Latest / The People's News / Local Focus on Midterms; Protests at Dilly Dentention Center; 750,000 Women Denied Voting Rights - TPN 10/4/26

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Local Focus on Midterms; Protests at Dilly Dentention Center; 750,000 Women Denied Voting Rights - TPN 10/4/26 · The People's News

• 0:03
  Speaker 1: It's the week of October the 4th, 2026, and this
• 0:06
  Speaker 1: is what's on the People's News. A new pilot program
• 0:11
  Speaker 1: joins three programs to protect domestic violence survivors. A plan
• 0:16
  Speaker 1: of action to close the Dilley Detention Center. A battle
• 0:19
  Speaker 1: for Harris County Judge. Former women convicts silenced from voting,
• 0:26
  Speaker 1: even after serving their time. The Paxton Dilemma and the
• 0:30
  Speaker 1: Lone Star Project. Reconciliation Day for Native people in Canada.
• 0:35
  Speaker 1: But what about those in the U.S.? The Houston Cinema
• 0:39
  Speaker 1: Arts Film Festival showcases Houston to the world. All that
• 0:44
  Speaker 1: and more on the People's News. I'm Steve Gallington. This
• 0:47
  Speaker 1: is the People's News. And the People's News starts now.
• 0:58
  Speaker 1: Harris County Commissioner Precinct 4. Leslie Briones, and Harris County
• 1:02
  Speaker 1: Sheriff Ed Gonzalez united forces to start a joint task
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  Speaker 1: force to address the high rate of domestic abusers in
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  Speaker 1: Harris County. The Harris County Violent Persons Warrants Task Force, VIPER,
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  Speaker 1: will lead the coordinated, targeted effort to clear outstanding family
• 1:18
  Speaker 1: violence warrants tied to Precinct 4 residents. For every warrant served,
• 1:23
  Speaker 1: the Sheriff's Mobile Advocacy Response Team, SMART, will contact the survivor,
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  Speaker 1: and family in that case to provide immediate safety planning, shelter,
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  Speaker 1: and ongoing advocacy. We talked to Elisa News of the
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  Speaker 1: Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council.
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  Speaker 2: We only have six shelters in Harris County, and I
• 1:44
  Speaker 2: don't even know.
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  Speaker 3: The people that stay in Houston, in Harris County.
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  Speaker 2: How do we get that person in Baytown to get
• 1:51
  Speaker 2: help when the shelter is.
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  Speaker 4: Well, and so I think our community has historically relied
• 1:56
  Speaker 4: on shelters, and I think we're moving away from that
• 1:58
  Speaker 4: with the generations that are coming up, right?
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  Speaker 5: No one wants to be in a shelter individually or
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  Speaker 5: with their family. We know that. And so shelter is
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  Speaker 5: only one option.
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  Speaker 4: The way that we kind of scale this out is
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  Speaker 4: part of the reason that the VIPER response is so.
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  Speaker 5: Important is because we can't do any type of.
• 2:16
  Speaker 4: judicial safety planning, meaning protective orders, MOACs, bond conditions that
• 2:21
  Speaker 4: keep the parties separate. And so if Fiber can get
• 2:25
  Speaker 4: the harm-doer, right, the defendants in custody, we can ask.
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  Speaker 3: For bond conditions.
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  Speaker 5: Through those bond conditions, we can limit access of the harm-doer.
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  Speaker 6: To the house.
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  Speaker 4: Which then allows, assuming, of course, that the survivor is
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  Speaker 4: legally entitled to be at that home, but we can
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  Speaker 4: have that person who has gone through all this trauma
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  Speaker 4: in their own home, raising their kids, and safe under
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  Speaker 4: that bond condition, that MOAP, the Magistrate's Order of Emergency Protection,
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  Speaker 4: or the Civil Protective Order, which my office does free of.
• 2:52
  Speaker 6: Charge, right?
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  Speaker 4: And so that's why it's so important that we're upping
• 2:55
  Speaker 4: our investigative game We're having advocates say, trust the system
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  Speaker 4: because we're going to be there with you. We have
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  Speaker 4: Viper going out and making the arrest so that the
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  Speaker 4: criminal justice can respond at that time. And then because
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  Speaker 4: we collaborate, the DA's office, in addition to the sheriff's office,
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  Speaker 4: collaborates with the Harris County Domestic Violence Coordinating Council, we
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  Speaker 4: can do lethality assessments and then refer those cases that
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  Speaker 4: are high lethality, high danger to the mobile advocates because
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  Speaker 4: our systems step out when a case is resolved, right?
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  Speaker 7: Mm-hmm.
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  Speaker 4: But advocates in our community can continue the work that
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  Speaker 4: they do with the survivors for stability, for safety, and
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  Speaker 4: everything that we know.
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  Speaker 3: So they go back and check on the person after
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  Speaker 3: the fact? Yes.
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  Speaker 7: Okay.
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  Speaker 4: So what we know about the sheriff's office, the HPD,
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  Speaker 4: any law enforcement, and the DA's office is that when
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  Speaker 4: that investigation ends for them, they're done.
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  Speaker 5: When a case closes for us, right, we put them
• 3:47
  Speaker 5: on a probation. We send them to prison. We dismiss it.
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  Speaker 5: We do whatever, right?
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  Speaker 8: Right.
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  Speaker 4: We are out of that conversation with that victim. Our
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  Speaker 4: role is no longer.
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  Speaker 5: In that family.
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  Speaker 4: And so that's where we rely on our partners in
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  Speaker 4: the community to kind of pick up from where we
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  Speaker 4: leave and say, you know what? We know that your
• 4:04
  Speaker 4: trauma hasn't stopped with this case resolved. You still need therapy.
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  Speaker 4: You still need to make sure that kids are safe.
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  Speaker 4: You still need the protective order so that this isn't
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  Speaker 4: a cycle that you have to live through. So that's
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  Speaker 4: why this type of collaborative work is so important because
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  Speaker 4: there's no crime like domestic violence.
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  Speaker 5: Nothing else is like it.
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  Speaker 3: And you said something that I want to make sure of.
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  Speaker 2: You said if the person has access to the home
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  Speaker 2: or the apartment, because.
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  Speaker 3: I'm thinking that if it's a person that is the abuser,
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  Speaker 3: but he owns or.
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  Speaker 4: Is the abuser of that property. Right, and that's part
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  Speaker 4: of the problem, and that's when we would ask the
• 4:44
  Speaker 4: complainants or the survivor to leave. But so if If
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  Speaker 4: you have a situation where the harm-doer is the only
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  Speaker 4: person on the lease, it's hard legally to restrict them
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  Speaker 4: from that location, right? But if both people are on
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  Speaker 4: the lease or the mortgage, then we can restrict, so
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  Speaker 4: long as the survivor has legal access to that property,
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  Speaker 4: we can still restrict the harm-doer under legal mechanisms and,
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  Speaker 4: of course, with appropriate oversight from the judiciary and the
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  Speaker 4: courts and.
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  Speaker 3: All of that, right?
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  Speaker 4: But it only becomes a little difficult when that survivor
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  Speaker 4: isn't on the lease.
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  Speaker 5: Or doesn't have their name on their mortgage.
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  Speaker 4: But if they are, then we do that restrictive piece.
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  Speaker 4: But the defendant has to have been arrested and either
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  Speaker 4: in custody or on bond for us to do those conditions.
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  Speaker 3: Oh, so if he doesn't have any record....
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  Speaker 5: Well, if it's just a warrant. So let's just say...
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  Speaker 5: Let's say the police call us, we take the charge,
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  Speaker 5: and it is just a warrant.
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  Speaker 3: Right.
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  Speaker 9: There's no.
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  Speaker 5: There's no legal way, because he or she hasn't come
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  Speaker 5: into court, to say, here are your conditions.
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  Speaker 9: Don't go to the house.
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  Speaker 3: Don't harass.
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  Speaker 4: So as soon as that person is arrested, we can
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  Speaker 4: then apply legal conditions to their bonds. Or we can
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  Speaker 4: file on behalf of the survivor a civil protective order,
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  Speaker 4: which is very consistent with the bond conditions.
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  Speaker 3: And that's a hard thing, too, because.
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  Speaker 9: You've got to find them.
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  Speaker 3: Well, also you've got to deal with the partner, actually. Oh, well, that's...
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  Speaker 3: he's okay.
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  Speaker 10: Yeah.
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  Speaker 11: Yes.
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  Speaker 4: And that's why the faster we can get that person
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  Speaker 4: into custody so that they can then, again, big bond
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  Speaker 4: or whatever, then the faster we can have a conversation
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  Speaker 4: about accountability. But it's hard when you're like, Hey, they're
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  Speaker 4: not arrested.
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  Speaker 5: What do you want to see happen?
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  Speaker 11: Right.
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  Speaker 5: And the person's like, I don't want to think about
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  Speaker 5: it now. And then two years later, they're like, I've
• 6:19
  Speaker 5: moved on.
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  Speaker 4: He or she hasn't bothered me or they're still calling.
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  Speaker 3: Me every day. Right.
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  Speaker 7: Right.
