Issues Night 1/5/2026

Greetings!  This is my take on the January 2026 MICAH Issues Night, held at Church of the River on 1/5/2026.  If I get anything wrong: Sorry, I’m old and my brain is full.

Rev. Lynn Hopkins from Church of River gave an Opening Inspiration

There were about 4 or 5 new people (of about 40 total) attending the meeting

Gisela talked about the FreeThe901 Boycott/Buycott - more information is available at freethe901.com.  Please support Da Sammich Spot in Orange Mound (3020 Park Ave), which is being harassed for asking ICE personnel to leave the premises. 

Ron Davis talked about the upcoming discontinuation of the Free Fare program at MATA, expected in February.

The Housing and Neighborhood Livability, the Transformational Justice, and the Immigration and Inclusivity task forces separated for task force meetings.  The next MICAH Orientation session is planned for May, so it was not conducted in January.   I attended the Transformational Justice Task Force meeting, so will have details on it, not so much on the others.

Betty Olivo, mother of Christopher Steele (one of the people who died in the Memphis jail) spoke to us via Zoom from her home in North Carolina.  She told us about her experience trying to get information and accountability about the death of her son.  Christopher was travelling by bus from Alabama to Texas, and had to change busses in Memphis.  Somehow he got picked up by the police, and died in jail several days later.  Two months later, she still doesn’t know what happened - she has had noone from the police or the jail reaching out to give her any explanation.  An autopsy has been performed, but she has not been able to get the report from it.

We had reports from attendees of three power meetings that occurred within the last month or so:

• Alliance Healthcare, which runs a mental health emergency treatment center in Memphis.  People undergoing a mental health crisis are supposed to be diverted to Alliance Healthcare instead of being taken to jail, but in practice this seldom happens.  It is the arresting police or deputy sheriffs who make the call about diverting to Alliance.  Once in the jail system, physical and mental healthcare is provided by Wellpath, who specialize in low-cost jail healthcare.

• County Mayor Harris: several members of the task force met with mayor Harris last month, asking about his perspective on the jail.  He said that there was very little transparency on what was going on at the jail, that he felt that retraining of deputies was needed, was troubled by the use of solitary confinement, felt that the county commission was not holding the sheriff accountable.  He was somewhat supportive of the idea of a Citizen’s Advisory Council, recommending that we work with Erica Sugarman from the County Commission on this. Mayor Harris was open to participating in a town-hall meeting, and having additional meetings with MICAH

• Chief Deputy Buckner: several members of the task force met with Chief Deputy Buckner.  .  At the meeting, Sheriff Bonner, Chief Deputy Buckner, and several other officials were present.  They had a scripted presentation trying to push the view that problems at the jail were caused by having an old facility, all deaths were not the fault of the jail, and the best solution was to build a new jail.  When pressed on specific issues, they responded with general policy statements.

The Transformational Justice task force plans to get a meeting with Wellpath, the healthcare provider for the jail.

We spent some time working or revising our issue cuts: no hard results, but we are making progress.  In the group I was in, we discussed the possibility of asking for a Citizens Advisory Board for jail oversight.  Issues on this is that the board would have to have some real power to compel the jail to turn over information or the whole process would just be performative.  We discussed reaching out to the County Commissioners to see if any might be willing to work with us on this.  Another issue is the State Government’s efforts to limit the power of such citizens boards.