. 

This win is one of many to come for our community! We can collectively continue to show up and make clear that Winona County must invest in addressing the root causes of social oppression. We want to invest in things that keep us all safe: housing, child care, youth centers, education programs, community-based restorative justice programming (outside of the DOC), family support and counseling. 

Stay tuned for a people’s public hearing, where we can celebrate this win and continue to build as a community in health, safety, and abundance.

Call to Action: Winona HRC

The Winona Human Right Commission will be bringing their “Zero Youth Incarceration” resolution to the City Council. We urge you to contact council members and the mayor and let them know you support this resolution. You are welcome to use the following email script in contacting officials. Send to all council members and mayor using…

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Claim and Rebuttal Statement

Community Not Cages’ Response to County Attorney Karin Sonneman’s “February 17, 2021: A Response to Concerns Regarding Juvenile Detention in Winona County” Claim: “There are currently no actual plans in the works to design and build a juvenile facility here in Winona County.” Rebuttal: As Winona Post Editor Chris Rogers documents, “minutes from the Jail…

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Call to Action: Say No to Investing in a New Winona Police Station

On March 3, the front page of the Post announced the proposal to explore costs to build a new police station. Does this investment serve our community? Community Not Cages opposes investment in a new police station. We reject the branding of police as “public safety.” Public safety is investment in more non-coercive mental health…

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