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  Speaker 5: And if they haven't been bothered in two years and
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  Speaker 5: their kids are now, they don't want to get involved
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  Speaker 5: with me.
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  Speaker 7: Right.
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  Speaker 5: They're like, I don't want to do it.
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  Speaker 4: And then we lose our momentum on being able to
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  Speaker 4: kind of get the accountability that's appropriate.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm glad you're saying he or she, because a
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  Speaker 3: lot of people just think it's a woman's issue, but
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  Speaker 3: it's more than that.
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  Speaker 6: Right.
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  Speaker 5: I once had some, I once had a.
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  Speaker 3: It was LGBTQ? Correct. Correct.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, I once had a brilliant woman who had been
• 6:51
  Speaker 4: in the domestic violence fight for a long time tell
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  Speaker 4: me that domestic violence is like breast cancer, right?
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  Speaker 5: It's predominant to women, but men get it too.
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  Speaker 9: And I was like, that is so.
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  Speaker 5: It's so appropriate. So we always try to use the problem. Unfortunately,
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  Speaker 5: we do default most of the.
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  Speaker 4: Time because we tend to be your larger group of victims.
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  Speaker 4: But it is a crime that affects both genders, right?
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  Speaker 4: It doesn't matter sexual preference.
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  Speaker 5: It doesn't matter economic status, politics, religion, any of that.
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  Speaker 5: It is a crime that can affect anyone and everyone.
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  Speaker 3: And I'm glad you said that.
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  Speaker 8: I wanted to say that.
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  Speaker 3: Getting the wording right.
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  Speaker 4: I will say domestic violence is a crime that has
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  Speaker 4: no barriers, no bounds.
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  Speaker 1: Harris County law enforcement receives more than 40,000 domestic violence-related
• 7:38
  Speaker 1: calls each year. According to the Texas Council on Family Violence,
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  Speaker 1: Harris County leads the state in intimate partner violence homicides.
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  Speaker 1: Family violence calls make up to 30% of homicides in
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  Speaker 1: the county and account for the largest share of of
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  Speaker 1: HCSO calls for service in unincorporated Precinct 4. Another problem
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  Speaker 1: is that there are not enough shelters to address the need.
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  Speaker 1: The pilot program starts now and will also include all
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  Speaker 1: of Harris County, not just Precinct 4. If you are
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  Speaker 1: in need, you can get help from the Women's Center,
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  Speaker 1: which has a 24-hour, 7-day-a-week number, and also various hotels
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  Speaker 1: around town will house you if you're a victim. There
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  Speaker 1: are several numbers you can call if you're the victim
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  Speaker 1: of domestic violence, starting with the Houston Area Women's Center, 1-800-256-0551.
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  Speaker 1: You can also contact the Harris County DA. That's 713-274-7300
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  Speaker 1: and 713-437-5800. Or you can call the 1-800 number for them.
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  Speaker 1: That's 1-800-256-0661. The People's News has reported extensively on the
• 8:29
  Speaker 1: Dilley Detention Center, which is 75 miles south of San Antonio, Texas.
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  Speaker 1: It's a holding place for many immigrants waiting for their
• 8:54
  Speaker 1: immigration case or deportation. It holds many children separated from
• 9:00
  Speaker 1: their families and families together. There have been reports of
• 9:04
  Speaker 1: death on the premises. A protest was held outside the
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  Speaker 1: Dilley Detention Center by an organization called Indivisible Texas, calling
• 9:12
  Speaker 1: for a statewide day of action against these detention centers
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  Speaker 1: with the concentration being on the Dilley facility, which is
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  Speaker 1: a privately run center. Participants call on elected officials and
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  Speaker 1: government agencies to, number one, end the detention of immigrant
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  Speaker 1: children and families. Number two, release individuals who can safely
• 9:30
  Speaker 1: remain with their families and communities while immigration proceedings continue.
• 9:35
  Speaker 1: Number three, stop the expansion of immigration detention facilities in Texas.
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  Speaker 1: Number four, ensure meaningful access to legal counsel, medical care,
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  Speaker 1: and due process for the people currently detained. Number five,
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  Speaker 1: reject the use of local public resources to expand or
• 9:50
  Speaker 1: facilitate unnecessary immigration detention. And number six, invest in humane,
• 9:56
  Speaker 1: community-based alternatives that allow families to remain together. We talked
• 10:00
  Speaker 1: to one of the organizers of the protest, Mike Kilalia.
• 10:04
  Speaker 12: This is a busy month leading into a busy election
• 10:08
  Speaker 12: and then a busy probably post-election season. But one of
• 10:14
  Speaker 12: the drivers is the cruel and un-American treatment of immigrant people,
• 10:22
  Speaker 12: whether they're here with documentation or not documentation, seeking asylum,
• 10:27
  Speaker 12: not seeking asylum. What we are seeing in America today
• 10:32
  Speaker 12: is something I never thought I would see in my
• 10:34
  Speaker 12: entire 75 years that I've been on this planet. And
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  Speaker 12: when we talk about Dilley, Dilley is the only family
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  Speaker 12: detention center in the country right now. There's About 600
• 10:48
  Speaker 12: people in there, mostly women and children. There's over 100 kids.
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  Speaker 12: These kids are being held there and fed inadequate food.
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  Speaker 12: They're being held long past the 20 days that a
• 11:01
  Speaker 12: federal judge has placed as.
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  Speaker 8: A limit on these children.
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  Speaker 12: And it is our goal to close down Dilley and
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  Speaker 12: free these children.
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  Speaker 11: How do you plan on doing that? Are you doing
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  Speaker 11: it in a legislative manner, or what's your plan of
• 11:16
  Speaker 11: action now?
• 11:17
  Speaker 12: Well, right now we are working on repeated demonstrations and publicity,
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  Speaker 12: basically trying to shame the authorities into.
• 11:30
  Speaker 8: Taking some positive action.
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  Speaker 11: It being a private-run detention center, how do you plan
• 11:39
  Speaker 11: on trying to stop it from operating when the finances
• 11:42
  Speaker 11: for the place is so strong?
• 11:45
  Speaker 8: That's an excellent question. The financing is very powerful.
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  Speaker 12: We have a company that owns that facility. For several years,
• 11:56
  Speaker 12: they earned, company-wise, roughly $ 450 to $ 500 million a year.
• 12:02
  Speaker 12: And since Inauguration Day in January 2025, their revenues have
• 12:08
  Speaker 12: just taken off, and they're 43% higher than what they
• 12:12
  Speaker 12: were on Inauguration Day before. you know, earning like $ 585 million.
• 12:16
  Speaker 12: And you're right. It's going to be hard to get
• 12:19
  Speaker 12: to turn away that cash. Part of the difficulty is
• 12:23
  Speaker 12: that the city of Dilley earns a lot from, you know,
• 12:27
  Speaker 12: from the detention center.
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  Speaker 11: How's that?
• 12:30
  Speaker 8: The people that work there?
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  Speaker 12: Well, the people that work there, and also they have
• 12:35
  Speaker 12: a contract with ICE and pass work to CoreCivic. They
• 12:38
  Speaker 12: made $ 876, 000 in, quote, CoreCivic revenue, unquote, in their 2025
• 12:44
  Speaker 12: to 2026 budget. And that's up from just a little
• 12:50
  Speaker 12: over half a million the year before.
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  Speaker 13: It is.
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  Speaker 12: It's hard to overcome these financial incentives. So I don't
• 12:57
  Speaker 12: have an overreaching answer for what we can do to
• 12:59
  Speaker 12: replace that money. But maybe if we let these people
• 13:02
  Speaker 12: out and let them get back to work, they could
• 13:04
  Speaker 12: contribute to our society again, as they have been for
• 13:08
  Speaker 12: many years before they were truly owned into. what I
• 13:13
  Speaker 12: will call a concentration camp.
• 13:14
  Speaker 8: Your organization is working. How many other groups are you
• 13:16
  Speaker 8: working with?
• 13:17
  Speaker 12: Right now for this DILI operation, it's really being organized
• 13:20
  Speaker 12: by Immigrating Youth Texas, based in Houston, with support from
• 13:26
  Speaker 12: a group called We the Wicca. And Indivisible Texas has
• 13:30
  Speaker 12: taken this on in a supporting role. And we are
• 13:33
  Speaker 12: here to join in the DILI event, but also to
• 13:36
  Speaker 12: hold smaller events all around the state to bring the
• 13:40
  Speaker 12: message out clearly. In my area, we plan to do,
• 13:45
  Speaker 12: we have some weather issues going on right now, Richard,
• 13:47
  Speaker 12: but we plan to do a vigil and rally in
• 13:50
  Speaker 12: Cedar Park Saturday early afternoon, late morning, and we will
• 13:56
  Speaker 12: display signs of the 78 people who have died at
• 14:01
  Speaker 12: the hands of ICE over the last two years.
• 14:04
  Speaker 8: We will display.
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  Speaker 12: Signs with the very poignant and troubling drawings and letters.
• 14:12
  Speaker 12: that were written by the children of Dilley.
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  Speaker 8: We'll have those.
