Listen to advocates for justice reform
Shelby County leaders could benefit from working with, not against, local citizen advocacy groups for criminal justice reform.
Nationally, reform efforts have successfully reduced jail and prison populations, led to sentencing reform initiatives that more appropriately punish wrongdoers, and led to a more fair, effective and efficient system.
It is essential our criminal justice leaders recognize that these advocates represent an asset not a threat. Advocacy groups form because people care about issues and want improvement.
There are a number of active criminal justice advocacy groups in Memphis including: Just City; the MidSouth Peace and Justice Center, MLK: Justice Through Journalism; Project MI ; People for the Enforcement of Rape Laws (PERL); Black Lives Matter, #takethemdown901, the Memphis Area Women’s Council (MAWC) and numerous others.
These groups aren’t complaining. They are advocating for a smaller and more humane justice system, better enforcement practices relevant to rape laws, elimination of racial bias in the justice system, improved responses to domestic violence and countless other issues.
Unfortunately, some of our local leaders hear concerns from advocates, become defensive and dismiss them as troublemakers. Instead, we should use
advocates’ activism to help address their concerns in ways that improve our system.
For a justice system to work, it must treat people equally and fairly. The rising tide of criminal justice reform essentially reflects a lack of trust in our justice system and its leadership. Recent news events validate this lack of trust.
Our county jail population has steadily increased, reaching 2,530 in January, the highest in three years. Sheriff ’s officials explained a transfer of inmates from the jail to the Correction Center as “a safe jail management situation.”
Crowding and safety concerns were two foundational issues that led to a federal lawsuit and U.S. Department of Justice oversight 20 years ago. It took 10 years and $25 million to fix those problems. The fixes lasted less time than it took to put them in place.
Recently, Juvenile Court Judge Dan Michael could have kept a 16-year-old girl in juvenile detention after she was transferred for trial as an adult. Instead, the county attorney pushed for the girl to be detained in an adult prison in Nashville where she was kept in solitary confinement for months.
In other words, our local officials claimed that our $80-million-a-year jail could not safely detain one juvenile female even though juvenile males are housed here.
Judge Mark Ward ordered her to Nashville, then ordered her back to Memphis, then changed his mind and ordered her returned to Nashville. As a result, a 16-year-old girl is being detained 200 miles away from her family and defense lawyers.
Meanwhile, Shelby County and Juvenile Court are still working under a 2012 Memorandum of Agreement (MoA) with the Justice Department to correct juvenile court problems of due process violations, disparate outcomes based on race and failure to adequately protect youth in detention.
The most recent reports by independent monitors included the following observations: progress has stalled, there has been a disturbing trend of judicial control over the defense bar, racial disparity has either stayed the same or has increased over time, black youth continue to be treated differently than white youth facing similar charges, and data documenting protection from harm has not been validated despite numerous suggestions it be done.
Our leaders are not confronting problems. Rather, they are working to maintain an unproductive and indefensible status quo and our justice system is floundering as a result.
The advocates just want our system to be fair, compassionate, efficient and non-discriminatory. Failure to respond to these legitimate concerns will put us on the wrong side of history.
If our leaders will listen and work with concerned citizens, we can do better.
Bill Powell served three mayors as Shelby County’s criminal justice coordinator.