Activist releases video in hopes of providing more information amid jail debate

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) - One community activist says he wants to make sure you have all the facts when forming an opinion about the future of the Allen County Jail just days after a federal judge gave county leaders more time to fix overcrowding issues he deemed inhumane.

DJ E-Clyps says he does not want a new jail near the intersection of Pauling and Adams Center Roads, mainly because it’s near a number of schools.

“I’m not the only one against it,” DJ E-Clyps. “I think that every resident on the southeast is against it especially when you looking at how many conversations have been had about the ‘school to prison’ pipeline.’”

DJ E-Clyps took to Instagram, using his passion for storytelling to cover last week’s hearing between county leaders and a federal judge. He says social media allows him to go more in-depth.

“I know how it is for (TV) news,” DJ E-Clyps said. “When you have a short timeline in order to fit all of this information and a lot of it doesn’t make the cut so what I did was take that journalism and make it available to the public besides the snippets they get on the news.”

As we’ve told you, a jail on the southeast side is not a done deal. There are now four possible locations. Commissioner Nelson Peters talked with members of the Fort Wayne rotary club Monday, where jail location was a hot topic.

“We will continue to vet properties as they come to us,” Peters said. “There are some people who do bring properties to us that we won’t push too far because I think we know certain sentiments in this community.”

Peters says his goal is to put the new jail in a place that won’t make people angry, which he says has been a difficult task.

“I actually developed a matrix that will let us to judge one property versus another,” Peters said. “It’ll take into account thinks like proximity to population, proximity to close-by neighborhoods and proximity to schools.”

As this conversation continues, DJ E-Clyps hopes county leaders will listen.

“If anything, I’m going to tell you to go to the source which is the residents,” DJ E-Clyps said. “These are the people who vote for you. I’m sure these people want something that will bring more of an economic development and less of an eye sore.”

County commissioners are set to meet with that federal judge December 16th, where they could possibly have an answer to where a new jail could go.

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