Saturday Stats: Numeric news from Policy Matters
Posted November 06, 2021 in eNews
12,600: On any given day, as many as 12,600 Ohioans are held in jail as they await trial, compared to 3,000 in 1978 — driven mostly by bail set by local courts, even though overall crime rates have gone down. Most of the people held in jail pretrial cannot afford to buy their freedom, but those who can are released to go home as they await their day in court. Piet van Lier, Tanisha Pruitt and summer intern Samuel Johnson looked at the academic research and found that the cash bail system harms not only the people held in jail, but their families and communities alike, making our state less healthy. The system also falls harder on Black and brown people, women and members of the LGBTQ+ community. We joined the ACLU of Ohio and the Bail Project to call on state lawmakers to pass bills that would largely eliminate cash bail. Madeline Jones told her harrowing story of suffering a miscarriage while being held pretrial on charges that were later dropped. Watch the press conference below.
700: Before the 2021 election, we teamed up with Cleveland VOTES to commission a poll of 600 infrequent Cleveland voters and 100 Clevelanders who were not registered to vote. We wanted to understand why folks were choosing not to engage in the political process. We uncovered some important things: People care deeply about their communities and know what issues are important. But they’ve been let down by civic leaders and city government and have lost faith in the system. With a new administration in Cleveland and the city voting for major policing reforms, we’re hopeful some of that trust will be rebuilt.
< 60,000: But even so, fewer than 60,000 people – 23% of registered voters – came out to vote on Tuesday, despite all the hope and optimism on the ballot. Mayor-elect Justin Bibb built a multiracial coalition that spanned the East/West divide and Issue 24 gave Clevelanders a new vision for policing to support. Now, said Hannah Halbert, it’s up to the new mayor and city council to deliver. They can start by embracing participatory budgeting and working with trusted organizations like the Food Policy Coalition and the Northeast Ohio Worker Center. Daniel Ortiz and other community leaders joined the City Club to talk about what the new mayor should take on first.
83%: In other good election news, 83% of the local school board candidates endorsed by Protect Ohio's Future, a group that supports honesty in education, won their races. But the manufactured campaign to censor our teachers won’t stop there. As Piet van Lier wrote in the Columbus Dispatch, it’s part of a nationally funded, orchestrated effort by extremist, pro-corporate lobby groups that want to undermine our public schools.
4 million: The Build Back Better Plan extends the expansion of the Child Tax Credit for 2022, which is expected to lift 4 million children above the poverty line. According to the Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, it would narrow the difference between the poverty rates for Black and white children by 44% and the difference between Latinx and white children by 41%. More reason for us all to make sure Build Back Better gets over the finish line!
87%: According to All on the Line Ohio, this week House and Senate Republicans submitted congressional maps to the redistricting commission that would give them 87% of the seats. Check out what maps that actually represent and reflect Ohioans’ political preferences really look like and join All on the Line at their upcoming events and trainings.