• 14:16
  Speaker 12: We also have displays on what life in Dilley is like,
• 14:22
  Speaker 12: eating moldy food, bugs in food, many other things. The
• 14:26
  Speaker 12: effect on children to be incarcerated day after day after
• 14:30
  Speaker 12: day behind bars. So that's what we're doing, and we
• 14:33
  Speaker 12: hope that we will get some good coverage and make
• 14:37
  Speaker 12: Americans more aware of what is going on in their country.
• 14:42
  Speaker 12: Many people think that it's, I think they still believe
• 14:45
  Speaker 12: it's the worst of the worst of the.
• 14:46
  Speaker 8: Worst, being locked up.
• 14:48
  Speaker 12: And when they learn that many of these people have
• 14:50
  Speaker 12: no criminal record and that they're children, it changes minds.
• 14:56
  Speaker 12: I read a story today about a 13-year-old boy who
• 15:00
  Speaker 12: had to visit an immigration judge on his own. No representation,
• 15:05
  Speaker 12: no attorney, no family, no guardian, nothing. And the judge
• 15:08
  Speaker 12: asked him, well, do you want to be self-reported or
• 15:10
  Speaker 12: do you want to be in detention? And the poor
• 15:12
  Speaker 12: kid broke into tears. He had no clue what was
• 15:14
  Speaker 12: going on. He's 13 years old. This is not uncommon, Richard.
• 15:19
  Speaker 8: We need to end it.
• 15:21
  Speaker 11: Is it a fear that we have an incident where
• 15:24
  Speaker 11: people were protesting in Dilley and were locked up and
• 15:27
  Speaker 11: some were facing federal charges? Is it a fear of
• 15:30
  Speaker 11: you protesting at the center?
• 15:37
  Speaker 12: I'm honestly not familiar with a lot of arrests at Dilley.
• 15:41
  Speaker 8: Of course, we know about.
• 15:45
  Speaker 12: The Prairieland episode, the horrific, unbelievable sentences for people who
• 15:50
  Speaker 12: set off fireworks. One man wasn't even there at the event.
• 15:55
  Speaker 12: He was transporting either of these. From one building to.
• 15:59
  Speaker 8: Another in these sentence of 30 years? What is going
• 16:02
  Speaker 8: on in our country?
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  Speaker 11: But the fear is there that you might be arrested?
• 16:10
  Speaker 8: I suppose that's always a possibility.
• 16:13
  Speaker 11: Can people find out more information about your organization and
• 16:17
  Speaker 11: some of the organizations that are helping you?
• 16:18
  Speaker 8: Yep, certainly.
• 16:20
  Speaker 12: Well, we have our website, IndivisibleTX.org. We have social media
• 16:27
  Speaker 12: as well. Our group, Indivisible 1431, we have a website
• 16:31
  Speaker 12: as well. It's very easy to call about us. Indivisible
• 16:36
  Speaker 12: and No King is part of the No Kings movement.
• 16:39
  Speaker 12: And No Kings is a nonpartisan, nonviolent organization, just like Indivisible.
• 16:45
  Speaker 12: And we are dedicated to promoting fair elections. So October
• 16:50
  Speaker 12: 17th is we're going to step up and say, get out, people.
• 16:55
  Speaker 12: And voting early is election protection because you can avoid
• 17:01
  Speaker 12: the long lines. If there are any problems at the polls,
• 17:04
  Speaker 12: people can come back. It's a way that we need
• 17:07
  Speaker 12: to show overwhelming, overwhelming support for good candidates to defeat
• 17:12
  Speaker 12: the fascists and throw them out of office statewide and
• 17:15
  Speaker 12: across the nation. And this is the best chance we've got.
• 17:19
  Speaker 12: I've lived in Texas for 40-something years, and this is
• 17:22
  Speaker 12: the best chance we have. to take our state back.
• 17:26
  Speaker 6: So all across the nation, various Indivisible chapters, which is
• 17:32
  Speaker 6: like 3,000 of us, are doing various actions to promote
• 17:37
  Speaker 6: voting early, to show people their voting rights, where they
• 17:40
  Speaker 6: can register, how they can check their registration.
• 17:45
  Speaker 12: I'll just tell you, ours, Indivisible 1431, we span a
• 17:49
  Speaker 12: wide geographic area. So we're going to do a car
• 17:52
  Speaker 12: caravan from Georgetown to Round Rock to Cedar Park and
• 17:55
  Speaker 12: out here to where I am in Northwest Travis County
• 18:00
  Speaker 12: in Lago Vista. We're going to drive decorated cars with
• 18:04
  Speaker 12: vote early messages. We're going to stop and rally at
• 18:09
  Speaker 12: four or five places. And we're going to show people
• 18:12
  Speaker 12: that voting is their superpower. We'll have some documents. We'll
• 18:16
  Speaker 12: have materials for them to understand their voting rights, where
• 18:19
  Speaker 12: they can vote, when voting occurs. And it's going to
• 18:22
  Speaker 12: be a great day. I just hope it doesn't rain.
• 18:27
  Speaker 12: But so that's what No Kings vote early. So it's
• 18:31
  Speaker 12: very different from previous No Kings because it's not focused
• 18:35
  Speaker 12: on giant rallies where we had what we have. The
• 18:38
  Speaker 12: first No Kings was like, I can't remember, six or
• 18:41
  Speaker 12: seven million. And then we went up another million for
• 18:43
  Speaker 12: the second No Kings, another million beyond that.
• 18:46
  Speaker 8: So we're building the coalition, building our community in the
• 18:50
  Speaker 8: pro-democracy movement.
• 18:52
  Speaker 12: And now we need, but the important thing is not
• 18:54
  Speaker 12: just marching down the street and leaving signs. The important
• 18:57
  Speaker 12: thing is to encourage people to vote. They got to
• 19:00
  Speaker 12: get out and vote because there's no other way we're
• 19:02
  Speaker 12: going to change it. And then we'll be prepared also
• 19:06
  Speaker 12: for the after, I don't want to call it the
• 19:07
  Speaker 12: after party, for the after watch. Because the opponents, the fascists,
• 19:13
  Speaker 12: are going to try to draw, pull every election into question.
• 19:17
  Speaker 8: We know that. We know they're already pulling shenanigans. And
• 19:20
  Speaker 8: we and our allies will be there. to stop them.
• 19:24
  Speaker 8: So we want a free and fair election. That's what
• 19:27
  Speaker 8: everybody says they want, but we really do want everyone
• 19:31
  Speaker 8: who's eligible to vote to vote.
• 19:35
  Speaker 1: That was Mike Kilalia speaking on the day of action
• 19:39
  Speaker 1: against the detention of families and children. They are also
• 19:43
  Speaker 1: organizing a national No Kings Day on the 17th of October.
• 19:48
  Speaker 1: November elections are around the corner. as voters focus on
• 19:51
  Speaker 1: national and local elections.
• 19:54
  Speaker 8: Dr.
• 19:54
  Speaker 1: Letitia Plummer is running as a Democrat, but her opponents
• 19:57
  Speaker 1: are not focusing on her party, but her religion. She
• 20:00
  Speaker 1: is a Muslim, and this has been the focus of
• 20:03
  Speaker 1: Republican attacks. Her main opponent is Republican Orlando Sanchez, They
• 20:08
  Speaker 1: both were in a recent forum which included write-in candidates
• 20:11
  Speaker 1: Marion Yan Hess and Vince Duncan.
• 20:14
  Speaker 10: We have an affordable space for us to live in.
• 20:18
  Speaker 10: And the increase that was had that happened at Commissioner's Court,
• 20:21
  Speaker 10: I do not agree with. I would actually reverse it
• 20:23
  Speaker 10: if I was at the Commissioner's Court at this moment.
• 20:26
  Speaker 10: People are having a challenge.
• 20:27
  Speaker 14: Just living their regular lives.
• 20:29
  Speaker 10: And so we have to ensure that they can do
• 20:31
  Speaker 10: what they need to do, whether that be buying groceries
• 20:33
  Speaker 10: for themselves or putting gas in their cars. That will
• 20:35
  Speaker 10: be very, very clear. As a county judge, I keep
• 20:38
  Speaker 10: control of those things, but what I can do is
• 20:40
  Speaker 10: I can make sure we fund Harris Health so that
• 20:42
  Speaker 10: you have healthcare if you don't have access. I can
• 20:44
  Speaker 10: make sure that you don't flood every single time it rains,
• 20:47
  Speaker 10: so you're not worried about repairing your home every single
• 20:49
  Speaker 10: time that we have a storm. I can be sure
• 20:52
  Speaker 10: that if you're struggling with mental health issues, I'm funding
• 20:54
  Speaker 10: the Harris Center. And if you're someone that's been incarcerated,
• 20:57
  Speaker 10: I will give you a second chance to be able
• 20:59
  Speaker 10: to go to a justice to workforce program. We are
• 21:02
  Speaker 10: Harris County, and we are Harris County strong, but in
• 21:04
  Speaker 10: so many ways, we are just tired of being strong.
