Access to Safe Water is a Human Right!
Individuals detained at Stateville Prison in Joliet are facing an urgent water crisis. Community Renewal Society (CRS) member congregations, board members, volunteers and staff joined with 17 community organizations to protest this life-threatening situation and to deliver 62,250 bottles of safe and clean water. Access to safe and clean water is a human right and is inescapably linked to our platforms on economic and racial justice.
Two press conferences, where representatives of the endorsing organizations spoke, were held to uplift this urgent crisis and to demand action. “As a faith based community, we share in the lament of the detained citizens of Stateville and their families and the collaborative gathered here today to declare that water is a creation right. It is an essential source of life and we will not condone these crimes against the humanity of our friends, family members and loved ones at Stateville or any entity of our society,” states CRS Executive Director Rev. Dr. Waltrina Middleton. "We will not participate in homicide or genocide. So, we call on Governor J.B. Pritzker and Stateville administrator Rodney Thacker and all with power and authority to do the right thing and provide sustainable, ecologically responsible, and urgent resolution to this crisis right now. Human life depends on it."
Larry Dean, new CRS Policy and Organizing Associate, added, “In recognizing all the vital ways that people depend on water, it is important for the Illinois Department of Corrections to provide adequate water for the incarcerated. CRS is committed to holding elected officials accountable to make sure there is clean water for all.”
Dr. Middleton concluded, "The circumstance of being largely Black and Brown men detained behind prison walls should have no bearing on priority and practice in responding to this socio-ecological and human rights issue and to that end, a moral issue that calls us to be the divine change we seek as human spirits interconnected in love. Let us journey toward that great love with grace and mercy ensuring that the living water Christ promised is available to all."
Watch our video below and view our photo album on Facebook.
Thank you to Trinity United Church of Christ for hosting the morning press conference and caravan staging and to our fellow coalition partners:
Southsiders Organized for Unity and Liberation (SOUL), Justice for Nickolas Lee, Make Noize for Change, Monument of Faith, Rev. Dr. Otis Moss III and Trinity United Church of Christ, Trinity United Church of Christ Prison Ministry, A Just Harvest, The People’s Lobby, Black Lives Matter Chicago, Chicago Alliance Against Racist and Political Repression, Campaign to Free Incarcerated Survivors of Police Torture (CFIST), Nikkei Uprising, Chicago Torture Justice Center, Grace Church Logan Square, The Hampton House, Root and Branch Church, United Church of Rogers Park, Sen. Robert Peters and Charlene Carruthers.
We also thank our member congregations and volunteers who supported this effort through their attendance or by providing funds so that CRS and A Just Harvest could purchase eight pallets of water. This is what Liberating Love looks like!
If economic justice is an important issue for you, I invite you to join us for this month’s Just Economy, Community Development and Reparations Issue Team meeting on December 20. Register to attend our meeting held via Zoom on December 20 at 6:30 pm or email LaCreshia Birts, CRS Policy and Organizing Associate to share your interest.
Support CRS’ work in economic and racial justice, donate here.
Video provided by William Kilgore and Photos provided by Bria Taylor.