By Rev. Donald L. Perryman, Ph.D.
We must be headlights, not taillights, in the struggle for justice.
– Martin Luther King Jr.
Much respect to Pete Gerken and the Lucas County Commissioners for deciding to pivot away from plans to build a spanking brand-new jail. This decision was difficult, but they did the right thing: to prioritize progress, people and positions over a bricks and bars monument to inequality. If Gerken continues on this path, history may remember him as the GOAT of county leadership, unlike others whose decisions entrenched inequity or preserved the status quo.
For too long, the collateral damage inflicted by the criminal justice system has disproportionately harmed Black and Brown families. To commit hundreds of millions of dollars toward a new jail would have been to double down on a carceral strategy and system already set up against minorities, rather than investing in breaking cycles of poverty, violence and inequality.
Let me make it plain. A new jail would have saddled taxpayers with an estimated $15–$19 million in annual debt payments for the next 35 years. As one community leader put it: “We would have been broke-broke, broke!”
Here’s the injustice, though.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once observed that tax dollars are too often allocated in ways that reinforce inequality rather than dismantle it. King’s insight pushes us to ask: Who really benefits from how our tax dollars are spent? And another: Do public investments perpetuate systems of exclusion, or do they expand access to dignity, health and opportunity?
What is clear is that millions and billions in spending continue to flow toward projects that disproportionately benefit wealthier and whiter communities. At the same time, investments that directly affect poor, Black and Brown citizens remain underfunded.
Therefore, the very people who pay taxes most painfully (through sales taxes, payroll deductions, or regressive tax systems) are the least likely to see those dollars invested back into their neighborhoods.
Had the Commissioners chosen to go down that road of the $300-$400 million construction debt trap for a “Taj Mahal carceral facility,” Lucas County would have used our tax dollars to underwrite inequity while marching on a path leading to immediate permanent cuts – a county government condemned to austerity while taxpayers, especially African Americans, foot the bill.
Instead, the Commissioners chose a wiser path, recognizing that public safety is more than incarceration and that it is “easier to build strong children than to repair broken adults.” In doing so, Gerken and his colleagues preserved the ability to invest in Black and brown community programming, violence prevention, job training, cultural festivals and activities, teachers, social workers, mental health programs, economic development and other community investments so desperately needed by communities still carrying historic and ongoing trauma – from slavery and segregation to redlining, mass incarceration and the daily stress of systemic racism.
The jail has problems, yes—leaking roofs, structural wear—but those issues can be addressed for a fraction of the cost by treating the County’s infrastructure like every family treats their home: maintaining what exists, fixing what needs repair and living within their means.
Reportedly, even Sheriff Mike Navarre admits that with “thoughtful upkeep,” the existing building can continue functioning as a detention center without bankrupting Lucas County and decimating County staff.
Most notably, this strategy of thoughtful upkeep keeps the door open for real solutions: mental health services, diversion programs, community-based interventions and economic development projects that give young people alternatives to incarceration. Investing in people early—before they enter the criminal justice system—makes far more sense than spending millions to warehouse them after the fact. We don’t need another structure to contain us—we need resources to free us.
So yes, it’s time to give Pete Gerken and the Lucas County Commissioners their flowers for being “headlights and not taillights” in the struggle for justice. In choosing not to build, they refused to mortgage our future, deciding with investment over indebtedness.
They also recognized that public safety is more than incarceration, preventing tax dollars from being tied to an “open and notorious practice” – mass incarceration that criminalizes poverty and disproportionately impacts communities of color.
Instead, they kept open the possibility of investing in life-giving institutions.
That’s a decision worth celebrating.
Contact Rev. Donald Perryman, PhD, at drdlperryman@centerofhopebaptist.org