[WestMALocals] Text: Martina Robinson's Speech at Grace Ross event

Thu Apr 6 10:51:10 EDT 2006

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Michaelann Bewsee <michaelannb at hotmail.com>
Date: Apr 4, 2006 7:10 PM
Subject: [AriseAction] Disability activist speech given today
To: AriseAction at yahoogroups.com, abolishpoverty at green-rainbow.org,
AriseBoard at yahoogroups.com

was made as part of a kick-off event for the Green-Rainbow's candidacy for
Governor, Grace Ross.
the event took place across from the proposed new jail for women in
Chicopee, now under construction.

I wish I had Grace's speech, also, it so hit the mark.

Written by: Martina Robinson
Disability Coordinator of the Grace Ross for Governor and Owen Broadhurst
for State Representative of the Third of Hamden District Campaigns
(413) 210-6301
martina_robinson at hotmail.com

According to reporter Pamela H. Metaxas's Springfield Republican article of
September 20, 2005, the Chicopee women's jail will cost $27 million to
construct.  Despite the myriad of problems associated with spending so much
money on a facility designed to incarcerate women who are mostly convicted
of non-violent, drug-related offenses including the fact that as our other
speakers have mentioned these funds could be better spent on childcare, job
training, post secondary education, housing, social services, and other
things that women desperately need.  As a feminist, disability rights
activist, however I would like to point out yet one more problem with this
expenditure.

I use personal care assistance every day; personal care assistance is help
that people with disabilities get with activities that most people do on
their own.  I receive 107 state paid hours a week, more than most personal
car assistance users get, according to Stavros, the organization which pays
my PCAs..  My workers are paid $10.84 an hour, that's a dollar or to more
than most PCA workers around the country get.  My yearly bill totals
60,313.76.  Yet if I were in a nursing home or other institution, the state
would spend $87,500 according to Kiplinger's Retirement Report, which was
published in March 2004.  That's over $27,000 more per person!  This
statistic becomes even more skewed when you realize that more than 8,200 of
my fellow Massachusetts citizens currently live in nursing homes, but want
to live in the community instead and are kept in institutions because no
waiver spaces are available and nursing home services are required to be
provided by law while home and community based service provision is
optional.   That means that the state could save $221,400,000 a year by
granting freedom to 8,200 citizens who've committed no crime other than not
being able to manage their daily living activities independently, assuming
that each person needed the same level of care that I do, which most people
don't!

If  we redirected the 27 million dollars being spent on this jail we could
cover all of the 8,200  disabled persons in wrongfully imprisoned in
Massachusetts intuitions for more than 313 years if all of those PCA
consumers needed the same level of care as I do, which as I  said before
most people don't.  We could also offer meaningful work to some of the women
scheduled to be incarcerated here.  As many social workers and advocates
will tell you, a meaningful and adequate wage job will eliminate the need
for many criminal behaviors.

I think this idea deserves a dialogue to be begun between disability rights
and anti-prison activists, after all the collaboration would benefit both
communities, would it not?   But, of course, the powers that be won't allow
that to happen, claiming that working with non-violent criminals would
endanger disabled people.  But, while this may in some cases to be true and
such concerns would need to be addressed and managed with tactics such as
regular phone and in person check ins, I feel that most disabled people
would prefer to try this route than live in an institution where you cannot
get up, go to sleep or do anything you want.  Take me as an example without
my PCA services I could not run for office, be an advocate, help the with
Grace Ross for Governor Campaign, be a dance instructor or a writer, or even
hang out with my friends.  If I had a choice between living in a nursing
home or having my care provided by a non-violent criminal with appropriate
checks and balances, I know I would chose the latter.

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--
Owen R. Broadhurst
Candidate for State Representative
Third Hampden District
http://www.owenbroadhurst.org