NFL grants Memphis criminal justice reform organization $200K
Anna Isaacson and Jerome Davis each started careers in sports outside of the National Football League. But their paths recently converged with a $200,000 grant the NFL’S social justice initiative, Inspire Change, awarded the Memphis non-profit Just City, which seeks “a smaller, fairer, and more humane criminal justice system”.
Each responded to “a call to justice” as Davis, a college point guard turned bail specialist for Just City, described his end of experiences that set the meeting of minds in motion.
For Isaacson, the NFL’S senior vice president of social responsibility, the call to justice took place in front of the world as former San Francisco 49ers quarterback Colin Kaepernick began kneeling during the National Anthem in silent protest of police violence in 2016.
Isaacson, who organized community engagement efforts related to Jackie Robinson’s legacy in breaking the color barrier for the Brooklyn Cyclones before going to the NFL, said the league has come a long way in the years since Kaepernick first knelt, indicated by the $250 million, 10-year funding commitment in which Inspire Change funds are voted upon by a board with equal representation between players of owners.
Just City is among 13 new grantees, cumulatively awarded $4.3 million in the NFL’S current funding cycle. Inspire Change funds programs, on an inviteonly basis, focused on education, economic advancement, police and community relations, and criminal justice reform, according to a press release.
“We wouldn’t be where we are if not for Colin and the stance that he took and continues to take,” said Isaacson. “But I think we have more work to do, more room to grow as an organization.”
The league also “doubled down” following the Memorial Day killing of George Floyd, she said.
“We were in a place like the rest of the country of looking around and looking internally and saying, ‘What else, what more can we do as an organization?’ We had been facing challenges and talking about social justice issues for the past couple of years... ‘It’s clearly not enough and we need to do more’, Isaacson said of the league’s changing position on its involvement in issues raised by Kaepernick’s protest.
She hopes NFL fans of all stripes take the league’s evolution to heart: That those who didn’t agree with Kaepernick’s silent statement know the league’s current stance is real and those who tuned out the league in loyalty to the NFL might reserve judgment to see the outcomes of the commitment to making grants like that awarded Just City.
“I think it’s important for the public to know that this is authentic to us,” Isaacson said of social justice funding priorities, “that we care about these issues, that they’re not just issues that impact athletes or NFL players — they’re American issues.”
She continued: “These things are hard and they’re not without challenges ... Don’t necessarily judge us just on what’s happened over the last couple years,” Isaacson said. “Hopefully over time, people will watch the work and see the impact and that will be the true test.”
Soon, the money NFL granted Just City will translate to putting independent observers in Shelby County Criminal Court during trials; expunging records that frequently block access to employment; and predominantly, bailing people out of Shelby County jails.
Generally, Davis, 31, said his work at Just City entails processing requests for the organization to pay bail made by public defenders, other lawyers or occasionally, from a person’s loved ones.
On one Wednesday, it entailed paying a bail of around $100.
“This is somebody who’s been in jail for a few days now, for $100. We can do something better with that person’s time, with our time and the resources that they have to allocate to keep someone in jail for a low amount of $100,” Davis said.
A second bail fund in Memphis, run by volunteer members of the Official Black Lives Matters chapter operates on a more grassroots, community basis, while the Just City fund is oriented on the legal system, according to Executive Director Josh Spickler who said Just City frequently partners with the group and other non-profits in coalitions fighting for reform.
Just City’s eligibility framework tends to limit cases to bail below $5,000 and the organization doesn’t take cases in which a person is locked up while awaiting trial for a violent crime charge, Davis said.
As of the end of 2020, Just City has bailed out more than 500 people of whom, more than 60% saw their cases ultimately dismissed. “These people would not have been in jail anyway were it not for them not having enough money to bail themselves out,” Davis said.
On his follow-up calls to people awaiting trial from their homes rather than locked up in jail thanks to the payment of their bond, Davis said he’s heard about the destructive impact of bond in ways he wished the broader Memphis community was aware.
One person was a family caregiver, locked up on a charge for which they’d not been convicted. “They just wanted to continue being a caretaker for their loved one,” Davis recalled of what the person said it meant to be bonded out of jail.
“They knew that it wouldn’t be a long time that they would have to spend with this person. We were fortunately able to get them just a little bit more time,” he said.
Another person told Davis that awaiting trial in jail put their entire livelihood at stake. “They told me that if they would have spent another day in jail, they would have likely lost their job,” he said.
“People have other things going on other than the bad things they may get caught up in sometimes. Some of these things are very low level — trespassing, petty theft, that’s not really worth someone losing a career or job they might have just gotten that could be supporting their family when they haven’t been convicted,” Davis said.
He hopes community members not familiar with issues surrounding bonds might open themselves to learning in a way Davis said he did himself and sees in the NFL’S apparent sea change in highlighting racism and inequity in the justice system.
While playing basketball as a point guard at two Alabama colleges, the dictate to be “More Than Athlete” resonated, Davis said. After he attended a talk by lawyer Bryan Stevenson he opted to respond to the founder of the Equal Justice Initiative’s “call to justice” and chose a career in social issues over a coaching job and the sports management degree he’d recently earned.
It means a lot to him to see sports reenter the picture through the NFL’S joint funding commitment with players.
“Our sports heroes today are like the gladiators of old ... They can affect change in a lot of ways,” whether financial support or as fierce gestures in the legacy of Kaepernick and Olympic athletes, Davis said.
Sarah Macaraeg is an award-winning journalist who writes in-depth stories on accountability, solutions and diverse communities for The Commercial Appeal. She can be reached at sarah.macaraeg@commercialappeal.com or on Twitter @seramak.