• 21:07
  Speaker 10: We need an environment that supports us, allows us to thrive,
• 21:10
  Speaker 10: and allows us the opportunity to build wealth and legacy
• 21:14
  Speaker 10: in this county.
• 21:16
  Speaker 8: All right, Leticia, thank you.
• 21:18
  Speaker 1: You hit on a lot of topics we'll be getting
• 21:20
  Speaker 1: to ultimately.
• 21:22
  Speaker 10: Again, the question, if you're a Harris County judge, what
• 21:25
  Speaker 10: do you do about the recently raised property taxes?
• 21:27
  Speaker 8: Orlando?
• 21:28
  Speaker 3: The answer is we.
• 21:30
  Speaker 15: Need to reverse the property tax.
• 21:31
  Speaker 8: But obviously, to.
• 21:32
  Speaker 14: Accomplish anything on the message board, I have a professional
• 21:37
  Speaker 14: and cordial relationship with my colleagues.
• 21:40
  Speaker 8: Anyone that has seen.
• 21:41
  Speaker 14: The activities of the Commissioner's Court for the past eight
• 21:44
  Speaker 14: years knows that it's.
• 21:49
  Speaker 8: A constant fight. Alina Hidalgo can't get along with the
• 21:51
  Speaker 8: Commissioner recently, too.
• 21:53
  Speaker 14: She's claimed that she's not voting for one of her
• 21:55
  Speaker 14: colleagues on the Commissioner's Court on the subject of the re-election.
• 21:59
  Speaker 14: She gets in tussles with the mayor of.
• 22:02
  Speaker 4: The city of Houston. There's arguments with the state of Texas.
• 22:06
  Speaker 14: Remember, we have to work cooperatively because Harris County now
• 22:10
  Speaker 14: needs resources from the state of Texas and the.
• 22:12
  Speaker 2: Federal government to resolve our problems.
• 22:15
  Speaker 14: I served on Houston City Council. I helped lead an
• 22:18
  Speaker 14: organization of bipartisan city council members to reduce the property
• 22:23
  Speaker 14: tax rate in the city of Houston. And at the
• 22:25
  Speaker 14: same time, we gave a modest increase to our first responders,
• 22:28
  Speaker 14: our Houston police officers. We need to do that in
• 22:31
  Speaker 14: Harris County. What I'd like to see is limit the
• 22:34
  Speaker 14: income of Harris County to population growth and inflation. After that,
• 22:39
  Speaker 14: I'd like to go to the legislature and ask for
• 22:41
  Speaker 14: permission that any proposed tax increase be put on the
• 22:44
  Speaker 14: ballot to be voted by the taxpayers.
• 22:46
  Speaker 11: Of the state.
• 22:48
  Speaker 8: Orlando, thank you. Yeah?
• 22:50
  Speaker 10: Yes, I will definitely lower the property taxes.
• 22:53
  Speaker 8: I'm a homeowner, small business owner, landlord.
• 22:57
  Speaker 4: And I'm also a DIY lawyer.
• 22:59
  Speaker 10: I do the work myself in fixing things.
• 23:02
  Speaker 15: So I know the value of dollar.
• 23:04
  Speaker 10: And the hard work that comes with it.
• 23:08
  Speaker 7: The solution is really to.
• 23:09
  Speaker 15: Lower the property taxes because it's been increased for the
• 23:12
  Speaker 15: past three years. And the reason why, it doesn't even
• 23:15
  Speaker 15: make sense. How can you give massive salaries to elected officials.
• 23:20
  Speaker 16: Who are supposed to be called public servants?
• 23:23
  Speaker 15: And people are earning way less than them. Paying higher
• 23:27
  Speaker 15: property taxes to give those elected officials more comfortable life.
• 23:33
  Speaker 15: And I'm not just talking about the ones that publicize.
• 23:36
  Speaker 15: This current commissioner's court, they have increased salaries of other
• 23:40
  Speaker 15: department heads that's not in the news. And you should
• 23:44
  Speaker 15: know that they increase it in hundreds of.
• 23:48
  Speaker 8: Thousands, $ 40, 000, $ 50, 000.
• 23:49
  Speaker 15: Nobody, no regular people gets that kind of increase for
• 23:54
  Speaker 15: their salary.
• 23:55
  Speaker 5: Even if they work for so many years, they will.
• 23:57
  Speaker 16: Never get that kind of salary.
• 23:58
  Speaker 15: But somehow our elected officials They're getting that kind of salary.
• 24:03
  Speaker 10: So yes, that's what I will do.
• 24:05
  Speaker 15: And also the health care, I will check the health
• 24:07
  Speaker 15: care that Harris County is paying 1.2 million. All right, again,
• 24:13
  Speaker 15: thank you.
• 24:14
  Speaker 16: Vince, I know you've been jumping at the bit to
• 24:17
  Speaker 16: get to this question.
• 24:18
  Speaker 7: Go ahead.
• 24:19
  Speaker 16: I think that we need protection from poor policymakers in
• 24:24
  Speaker 16: key seats. For example, commissioners. So what I would do
• 24:29
  Speaker 16: is I would create something for you called Free and
• 24:31
  Speaker 16: clear property ownership requirement. Does it make sense that you
• 24:34
  Speaker 16: can buy a car and you pay the taxes and
• 24:37
  Speaker 16: you own your car? Does it make sense that you
• 24:39
  Speaker 16: can buy a house and you can never finish the taxes?
• 24:42
  Speaker 16: There's a flaw in the law and the way it's
• 24:44
  Speaker 16: applied that says that you can get the car, pay
• 24:47
  Speaker 16: the taxes, you can have the house.
• 24:49
  Speaker 8: Never finish paying taxes. So what we need to do
• 24:51
  Speaker 8: is correct the flaw.
• 24:53
  Speaker 16: But in the meantime, to protect the homeowners of Harris County,
• 24:56
  Speaker 16: I have something for you called free and clear property
• 24:59
  Speaker 16: ownership requirement. What that means is you pay it to
• 25:01
  Speaker 16: the tax base for a period of 15 years. And
• 25:05
  Speaker 16: after 15 years, you own your property freely and clearly.
• 25:09
  Speaker 4: And this will.
• 25:10
  Speaker 16: Give the residents of Harris County an opportunity to own
• 25:12
  Speaker 16: their own piece of the American dream. Now, Harris County
• 25:16
  Speaker 16: is the fourth largest in America, but the biggest in Texas.
• 25:20
  Speaker 16: And we can set the example. There's no way that
• 25:22
  Speaker 16: you shouldn't be able to own your land and your
• 25:24
  Speaker 16: property freely and clearly. Now, one of the duties of
• 25:27
  Speaker 16: the commissioner's.
• 25:28
  Speaker 3: Court is taxing.
• 25:29
  Speaker 16: Yeah, they don't always have to be raising taxes.
• 25:32
  Speaker 1: They can be creating.
• 25:33
  Speaker 16: The very program that I'm talking about, the free and
• 25:35
  Speaker 16: clear property ownership reform.
• 25:37
  Speaker 14: Now, can you imagine the amount.
• 25:38
  Speaker 16: Of business that we would attract to Houston if.
• 25:40
  Speaker 8: People knew they could own the land?
• 25:42
  Speaker 1: Sanchez answered a number of questions after the forums.
• 25:46
  Speaker 3: What makes you run for county judge?
• 25:49
  Speaker 17: Well, because you may know that I served on the
• 25:52
  Speaker 17: Houston City Council six years.
• 25:54
  Speaker 9: I served as county treasurer for 12 years.
• 25:56
  Speaker 17: And what we see at Harris County is the lack
• 25:58
  Speaker 17: of cooperation, not only among commissioners, but they're constantly at
• 26:03
  Speaker 17: odds with the mayor and they're constantly at odds with
• 26:05
  Speaker 17: Austin and the federal government. So we need someone that
• 26:09
  Speaker 17: has the relationship to get resources down to Harris County.
• 26:13
  Speaker 3: One thing that was not talked about in this proceeding
• 26:16
  Speaker 3: was the ICE involvement in Houston. What's your take on
• 26:21
  Speaker 3: that and the involvement?
• 26:22
  Speaker 2: I know you've met with the government and the position
• 26:27
  Speaker 2: that the government takes.
• 26:29
  Speaker 9: I'm an immigrant to this country.
• 26:32
  Speaker 17: I am very sensitive to the needs and the plight
• 26:35
  Speaker 17: of immigrants in our community.
• 26:38
  Speaker 9: I don't believe that.
• 26:39
  Speaker 17: Any civil enforcement should end in the loss of human
• 26:44
  Speaker 17: life We have several investigations. I think the citizens of Houston,
• 26:49
  Speaker 17: the citizens of Harris County, the citizens of Texas are
• 26:52
  Speaker 17: owed an explanation about the tragedy that happened on Canal
• 26:56
  Speaker 17: Street to Mr.
• 26:57
  Speaker 9: Salgado.
• 26:57
  Speaker 17: We're all anticipating that.
• 26:59
  Speaker 9: The sooner they can give it to us, the better.
