{"id":281917,"date":"2026-05-23T11:11:17","date_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:11:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281917\/"},"modified":"2026-05-23T11:11:17","modified_gmt":"2026-05-23T11:11:17","slug":"activists-demand-that-red-lined-areas-be-off-limits-for-new-jail-site-action-news-jax","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/281917\/","title":{"rendered":"Activists demand that red-lined areas be off-limits for new jail site \u2013 Action News Jax"},"content":{"rendered":"

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Multiple prominent voices in the community spoke out outside of City Hall on Thursday to demand that historically black neighborhoods remain off-limits for Jacksonville\u2019s new jail<\/a>. <\/p>\n

On the steps of City Hall were Councilman Jimmy Peluso of District 4, Congressional Candidate LaShonda Holloway, Pastor Dr. RL Gundy, local activists Bobbie O\u2019 Connor, Wells Todd, and Lydia Bell, and other community members.<\/p>\n

Together, they argue that placing the jail in one of these red-lined neighborhoods would perpetuate the idea that institutionalized racism still exists in these areas.<\/p>\n

\u201cA jail says to a young person that look, \u2018this community is for containment, not a community that\u2019s worthy of entertainment,\u2019\u201d Holloway said.<\/p>\n

A resolution by Peluso will be presented before the city council this upcoming Tuesday. By the will of the council, Resolution 2026-0356 would prevent the jail from being placed in these neighborhoods.<\/p>\n

Last week, the resolution failed to pass both the Finance and Rules Committees.<\/p>\n

\u201cAll I\u2019m saying is these communities should be off limits,\u201d Peluso said. \u201cThey\u2019ve been hurt enough.\u201d<\/p>\n

Peluso says he believes the resolution may not have passed because some other city council members, including Jail Committee Liaison Will Lahnen, want to \u201clet the process play out.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI respect him very much as a council member,\u201d Peluso said. \u201cAll I\u2019m saying is, if everyone agrees it\u2019s not going to be built in one of these areas, what are we so afraid of?\u201d<\/p>\n

O\u2019Connor says she thinks these committees may not understand red-lining.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf they do, then I don\u2019t think they care,\u201d O\u2019Connor said. \u201cUnderneath those perfectly logical explanations is racism, pure and simple.\u201d<\/p>\n

The upcoming jail is projected to cost one billion dollars and is said to be composed of two-story structures across nearly 500 acres.<\/p>\n

Potential sites for the jail will be discussed in public town hall meetings this upcoming fall. By early 2027, the site is expected to be narrowed down to three locations.<\/p>\n

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Action News Jax Top Stories<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"JACKSONVILLE, Fla. \u2014 Multiple prominent voices in the community spoke out outside of City Hall on Thursday to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":281918,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[982,120032,88568,187,18613,22138,969,116,118,117,18638,18639,634,18643],"class_list":["post-281917","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-jacksonville","tag-action_news","tag-bobby_oconnor","tag-casey_stone","tag-city","tag-councilman","tag-hall","tag-jack","tag-jacksonville","tag-jacksonville-headlines","tag-jacksonville-news","tag-jacksonville_city_council","tag-jimmy_peluso","tag-local","tag-peluso"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281917","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=281917"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/281917\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/281918"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=281917"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=281917"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=281917"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}