Since Andrew Holden went to jail last month for staging a sit-in at a local hotel, he’s often been asked, “Was it worth it?” Despite suffering from what he calls “the worst medical treatment” he’s ever encountered, Holden says he actually found incarceration liberating. He admits most people won’t understand that feeling, but, he says, paradox is the essence of jail.
In September, Holden and two others were arrested for a sit-in at the Courtyard by Marriott on West Main Street, protesting the hotel industry’s low wages. Holden’s arrest violated the probation he received one year earlier for chaining himself to the elevators in the Omni Charlottesville Hotel. So on November 18, Holden began serving the 30-day suspended sentence he received for the Omni protest. As is standard for misdemeanor convicts, Holden served about half his time and was released on Tuesday, December 3.
On his first day of incarceration, Holden says, he became painfully aware of jailhouse contradictions. The Charlottesville-Albemarle Joint Security Complex recently added a new wing, complete with high-tech medical facilities, which happens to be a source of pride for jail administrators. Holden suffers from diabetes insipidus, which he says requires him to take 12 pills a day; when he got to jail, however, it took him 48 hours to get his medication.
“I was really sick,” he says. Holden says a medical ward employee told him that “I lost my right to medication. Those were her words. She said I should have thought about it before I got arrested.”
Unlike many inmates, however, Holden had friends and family calling the jail daily to make sure he got his medication. Holden’s father says his son’s life was at risk.
“Apparently somebody at the jail just blew him off,” says John Holden. But he telephoned the jail and secured the help of administrator Major Peggy Duncan. “It took her intervention to get Andrew’s medicine. I don’t know what would have happened otherwise.”
The jail’s medical director, Linda Ray, says she was unaware of the conflict.
Jail is an angry place, Holden says. Good behavior can earn inmates early release, however, so a shallow veneer of civility masks the hostility––barely, he says.
It’s not just inmates who are on edge. Holden says prisoners know their lives are often subject to the whims of the guards. Minor misbehavior will go unpunished some days, or earn an inmate a trip to solitary confinement other days.
“It’s a big deal what kind of mood a guard is in,” he says.
Holden and his father say people respond to prison life in one of two ways––they either help or compete.
Ironically, most jailmates are not there for committing violent acts. According to jail officials, the vast majority of inmates (who are mostly poor) are in for possession or distribution of illegal drugs.
“You see firsthand how unfair the Drug War is,” says Holden. “All kinds of people use illegal drugs, but only poor people end up in jail. And most of the inmates believe blacks get longer sentences than whites.”
If people aren’t violent before they’re locked up, they might end up that way, he adds.
“When you first get there, you have to look out for yourself,” says Holden. “You have to watch out for who you might have to fight, or who might take your stuff. It takes some time to relax after you get out.” Some older inmates, however, take pride in looking after new arrivals, he says.
A similar dichotomy holds true for jail employees, says John Holden, who identified two kinds of guards. “There are people who really care about others, and there are people who almost thrive on their power trip,” he says.
Jail time has done nothing to deter Andrew Holden from protesting in the name of a living wage.
“It’s a cliché that ‘four walls do not a prison make,’” he says. “Yet I’m more free than people who are afraid to confront the systems that hurt them. Confronting problems may not solve them right away, but when you lose fear, you can’t be controlled.”–– John Borgmeyer
Conservatives come out
Council told toback off—again
In casual conversation, people often call Charlottesville a “liberal” town, pointing to a City Council that is almost exclusively Democrat. But when residents appear before City Council, they usually come with a conservative agenda.
In other cities, people might hassle officials for not doing enough. Charlottesville seems to have the opposite problem—its government apparently does too much. The majority of speakers to Council are conservative; that is, they come begging the City to scale back a grand vision, slow down on a project and generally cease all its meddling. It seems most politically active residents of this so-called “liberal” town like the status quo just fine.