• 27:02
  Speaker 2: One thing about property tax, for us to get back,
• 27:05
  Speaker 2: since we have a voucher program and the voucher money,
• 27:08
  Speaker 2: if not the money that's going to the private schools
• 27:11
  Speaker 2: and going to charters here, They come from the property taxes,
• 27:14
  Speaker 2: so less money is going towards those schools, those public schools.
• 27:18
  Speaker 2: What do you say to those who say that you're
• 27:20
  Speaker 2: taking money with your property taxes and cutting property taxes
• 27:23
  Speaker 2: and taking money out of.
• 27:24
  Speaker 8: The public schools?
• 27:26
  Speaker 17: First of all, Harris County has absolutely zero to do
• 27:29
  Speaker 17: with the public education system. We don't have an assignment
• 27:38
  Speaker 17: from the state constitution to do anything about public schools.
• 27:41
  Speaker 9: Now, as a county judge, I have an interest in
• 27:44
  Speaker 9: making sure.
• 27:45
  Speaker 17: That we have the best public schools so that children
• 27:48
  Speaker 17: aren't put into a school based on their zip code
• 27:52
  Speaker 17: and because they're poor that is underperforming and is not
• 27:56
  Speaker 17: going to give them the opportunity to compete in the
• 27:59
  Speaker 17: 21st century.
• 28:00
  Speaker 1: We also talked to first-time candidates Hess and Duncan. Hess
• 28:03
  Speaker 1: was happy to tell why she is running.
• 28:05
  Speaker 2: Tell our listening audience who you are.
• 28:09
  Speaker 15: Hello, my name is Yan Hess and I'm a write-in
• 28:11
  Speaker 15: candidate for Harris County Judge.
• 28:13
  Speaker 5: You're not going to see my name on the ballot.
• 28:16
  Speaker 9: You have to.
• 28:16
  Speaker 5: Tap write-in and type my name.
• 28:19
  Speaker 15: I'm telling you, your vote at me is worth it
• 28:23
  Speaker 15: because I will protect your tax dollars, not just your
• 28:26
  Speaker 15: tax dollars, but the residents of Harris County.
• 28:30
  Speaker 1: And Duncan had a platform which has no property taxes.
• 28:35
  Speaker 3: Tell the people who you are and why you're running.
• 28:38
  Speaker 16: My name is Vince Duncan.
• 28:39
  Speaker 18: I'm on the ballot as a write-in candidate for Harris
• 28:41
  Speaker 18: County Judge.
• 28:42
  Speaker 9: In the 2026 election.
• 28:44
  Speaker 18: I'm running to create a protection zone from homeowners for.
• 28:49
  Speaker 8: from poor policy makers.
• 28:50
  Speaker 18: So what I've done is I created something called Free
• 28:52
  Speaker 18: and Clear Property Ownership Reform, saying that if we pay
• 28:55
  Speaker 18: into the tax base for a period of 15 years,
• 28:57
  Speaker 18: we should own our land. Now from a place called
• 28:59
  Speaker 18: Fifth Ward, right? And Fifth Ward is just one of
• 29:01
  Speaker 18: the communities right now being gentrified. Now think about that.
• 29:04
  Speaker 18: There's once upon a time, rich people didn't want to
• 29:07
  Speaker 18: live next to poor people.
• 29:08
  Speaker 8: They ran away from us.
• 29:09
  Speaker 18: So now they look up and they're saying the poor
• 29:12
  Speaker 18: people have their richest land in Houston, and we're not
• 29:15
  Speaker 18: going to be able to compete. So the Free and
• 29:17
  Speaker 18: Clear Property Ownership Reform Early voting starts October 19th, and
• 29:20
  Speaker 18: Election Day is November 3rd.
• 29:21
  Speaker 8: Hi, this is Steve Gallington, producer and host of The
• 29:24
  Speaker 8: People's News.
• 29:25
  Speaker 3: If you have a story that.
• 29:30
  Speaker 1: And Election Day is November 3rd. Hi, this is Steve Gallington,
• 29:36
  Speaker 1: producer and host of The People's News. If you have
• 29:39
  Speaker 1: a story that needs to be told, come to us.
• 29:42
  Speaker 1: We accept fully produced audio, written material, or just give
• 29:45
  Speaker 1: us the idea and we will run with it. Shiny
• 29:48
  Speaker 1: new one-hour episodes of The People's News drop each Sunday
• 29:52
  Speaker 1: on The People's News podcast. Hosted by Spreaker.com and linked
• 29:57
  Speaker 1: to my website, gallington.com. As we look forward to the
• 30:01
  Speaker 1: November elections, there are many who are still not allowed
• 30:05
  Speaker 1: to vote. Just like men, most women are denied the
• 30:09
  Speaker 1: right to vote once leaving prison with a felony conviction.
• 30:13
  Speaker 1: To gain access to the ballot, there are many hoops
• 30:15
  Speaker 1: that one has to go through. A new report released
• 30:18
  Speaker 1: by the Sentencing Project finds that over three-quarters of a
• 30:21
  Speaker 1: million women were barred from voting because of felony-level convictions.
• 30:26
  Speaker 1: There are many reasons for not being able to vote,
• 30:28
  Speaker 1: and it varies state by state. We talked to Kristen M. Budd, Ph.D.,
• 30:33
  Speaker 1: Senior Research Analyst at the Sentencing Project.
• 30:36
  Speaker 13: So we have a series of reports that we publish.
• 30:39
  Speaker 13: One is Locked Out 2024. So we come out with
• 30:42
  Speaker 13: that report. Every election cycle for the U.S. president, that
• 30:46
  Speaker 13: calculates the number of people who can't vote because they
• 30:49
  Speaker 13: are denied due to a felony-level conviction. So this report
• 30:53
  Speaker 13: that we just released today, as I'm calling it, our
• 30:55
  Speaker 13: Women in Voting Report, so women who are silenced at
• 30:58
  Speaker 13: the polls due to their conviction status Our goal is
• 31:01
  Speaker 13: to uplift their voices and their political power that they're
• 31:04
  Speaker 13: currently being denied because they don't have access to the
• 31:07
  Speaker 13: ballot box.
• 31:08
  Speaker 11: What can be changed on and what reasons can you
• 31:10
  Speaker 11: give people to change this?
• 31:13
  Speaker 8: Sure.
• 31:14
  Speaker 13: So I like to call it a story of 50 states, right?
• 31:18
  Speaker 13: Because each state has their own set of laws. There's
• 31:20
  Speaker 13: very few jurisdictions in the United States where women who
• 31:24
  Speaker 13: are currently incarcerated or formerly incarcerated are do have access
• 31:28
  Speaker 13: to the vote. So the four places you can vote
• 31:31
  Speaker 13: while you're incarcerated are in Maine, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and
• 31:35
  Speaker 13: Puerto Rico. So there's a different way that we have
• 31:39
  Speaker 13: to tackle it within each state system based on how
• 31:42
  Speaker 13: their laws are set up. So currently in Virginia, there
• 31:44
  Speaker 13: will be a constitutional amendment on the ballot this November
• 31:47
  Speaker 13: that is passed, would then re-enfranchise people once they come
• 31:51
  Speaker 13: out of imprisonment. So that would definitely increase the numbers
• 31:55
  Speaker 13: of women and also all men who could then go
• 31:57
  Speaker 13: on to be able to vote. There's been movement to
• 31:59
  Speaker 13: try and at least get a federal law on the
• 32:01
  Speaker 13: books that people with felony level convictions can then at
• 32:03
  Speaker 13: least vote in federal elections, if not in their state elections.
• 32:07
  Speaker 13: So there's a lot of graph movements at the state level.
• 32:11
  Speaker 13: Many are run by justice impacted people who are uplifting
• 32:14
  Speaker 13: their voices and also wanting to have that space in
• 32:18
  Speaker 13: the democratic process, right? We're all citizens. We all should
• 32:21
  Speaker 13: have that power to vote. We should all be able
• 32:23
  Speaker 13: to cast our ballot. This is especially important for women,
• 32:27
  Speaker 13: leaders in their communities, strong women, strong voices, many of
• 32:30
  Speaker 13: whom are mothers who should be able to vote on
• 32:32
  Speaker 13: things like for their children, schooling, health care, all of
• 32:36
  Speaker 13: these important issues that matter for women.
• 32:38
  Speaker 7: In the U.S.
• 32:39
  Speaker 11: And most of these women that have felony convictions, you know,
• 32:44
  Speaker 11: come from lower income populations.
• 32:47
  Speaker 8: Am I correct on that?
• 32:49
  Speaker 13: So generally speaking, when you look at statistics as a whole,
• 32:52
  Speaker 13: we do see that this is from a Bureau of
• 32:55
  Speaker 13: Justice Statistics survey, excuse me, that did survey women and
• 32:59
  Speaker 13: ask them about their histories. And we do see economic
• 33:02
  Speaker 13: impact from their youth of having economic instability, and then
• 33:06
  Speaker 13: even into adulthood, having that economic instability remain. And part
• 33:10
  Speaker 13: of that is because now they are returning home, they
• 33:13
  Speaker 13: have a criminal record, which then impacts earning power and
• 33:18
  Speaker 13: what kind of jobs they can get. So, you know,
• 33:21
  Speaker 13: movements like banning the box, so on and so forth
• 33:24
  Speaker 13: are important. So doors can open for people.
