On July 5th, 2022 the Urbana, Illinois City Council was presented with a plan for expanding the Champaign County jail, which resides within the City limits. The jail expansion plan would be expensive, and it would increase the total number of jail beds from 141 to 219.
Ward 2 Urbana City Council member Christopher Evans explained that “the expanding of the satellite jail for twenty million dollars is injurious to the public welfare”, and why he would be voting against the plan.
Evans listed names of individuals who have lost their lives and livelihoods as a result of the jail. He went on to name a number of public welfare items that will have been forfeit by spending the planned $20.4 million on a jail expansion rather than a variety of other programs.
The complete video of Evans’s statement can be viewed here: