DOJ oversight ends, but equality isn’t here yet
This shouldn’t have been much of a surprise. In June of 2017, Shelby County Mayor Mark Luttrell asked the Department of Justice to stop monitoring the way the county treats juveniles. He made that request a few weeks after mentioning it to Attorney General Jeff Sessions, who visited Memphis that May.
That request, on top of the visit, was bound to find a sympathetic ear with Sessions, a man hostile to consent decrees, memorandums of agreement and, for the most part, ideas that emphasize redemption, and not retribution, as a key part of what criminal justice should be about.
Then last week, more than a year after Sessions’ visit, and with only 25 percent of the concerns about unequal treatment of African-American juveniles fully addressed, the DOJ told Shelby County it would no longer be looking over its shoulder, as it had done since 2012, to see if it was doing right by youths in its Juvenile Court and Detention Center.
Under the 2012 memorandum of agreement, federal offi-
sources and will not require an amendment to the budget.”
In 2017, former county Mayor Luttrell planned to adjust the pay of more than 3,000 of its close to 5,000 full-time employees beginning in July that year.
Now, with Harris, he plans to take action further with those who are parttime workers. Harris says the MOU is non-binding, but still is an “important” statement of commitment to pay their employees.
Harris added that the MOU is another opportunity for the various leaders in Shelby County Government to demonstrate a willingness to work together on a “shared objective” collaboratively.
“Although the budget does not need to amended, this initiative will be brought before the Shelby County Commission for discussion in a public meeting before any action is taken,” Harris said.