• 33:28
  Speaker 11: What about people that are in the community that say, well,
• 33:32
  Speaker 11: why should we give them a second chance? Because these
• 33:35
  Speaker 11: women have committed a crime, and that's part of their punishment.
• 33:42
  Speaker 13: It shouldn't be part of their punishment.
• 33:44
  Speaker 17: The U.S.
• 33:45
  Speaker 13: Has a history of tying criminal convictions to voting rights.
• 33:48
  Speaker 13: So my response to that would be why, right? It
• 33:51
  Speaker 13: should not be part of that punishment. The punishment is
• 33:54
  Speaker 13: being taken out of the community, having to go to
• 33:57
  Speaker 13: a correctional facility where you will serve your sentence, and
• 34:01
  Speaker 13: then you get to come home, right? So we also
• 34:03
  Speaker 13: see women who have changed and who have transformation, powerful experiences,
• 34:09
  Speaker 13: especially if you read the report, some of the women
• 34:11
  Speaker 13: we highlighted were really talk about how being incarcerated, they
• 34:14
  Speaker 13: really learned about voting and wanting to get involved in
• 34:17
  Speaker 13: politics and realized how important it was to be able
• 34:19
  Speaker 13: to have a voice in the laws that are affecting
• 34:21
  Speaker 13: their lives, the lives of their communities, and also the
• 34:24
  Speaker 13: lives of their incarcerated sisters who are still behind the wall.
• 34:28
  Speaker 11: And these are things they have learned. They might not
• 34:31
  Speaker 11: have learned before their conviction. Now that they're out, I'd
• 34:37
  Speaker 11: like to say that jail made them change, but they're
• 34:40
  Speaker 11: trying to get a new pathway of community or a
• 34:43
  Speaker 11: new pathway of teaching their kids, if they have kids,
• 34:48
  Speaker 11: a new light with the mistakes that they made.
• 34:51
  Speaker 13: Well, I think in response to that, it's like we
• 34:53
  Speaker 13: all have our different personal histories, right? So one of
• 34:56
  Speaker 13: the women that we share her story in the report, Megan,
• 34:59
  Speaker 13: like her family was really civically engaged, right? And it
• 35:02
  Speaker 13: was actually her contact with the criminal legal system that
• 35:04
  Speaker 13: really put a damper on her even wanting to be
• 35:06
  Speaker 13: involved in politics and voting and things like that anymore.
• 35:09
  Speaker 13: And then we have other people we talk to who,
• 35:12
  Speaker 13: you know, being in that carceral state with other people
• 35:15
  Speaker 13: or when they came back home and being in coalition
• 35:18
  Speaker 13: with their sisters who they were incarcerated with. It was
• 35:21
  Speaker 13: through those conversations where they learned about the power of voting,
• 35:24
  Speaker 13: especially for local politics. That came up a lot with
• 35:27
  Speaker 13: the women that we spoke to, how much importance should
• 35:30
  Speaker 13: be placed on those local elections, how those can really
• 35:32
  Speaker 13: influence their lives and the lives of their kids.
• 35:35
  Speaker 11: I'm looking at the chart that, you know, this study,
• 35:40
  Speaker 11: does it wrap up in 2023 or is it more updated?
• 35:45
  Speaker 13: The one that we just released today?
• 35:47
  Speaker 3: Right, right.
• 35:48
  Speaker 11: I'm looking at some of the statistics on here. Sure.
• 35:50
  Speaker 8: It goes up to 2023.
• 35:51
  Speaker 7: Okay.
• 35:55
  Speaker 13: Yeah, so we pull data from a lot of different sources.
• 35:59
  Speaker 13: So the numbers you see on the number of women
• 36:01
  Speaker 13: who can't vote because of a felony level conviction, that
• 36:03
  Speaker 13: comes from our data collection from our Locked Out 2024 report.
• 36:07
  Speaker 13: So we'll have another one coming out in 2028, where
• 36:10
  Speaker 13: we'll do the kind of account once again of those
• 36:13
  Speaker 13: estimates of how many people have been disenfranchised. But we
• 36:16
  Speaker 13: also rely on some Bureau of Justice statistics data, right?
• 36:19
  Speaker 13: So that's the survey that they do of people who
• 36:22
  Speaker 13: are currently incarcerated that tells about their past and the
• 36:25
  Speaker 13: instabilities like homelessness and things like that, that they may
• 36:27
  Speaker 13: have encountered during their life. And then we also pull
• 36:30
  Speaker 13: some voting data. I like to call it, and this
• 36:33
  Speaker 13: is actually from one of the women we spoke to
• 36:35
  Speaker 13: for this report that spoke about women showing up, right?
• 36:39
  Speaker 13: So they really show up and show out. That was
• 36:42
  Speaker 13: when we spoke to Candace, that's what she brought up
• 36:44
  Speaker 13: about how women are actually turning out in bigger numbers
• 36:47
  Speaker 13: than men and how important it is, especially with their
• 36:49
  Speaker 13: fight over the course of history that took a very
• 36:52
  Speaker 13: long time, right, to pass that 19th Amendment to make
• 36:55
  Speaker 13: sure that all women still have access to the vote
• 36:58
  Speaker 13: and that we keep that foundation of the 19th Amendment
• 37:01
  Speaker 13: alive and well.
• 37:02
  Speaker 11: Yeah, and Florida is a big example of what can
• 37:05
  Speaker 11: be done, you know, as far as changing voting rights
• 37:09
  Speaker 11: for people that are getting out of being incarcerated. Can
• 37:12
  Speaker 11: you talk about Florida as an example, or would that
• 37:15
  Speaker 11: be your main example?
• 37:16
  Speaker 13: Well, I mean, Florida is one of the states we
• 37:18
  Speaker 13: do highlight in the report. They have a large number
• 37:21
  Speaker 13: of people in the state, both men and women, who
• 37:23
  Speaker 13: cannot vote due to their felony disenfranchisement laws. So you
• 37:27
  Speaker 13: did have Amendment 4 with a couple of exceptions. Convictions
• 37:31
  Speaker 13: for homicide and sex-related crimes were carved out of that
• 37:34
  Speaker 13: legislation for re-enfranchisement. But then once that was passed by
• 37:38
  Speaker 13: the will of the voters, then you had the legislature
• 37:40
  Speaker 13: come back and then pass for everyone to get their
• 37:43
  Speaker 13: voting rights back. had to pay all their legal financial obligations,
• 37:47
  Speaker 13: so think fines, fees, and that. So essentially what Florida
• 37:50
  Speaker 13: has done is they're essentially a pay-to-vote system now for
• 37:54
  Speaker 13: people who are already having financial hardships, especially after coming
• 37:58
  Speaker 13: home from incarceration. And your voting rights, you shouldn't have
• 38:03
  Speaker 13: to pay to vote, right? And that's essentially what the
• 38:05
  Speaker 13: Florida system is doing. And the Florida system is always,
• 38:08
  Speaker 13: or I shouldn't say always, but also.
• 38:12
  Speaker 13: What's the word I'm looking for right now? It's totally
• 38:14
  Speaker 13: going to leak out of my brain, but there's no
• 38:16
  Speaker 13: unified system to simply check what you owe, right? It's
• 38:20
  Speaker 13: just so, and that's one of the things that Amari
• 38:23
  Speaker 13: talks about in our report, who is, she is in
• 38:26
  Speaker 13: Florida and she was just currently re-enfranchised and she talked
• 38:30
  Speaker 13: about it. I couldn't just call and figure out what
• 38:32
  Speaker 13: I owed. I actually had to go down there. And
• 38:35
  Speaker 13: then she learned that she owed late fees and interest, right?
• 38:39
  Speaker 13: on these fines and fees, which she also was just
• 38:42
  Speaker 13: very shocked by. She didn't know, I only have to
• 38:45
  Speaker 13: pay X, but now I have to pay X, Y,
• 38:47
  Speaker 13: and Z because there's this added late fee and things.
• 38:50
  Speaker 13: Kind of like if you miss a credit card payment,
• 38:52
  Speaker 13: you get a late fee. But she's a mother of five.
• 38:55
  Speaker 13: There was other priorities, housing, putting food on the table,
• 38:58
  Speaker 13: taking care of your kids. So it was a big
• 39:01
  Speaker 13: struggle for her. to figure out how can I get
• 39:04
  Speaker 13: this paid off so then I can vote, so I
• 39:06
  Speaker 13: can have my voice back in Florida politics and the
• 39:09
  Speaker 13: national politics.
• 39:10
  Speaker 11: Can this be worked on as far as on a
• 39:13
  Speaker 11: national level so we won't have these barriers state by state?
• 39:20
  Speaker 11: And I'm looking at the states with restrictions and they're
• 39:23
  Speaker 11: mostly conservative states, especially with the strongest.
