Report: Program lessens criminal justice caseload
Phoenix Project credited for inspiring former offenders
Joshua Garrard of Marin City committed a robbery at 18 years old and served three years in state prison, but returned to his hometown with an abiding aspiration to gain full custody of his daughter.
He needed help, so he turned to a community resource and rehabilitation program called the Phoenix Project.
“It was like an uphill battle,” said Garrard, now 31. “I had to fight really hard for this.”
The Phoenix Project, launched in 2009 to target “at risk” youths and young adults in Marin City for rehabilitation and renewal through mentorships and life skills services, is celebrating yet another milestone moment as it notches a drastic decrease in the number of Marin City adults and juveniles in the criminal justice system.
The number of Marin City adults on supervised probation has decreased from a high of 140 in 2011 to 24 people in 2020, according to a new report prepared by the New Yorkbased nonprofit Catchafire, which pairs professionals interested in volunteering their time with nonprofits in need. Additionally, juvenile referrals to the probation department from Marin City declined from 85 in 2010 to four people in
“They’re taking a stand to make things better. They’re not just talking about it, they’re doing it.” — Marlon Washington, chief probation officer
2020, the report found.
Marlon Washington, chief of the Marin County Probation Department, who has led the department since 2020, said Marin City is “getting behind wanting this change.
“They’re taking a stand to make things better,” he said. “They’re not just talking about it, they’re doing it.”
The project is funded through founder and executive director Felecia Gaston’s nonprofit, Performing Stars of Marin, which provides enrichment plans for low-income children and families.
“I think the collaborative way she works with all our departments and criminal justice partners makes her a major constitutor to the success of the reductive of crime rates in the area,” Washington said. “She’s that mother figure. She does more than just being a director. She’s involved and people know her. When people talk Marin City, they know Felecia.”
Participants are offered a case manager who can direct them to professional training or rehabilitation. That could be filling out court paperwork, assisting someone with a job application or giving them a ride to the DMV to get their driver’s license.
For Gaston, it’s about finding the “key people” who can change their lives.
“You have to make it accessible and easy,” said founder and executive director Felecia Gaston. “It’s almost like holding hands. It’s like having your own child and they’re crying out for help and we came to help them
and now see the changes they’ve made in their life.”
Gaston said Marin City is an outlier to the affluence of the surrounding county, but it has shown remarkable resilience in the face of systemic racial injustices, historical redlining and struggles with poverty, drug use and crime. Gaston describes the Phoenix Project as a public-private partnership, integrating resources from the county agencies in housing, criminal justice and philanthropy with private donors who have been inspired by her uplifting work.
The effort has served more than 300 men and 75 women in Marin City and elsewhere in southern Marin.
“Every case is very different,” Gaston said. “Some of them, we have to be hardcore with them. But we’re here to say we believe in you, we care
for you and we’re going to make you successful.”
The first step for Garrard was finding a job, which he locked down at Goodman Building Supply as a paint associate. He was released from supervised parole in 2014 and turned his focus to finding stable housing.
Three months ago, he found a place of his own in Novato. And just after that, he finally gained full custody of his 12-year-old daughter. He is now employed as a contractor and works in Marin City.
“Getting a job really helped me stay out of the streets a little more. I realized hanging around all day, it was a potential disaster,” he said. “Felecia is a real inspiration. I see she has a lot of backup and a strong voice. A lot of people in my situation, we couldn’t make it out
of that situation without her.”
The Phoenix Project was founded with a focus on Black males, Gaston said, and was a response to an explosion of crime in Marin City around 2009.
“To me it was such a hot issue,” she said. “It was painting a real negative picture of a community that has a lot of great people. We wanted to come together and find out what’s going on in these young Black men’s lives.”
Participants have diverse reasons for seeking out the Phoenix Project for assistance. Direct cash — generally less than $100 and most often related to transportation, clothing or employment — accounted for about 22% of visits between July 2018 and June 2020. Other reasons for visiting include court referrals, printing and copying documents, job searching, housing and child care.
Federico Cortez, 29, who moved from Antioch to Marin City with his mother when he was about 14 years old, said the Phoenix Project provided him with stability and employment while he spent more than four years on supervised probation.
Cortez, who is gay and Hispanic, menaced someone with a rock in the back lot of Golden Gate Village when he was 20 years old after the person directed homophobic slurs at him. Patrol deputies arrested Cortez, and he served a month in Marin County Jail.
“I never got into any trouble until I came out here, so I went into it not knowing what to expect. As soon as I got on a leash, everything got really difficult for me,” said Cortez.
Cortez didn’t have a car, so the Phoenix Project helped him get his driver’s license. He used their internet connection to apply for a new Social Security card and stay in contact with his probation officer.
“It’s limitless access to everything you need. When we come from broken homes, we don’t have cellphones or WiFi half the time,” he said.
Cortez still works as an administrative assistant for Performing Stars of Marin. He also operates a dog grooming business called Benny and Suki’s in San Francisco with his partner.
Another of the chief goals of the Phoenix Project is to lower institutional barriers for low-level offenders, such as fines or nonviolent criminal charges that keep them from attaining employment or housing.
Marin County Superior Court Judge Beverly Wood started Community Court, a diversion program for lowlevel offenders, about 11 years ago. The program allows petitioners to pay outstanding fees and fines and get their licenses back, which supports their employment goals.
The program has grown to be one of the essential outlets of change for the Phoenix Project users. The Phoenix Project partnership with Legal Aid of Marin has served 88 people over the last two years, wiping out $57,884 in tickets and clearing violations, allowing residents to continue to drive and work.
“We find that people who are affiliated with the Phoenix Project are much more successful in completing their community court because of that guidance and support,” Wood said. “I think there’s been a real movement over the years towards the preventative, to get in there and identify and work with youth before they get entrenched in the criminal justice system.”
Kat Taylor, philanthropist and donor to Performing Stars of Marin, said she met Gaston over a decade ago because their sons attended the same middle school. Since then, Taylor has had “extraordinary experiences with young people in the organization,” such as accompanying a delegation of youths to Montgomery, Alabama.
“I’m devoted to communities who have experienced a lot of harm and oppression and therefore have great insights on how we can move forward,” Taylor said. “It has been very important for Marin City as well as this country’s leadership to support local leadership development among the young.”