The latest planned changes to startle residents are a set of new zoning codes and a new building on Preston Avenue.
During City Council’s regular meeting on Monday, December 2, Ellen Catalano spoke on behalf of the presidents and vice-presidents of six neighborhood associations, who Catalano said agree that the new zoning codes threaten neighborhoods by favoring economic development over stability.
The revised zoning is part of Council’s vision of Charlottesville as the region’s urban center; the new rules will allow taller mixed-use buildings. Some of the most vehement opposition has come from residents who live near Jefferson Park Avenue as portions of those neighborhoods are designated “University Precincts,” into which Council hopes to funnel UVA’s expanding enrollment.
New zoning in the precinct will allow residential buildings up to seven stories tall with shops at street level. Planning director Jim Tolbert says this will permit students to live and shop within walking distance from UVA, thus reducing their dependence on cars. Dream on, say neighborhood activists.
Council has also caught much grief lately for its plans to redevelop the intersection of 10th Street and Preston Avenue. On December 2, several business owners in the former Monticello Dairy building on Preston Avenue said the project would hurt their businesses, and accused City Hall of developing the project in what Central Battery proprietor John Coleman called “a cloak of secrecy.”
Amy Spence, who owns a recording studio in the Monticello Dairy building, also spoke against the development at the meeting. She read a letter from Christopher McRae, manager of Integral Yoga, predicting the natural food store’s business could fall off by 50 percent during construction.
A recent presentation by Mayor Maurice Cox explaining Council’s long-range plans to nearby business owners helped soothe tensions, says Coleman. But he’s still irked at City Hall’s lackluster communication skills. “Potential opponents are always the last to know,” Coleman says.–– John Borgmeyer
Place your bets
Supes ready Albemarle Place for public hearing
In a lengthy work session on Wednesday, December 4, the Albemarle Board of County Supervisors prepared for the official public hearing on Albemarle Place, set for December 11.
Representatives of development firm Cox Planning, including lead planner Frank Cox, were on hand to request a change in zoning designations for the 62 acres of land between Hydraulic Road and the Comdial plant off Route 29N. With the site originally designated Light Industrial, the planners need a zoning change to Planned Unit Development before they can commence long-awaited work on the County’s largest mixed-use development.
Described by Supes Chairman Sally Thomas as the “biggest agenda project we’ve had to walk through in a long time,” Albemarle Place, which will include retail spaces, a movie theater, a hotel, restaurants, office buildings and 715 residential units, hasn’t been without its critics.
On the one hand, said Thomas, “I was pleased at how the planners and staff opened my eyes to how this would all fit into our community.” But on the other hand, “how will this fit into our capital improvements fund?”
The Board’s budget will require a big boost to support sidewalks and sewer and storm water facilities for the project. “A lot of the things that used to be funded in other ways,” said Supervisor Dennis Rooker, who represents the Jack Jouett district in which the development would be located, “must be funded by us.” Since the State used to cover such improvements, due to budgetary cutbacks, the County must now pay up.
Traffic and cars are other concerns. Although the Cox team has been tackling the issue since they first proposed the project in March 2001, some worry about automotive access to the development.
Not to mention parking. As Cox and his team discussed fancy ideas like “relegating parking,” which means hiding parking spaces under “green roofs” that support vegetation, questions turned to open space.
The green space closest to the site is Whitewood Park, and Rooker wondered how the new residents will recreate, literally . “It is not exactly an easy walk from the park to this new community,” he said. Among proposed solutions is the addition of an “urban gym,” although some worry that won’t be enough. “I’d also love to see something like a library in the area,” said Rooker.
Perhaps the most pressing concern about Albemarle Place, however, is its presumed market. “Short Pump has a complex like this,” said Rooker referring to a retail complex west of Richmond, “so what makes you think that it wouldn’t just be easier for the people living on the east end of Charlottesville to just go to Short Pump instead?” —Kathryn E. Goodson