Here's how El Movimiento Sigue is trying to address Pueblo County incarceration rates
Pueblo social justice nonprofit El Movimiento Sigue provided updates Friday on its mission to address incarceration rates in Pueblo during the 53rd annual Cinco de Mayo celebration at Ray Aguilera Park.
El Movimiento Sigue in recent years has expanded its mission to include the Transforming Justice Project — a project funded by the Public Welfare Foundation in Washington D.C. that seeks to address incarceration rates in three Colorado counties: El Paso County, Mesa County and Pueblo County.
Denise Torrez, board president of El Movimiento Sigue, said those three counties were identified by the project as "problematic" through an evaluation of incarceration rates, racial composition of those arrested and sentence lengths, among other statistics.
In addressing Pueblo's incarceration rates, El Movimiento Sigue spent last year studying issues related to incarceration and criminal prosecution. This year, activists plan to advocate for bail reform, evaluate ways to support individuals who have been recently released from jail and assess how funds are being allocated in communitywide budgets.
"We're really trying to pinpoint where Pueblo County spends their money — Is it on law enforcement? Are there any kind of mental health services?" Torrez said. "We're trying to be proactive and invest in our community."
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El Movimento Sigue received $150,000 from the Public Welfare Foundation during the first year of the project in 2022 and will receive $200,000 more over the next two years. The nonprofit hopes to secure more funding in the future to support organizations looking to increase mental health and treatment services in Pueblo.
In addition to the Transforming Justice Project, El Movimento Sigue has partnered with the Colorado Youth Justice Collaborative to advocate for state legislation to raise the minimum age at which a child may be prosecuted in juvenile court. The current minimum age of prosecution in Colorado is 10 years old, but House Bill 1249, titled "Reduce Justice-involvement For Young Children," would raise the age to 13, except in homicide cases.
El Movimento Sigue is looking to gather input from Pueblo community members who have been incarcerated for the Transforming Justice Project. Additional information about the organization can be found on the El Movimiento Sigue Facebook page. More information about HB 1249 can be found on the Colorado General Assembly website, leg.colorado.gov.
Also during Friday's Cinco de Mayo celebration, El Movimiento Sigue announced the appointment of the first executive director in its history in José Ortega.
Ortega is a Pueblo native that previously served as exhibit and collections coordinator at El Pueblo History Museum. His hiring follows the organization's 2021 materializing as a 501c3.
El Movimiento Sigue, or "The Movement Continues," started as a grassroots social justice organization led by the late Rita Martinez. It is a continuation of the Chicano Movement, a 20th century civil rights movement across the Western United States that Pueblo played an integral role in.
"I'm born and raised Chicano," Ortega said Friday. "It's my culture, my history. All of that has been given to me since birth. I've always known I was a Chicano."
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Pueblo Chieftain reporter James Bartolo can be reached at JBartolo@gannett.com.
This article originally appeared on The Pueblo Chieftain: Pueblo nonprofit outlines plans to study and address incarceration rates