• 39:28
  Speaker 13: Well, I mean, when you look at the, U.S. as
• 39:31
  Speaker 13: a whole, there's very few states where you can vote
• 39:35
  Speaker 13: regardless of conviction status. So you've got 20-plus states where
• 39:39
  Speaker 13: if you're currently incarcerated in a prison for a felony-level
• 39:42
  Speaker 13: conviction or jail, if you're serving your felony sentence there–
• 39:45
  Speaker 13: where you can't vote. There's another set of states where
• 39:48
  Speaker 13: you're still restricted even after you come home. So if
• 39:50
  Speaker 13: you're on parole or felony probation, then you have the
• 39:53
  Speaker 13: other small subset of states. So Alabama, Arizona, Florida would
• 39:57
  Speaker 13: be one of those, Kentucky, et cetera, Virginia, that have
• 40:00
  Speaker 13: like those post-sentence requirements. So things like having to pay
• 40:05
  Speaker 13: off your financial fees could even be up to some
• 40:07
  Speaker 13: act like by the governor to get your voting rights back.
• 40:10
  Speaker 13: It really is dependent on how state law is built out,
• 40:13
  Speaker 13: if it's built out into the Constitution, if it's laws
• 40:16
  Speaker 13: that has been made by the legislature, and also in
• 40:19
  Speaker 13: places like Kentucky, where we also highlight in the report
• 40:22
  Speaker 13: You've got governors that are doing executive actions, so it
• 40:26
  Speaker 13: could be making it harder, could be making it easier,
• 40:28
  Speaker 13: but it's not a permanent solution, right? You get a
• 40:30
  Speaker 13: new governor and they could rescind that executive order and
• 40:34
  Speaker 13: then people are losing their voting rights all over again, right?
• 40:37
  Speaker 13: So we need permanent solutions to make sure every woman
• 40:40
  Speaker 13: in the United States, including every man, can access the
• 40:42
  Speaker 13: right to vote and have real access to go vote.
• 40:45
  Speaker 11: How can people find out and find this study that.
• 40:50
  Speaker 8: You just released?
• 40:51
  Speaker 11: Sure.
• 40:52
  Speaker 13: They can go to our website. So we are the sentencingproject.org.
• 40:57
  Speaker 13: And then we also have a voting rights page that
• 40:59
  Speaker 13: has all of our other voting rights work. We're also
• 41:02
  Speaker 13: on Instagram. So I know we've got some really cool
• 41:05
  Speaker 13: videos that are coming out on Instagram. We have a
• 41:07
  Speaker 13: wonderful comms team here. They're working really hard to help
• 41:10
  Speaker 13: promote the report. And folks are also welcome to get
• 41:13
  Speaker 13: in touch with us. I'm happy to chat by email.
• 41:15
  Speaker 7: Or by phone.
• 41:17
  Speaker 1: That was Kristen Embud, Ph.D., Senior Research Analyst at the
• 41:21
  Speaker 1: Sentencing Project. The report can be found at sentencingproject, all
• 41:26
  Speaker 1: put together,. org. September 30th in Canada is National Day
• 41:31
  Speaker 1: for Truth and Reconciliation. It was established in response to
• 41:35
  Speaker 1: a call to action 80 of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission,
• 41:40
  Speaker 1: which called on the federal government of Canada in collaboration
• 41:43
  Speaker 1: with indigenous peoples to create a statutory holiday recognizing survivors,
• 41:48
  Speaker 1: their families, and communities while ensuring the history and legacy
• 41:53
  Speaker 1: of residential schools are publicly remembered. Bill C-5, which established
• 41:58
  Speaker 1: the National Day for Truth and Reconciliation as a federal
• 42:01
  Speaker 1: statutory holiday, received royal assent on June 3, 2021. These schools,
• 42:09
  Speaker 1: both in Canada and the United States, were where Indigenous
• 42:12
  Speaker 1: children were forced to go and abused sexually and mentally.
• 42:16
  Speaker 1: Many died in those schools, and for many, they just disappeared.
• 42:20
  Speaker 1: Those government-sponsored religious schools were there to assimilate Western values,
• 42:27
  Speaker 1: but failed in many ways, leaving scars that are felt
• 42:31
  Speaker 1: to this day. What about a day to recognize those
• 42:34
  Speaker 1: in the U.S.? We talked to Matthew Davila from the
• 42:38
  Speaker 1: upper Yantoni, Dakota, who was originally from Standing Rock but
• 42:42
  Speaker 1: lives in Texas now, and consults at Bob Bullock State
• 42:45
  Speaker 1: History Museum in Austin, Texas.
• 42:48
  Speaker 11: We just had Reconciliation Day in Canada. I wanted to
• 42:51
  Speaker 11: ask you, the aboriginal population in Canada was able to
• 42:55
  Speaker 11: get a day to facilitate and educate people on the
• 42:58
  Speaker 11: things that have happened to the aboriginal population, not just
• 43:02
  Speaker 11: in Canada, but in North America, and especially dealing with
• 43:06
  Speaker 11: the schools. Why can't we have something like we recognize
• 43:11
  Speaker 11: that in the United States?
• 43:12
  Speaker 7: Oh. As far as that goes, I think something was
• 43:21
  Speaker 7: started with the Biden administration. And, you know, maybe even
• 43:29
  Speaker 7: as far back as I thought I saw, read something
• 43:33
  Speaker 7: or saw something with the Nixon administration. And, you know,
• 43:40
  Speaker 7: it just like it goes in spurts. It's kind of sporadic.
• 43:44
  Speaker 7: And if there's nothing that's pushed within, you know, at
• 43:55
  Speaker 7: a national level as far as legislation goes or having
• 43:59
  Speaker 7: some kind of legislative verbiage, then it seems like nothing
• 44:05
  Speaker 7: will happen. But the voices are, you know, as far as,
• 44:10
  Speaker 7: you know, having any kind of... educational backing for that
• 44:18
  Speaker 7: as far as like educating the public again. And that's
• 44:21
  Speaker 7: an ongoing process. And it differs, you know, from state
• 44:27
  Speaker 7: to state. And primarily I'm speaking about like here in Texas,
• 44:31
  Speaker 7: where the indigenous, the native population here is very sporadic.
• 44:37
  Speaker 7: And we do only have three federally recognized tribes here
• 44:42
  Speaker 7: in Texas. there are, you know, they're separated, you know,
• 44:47
  Speaker 7: El Paso, um, uh, Livingston and over in Eagle Pass, um,
• 44:56
  Speaker 7: all three of those, um, I know they have, you know, they,
• 45:00
  Speaker 7: they went through their, you know, local, uh, you know,
• 45:05
  Speaker 7: they probably have their own, uh, recognition, um, set, um,
• 45:11
  Speaker 7: But as far as for now, the current administration, I
• 45:16
  Speaker 7: don't see that happening until there's a change. But this
• 45:23
  Speaker 7: is an ongoing process that needs to happen. And it
• 45:29
  Speaker 7: just seems like because of the changing settings, of the
• 45:36
  Speaker 7: educational department teachings of, as far as history goes, I
• 45:43
  Speaker 7: don't think anything like that will happen anytime soon down
• 45:47
  Speaker 7: here in the States, in the lower 48. I just,
• 45:55
  Speaker 7: I don't think that's ever going to happen just because,
• 45:58
  Speaker 7: but that doesn't mean work's not being done. because there
• 46:03
  Speaker 7: is work there, there are, you know, boots on the ground,
• 46:07
  Speaker 7: so to speak, as far as like getting these, these
• 46:09
  Speaker 7: different legislative acts or processes to, you know, try to
• 46:17
  Speaker 7: help out the whole, I guess, stopping the erasure of, of,
• 46:24
  Speaker 7: of history. Cause that's what's, I think that's what's kind
• 46:28
  Speaker 7: of going on as far as that goes. And, forgetting
• 46:32
  Speaker 7: about the past or changing the past. People don't really
• 46:38
  Speaker 7: want to hear what happened in those boarding schools or
• 46:44
  Speaker 7: don't really want to know why some of the graves
• 46:48
  Speaker 7: are just not being found. And I think just recently
• 46:53
  Speaker 7: up in Canada, one of the prime ministers went to
• 46:58
  Speaker 7: a boarding school cemetery or he was at some cemetery
• 47:03
  Speaker 7: and he had, you know, layouts of, of, of the different, um, um,
• 47:11
  Speaker 7: plots where these, um, where the, um, unmarked graves were,
• 47:15
  Speaker 7: I think I, I, I'm not too sure, but anyways, um, so,
• 47:19
  Speaker 7: you know, there, there's a, there's a big movement up
• 47:22
  Speaker 7: there and I'm glad that that's, this has finally come out. Um, we,
• 47:27
  Speaker 7: I've had, you know, family members that, that went to
• 47:30
  Speaker 7: boarding schools and, um, survived them. Um, I hear different
• 47:37
  Speaker 7: stories though, of, you know, some, you know, thinking, you know,
• 47:43
  Speaker 7: that they went to some of these boarding schools because
• 47:45
  Speaker 7: it got out of the, they got out of like the,
• 47:47
  Speaker 7: the home life. Um, you know, don't, don't really know,
• 47:51
  Speaker 7: you know, what it was like in, you know, the
• 47:53
  Speaker 7: forties and fifties, you know, uh, living, you know, up
• 47:57
  Speaker 7: in North Dakota, like where I'm from. Um, But, you know,
• 48:04
  Speaker 7: and then there's some people that, you know, as even,
• 48:07
  Speaker 7: you know, late, you know, back in the 70s, surviving
• 48:12
  Speaker 7: the boarding schools and hearing what their stories, you know,
• 48:16
  Speaker 7: differ from the people like my mom's generation back in
• 48:21
  Speaker 7: the 50s and 60s when.
