Jailed for Reading Names of the Dead

by Carolyn Bninski

I spent from August 10-25 doing work release at the Adams County Jail for sitting down in the Congressman Mark Udall's office and reading the names of the Iraqi and U.S. dead resulting from the U.S. occupation. On March 8, five of us were arrested at Udall's office after ten minutes of reading the names. Four others were arrested at Udall's office on March 5 and seven were arrested at Senator Salazar's office in late February.

A jury of six people found me guilty of trespassing and not guilty of lawful assembly on July 27 in the City of Westminster Municipal Court. My sentence was 365 days in jail with 335 suspended, a $500 fine and permission to do work release (which cut the 30 days to 15). So in the end, I did 15 days of work release, which meant that six days a week I was able to work at my job at the Rocky Mountain Peace and Justice Center from 10 a.m to 7 p.m. I drove out the Adams County Jail in Brighton each night to spend the night in jail. The seventh day of the week, Sundays, I spent the day and night in jail.

I was in a pod with other people doing work release and with trustees, people who were working in the jail during the day and whose jail time was reduced as a result of their work. There were about 20 people in the pod. About half of the time people were locked into their cells; the other half of the time they are allowed to be in the common area.

Overall, the jail experience was instructive and tolerable, though not particularly pleasant. I was strip searched every night before I went back to jail. I didn't eat much of the food, since I ate most of my meals while I was outside the jail. I had my own cell (rather than sharing a room with a cell mate). Some of the guards were pleasant and treated the inmates humanely, others were not. Nights were noisy with slamming doors and at times shouting, so sleep was interrupted.

I did have conversations with other inmates. Offences that people were in jail for were mainly related to drug or alcohol use, domestic abuse issues, not paying fines or disobeying the judge's order. Most inmates were focused on trying to get their time reduced or thinking about the time that they would be released. My question was: do we really need to put so many people in jail for nonviolent crimes? To find out more about what's happening regarding jails and prisons in Colorado, check out the Colorado Criminal Justice Reform Coalition web site at http://www.ccjrc.org/.

Ellen Stark started 15 days of work release on September 14 for reading the names of the dead at Congressman Udall's on March 5. On September 13, Jourdan Colline, who was also arrested at Udall's on March 5, was denied his request to have his guilty plea withdrawn. Jourdan will be appealing that decision, so his case may go on for some time.

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