• 48:23
  Speaker 8: She went.
• 48:25
  Speaker 7: And hearing about, you know, people, you know, some of
• 48:29
  Speaker 7: the kids running away and then not being found. But, yeah,
• 48:36
  Speaker 7: you can go back to the question. I'm sorry about
• 48:37
  Speaker 7: the whole roundabout answer, but I don't think it should happen.
• 48:44
  Speaker 7: I just don't know when all that recognition will happen
• 48:48
  Speaker 7: down here. I just don't think they really would want
• 48:51
  Speaker 7: to know the truth about what happened.
• 48:57
  Speaker 11: The boarding schools didn't just happen in Canada.
• 49:02
  Speaker 19: It would happen here in the United States also. Many, many, many, many,
• 49:08
  Speaker 19: many Native people had to go through that. And when
• 49:12
  Speaker 19: they were, instead of going to a public school or
• 49:14
  Speaker 19: something like that, they had to go to the two
• 49:17
  Speaker 19: boarding schools where there were abuse there were deaths and
• 49:21
  Speaker 19: recognition of that it's just coming out.
• 49:24
  Speaker 3: And a lot of people don't know about.
• 49:26
  Speaker 7: That no yeah and and they're the voice I mean
• 49:29
  Speaker 7: like like I said it depends on on where this
• 49:33
  Speaker 7: is all you know being the stories are being told
• 49:36
  Speaker 7: and I think down here would probably work or would probably,
• 49:43
  Speaker 7: because I think down towards the border, there's, you know,
• 49:51
  Speaker 7: here in Texas, I'm pretty sure there's schools still in
• 49:55
  Speaker 7: existence maybe, or maybe they even have, you know, some
• 50:01
  Speaker 7: unmarked graves too. I mean, I don't really know. I
• 50:05
  Speaker 7: know four years ago, I was asked to be part
• 50:11
  Speaker 7: of an educational research trip or whatever to go down
• 50:20
  Speaker 7: to the borders and go to some of these places
• 50:24
  Speaker 7: to find out and see if there's any missing documents
• 50:31
  Speaker 7: about some of these border town places. schools that are
• 50:37
  Speaker 7: down there, if they went through the same thing. But
• 50:41
  Speaker 7: I'm guessing they went through the same thing, too.
• 50:48
  Speaker 11: And when we talk about reconciliation, what does that mean
• 50:54
  Speaker 11: for you? And I also wanted to ask you about
• 50:59
  Speaker 11: some of the problems that happened at that time still
• 51:03
  Speaker 11: affects the population now.
• 51:04
  Speaker 8: When we look at.
• 51:09
  Speaker 11: What is lacking in those communities and what has become
• 51:14
  Speaker 11: of that. That means, you know, drugs, alcohol, and that
• 51:18
  Speaker 11: sort of thing.
• 51:19
  Speaker 7: Yeah, so that all has to do with... So some
• 51:23
  Speaker 7: of the kids that went to these schools, they were
• 51:27
  Speaker 7: forced off. I mean, they were basically kidnapped. Or they were...
• 51:33
  Speaker 7: That was only... school that was available that was only
• 51:36
  Speaker 7: schooling that was available to them I'm not too sure
• 51:38
  Speaker 7: how that how all that happened anywhere else um but
• 51:44
  Speaker 7: you know uh you know back in you know when
• 51:48
  Speaker 7: they went down here in the in the lower 48
• 51:53
  Speaker 7: um outside of Canada they were um you know part
• 51:58
  Speaker 7: of the you know military you know operation the the
• 52:02
  Speaker 7: Catholic schools the it was a forced assimilation to basically
• 52:12
  Speaker 7: get rid of the race, get rid of the native
• 52:16
  Speaker 7: population by making them forget about their culture, their traditions,
• 52:23
  Speaker 7: and their heritage. So because of that, because of that
• 52:29
  Speaker 7: complete stoppage of that way of life, everybody behind that, um,
• 52:41
  Speaker 7: those generations had to relearn everything. So relearn the practices,
• 52:47
  Speaker 7: relearn the, you know, try to, you know, pick up where,
• 52:51
  Speaker 7: where everything was taken away. And that, that's kind of
• 52:55
  Speaker 7: where we're at now. Um, as far as like all
• 52:59
  Speaker 7: the alcoholism and drug abuse that our systems, I think
• 53:05
  Speaker 7: are different because we can't tolerate those, you know, the,
• 53:12
  Speaker 7: you know, diabetes is, is rampant in some of the
• 53:16
  Speaker 7: native populations because, you know, it's not, it's, that's not
• 53:22
  Speaker 7: how we ate. That's not how we, you know, we hunted, we, we,
• 53:26
  Speaker 7: gathered we were on the move so now we have
• 53:29
  Speaker 7: processed foods and drive-thrus and you know it's an easier
• 53:35
  Speaker 7: way of life but slowly we're getting back to the
• 53:38
  Speaker 7: traditional ways of eating you know I'm working with a
• 53:46
  Speaker 7: group here they have a non-profit called the Tribal Texas
• 53:51
  Speaker 7: Buffalo Project and she helps out as far as like
• 53:56
  Speaker 7: the traditional ways of, you know, she deals with the
• 54:03
  Speaker 7: buffalo meat and she helps out expecting mothers just because
• 54:10
  Speaker 7: there's more nutrients in the buffalo meat than most contemporary
• 54:18
  Speaker 7: or not contemporary, but most of what we have now. But, yeah,
• 54:24
  Speaker 7: so I think, you know, it's a problem that we have,
• 54:31
  Speaker 7: but it's also a good problem because I think it
• 54:35
  Speaker 7: makes us stronger as Native people and it just shows
• 54:40
  Speaker 7: our resilience to everything that's happened to us in the
• 54:43
  Speaker 7: past and how we are now as Native people now.
• 54:50
  Speaker 11: And we have this last question. In communities now, are
• 54:54
  Speaker 11: they still suffering from the past? And what do you
• 54:58
  Speaker 11: feel can be done right now?
• 55:01
  Speaker 7: Yeah, I think it's generational trauma, and that's like a
• 55:12
  Speaker 7: hard period at the end. I mean, if you research
• 55:16
  Speaker 7: what generational trauma is, you know, you can, you know,
• 55:20
  Speaker 7: go all the way back to, you know, even nowadays,
• 55:23
  Speaker 7: probably to the, to the Holocaust survivors, their families, you know,
• 55:27
  Speaker 7: how are they, how are they reacting? You know, how
• 55:31
  Speaker 7: are they living now? You know, and native people, indigenous
• 55:35
  Speaker 7: people up in Canada, you know, went through the same thing,
• 55:38
  Speaker 7: you know, and if, and if people don't really realize that,
• 55:41
  Speaker 7: that that's, you know, uh, you know, the same correlation
• 55:46
  Speaker 7: as far as, you know, survival, um, They're doing it.
• 55:50
  Speaker 7: We're doing it. We need to come together as a
• 55:56
  Speaker 7: Native population to work together on educating people more on
• 56:02
  Speaker 7: about who we are as Native people today. We don't
• 56:07
  Speaker 7: get anything for free. There's only a 2%. There's a
• 56:13
  Speaker 7: short percentage of the Native population that have lucked out
• 56:19
  Speaker 7: on on being taken care of by their tribe. We
• 56:27
  Speaker 7: still have treaties. We still have treaties with the U.S. government.
• 56:30
  Speaker 7: That's why there's all these different tactics to try to
• 56:35
  Speaker 7: still get rid of us as far as those treaties go.
• 56:38
  Speaker 7: But we still have the treaties intact. So as far
• 56:42
  Speaker 7: as just educating the people, re-educating the public, about who
• 56:47
  Speaker 7: we are as Native people and that we're still functioning
• 56:53
  Speaker 7: members of the community here.
• 56:57
  Speaker 1: That was Matthew Davila from the Upper Yatoni Dakota, who
• 57:02
  Speaker 1: was originally from Standing Rock but lives in Texas now.
• 57:07
  Speaker 1: The People's News is a production of Steve Gallington and
• 57:10
  Speaker 1: Richard Hanna and is protected by copyright laws. All the
• 57:13
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• 57:17
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• 57:38
  Speaker 1: of the People's News. Prohibited use also includes publication of
• 57:42
  Speaker 1: our material in printed or electronic brochures, newsletters, or flyers,
• 57:46
  Speaker 1: as well as all website or email distribution. To obtain
• 57:50
  Speaker 1: permission to use copyrighted material, email stevegallington at steve at gallington.com.
• 57:56
  Speaker 1: Thank you.