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a bit late to this saturday morning meeting about race & criminal justice, but the powerpoint is just beginning
this is my whole life
black men are disproportionately represented in felony arrests. none of this is surprising, which the presenter acknowledges, but they do have ample data to back it up. 
these community meetings explicitly excluded presence of cops and prosecutors, aimed at making people feel more comfortable discussing their experiences with the local criminal justice system.
independent candidate for city council paul long asks what the proportion of drug arrests to total arrests in the data set is. the presenters said today’s meeting is not a presentation of findings, but a solicitation of community experience with the system.
the charlottesville/albemarle disproportionate minority contact report will come out in full in june.
harold folley from the legal aid justice center expresses dismay that this problem has been apparent for a long time and this is the first time there’s been any attempt to engage the community on it.
(while no current commonwealth’s attorneys are in the room, former city prosecutor dave chapman is here, as well as candidate for albemarle county commonwealth’s attorney jim hingeley)
a community member who identities herself as a formerly incarcerated person says the disparities are obvious - just sit in any courtroom any day of the week and look at the racial makeup of the room.
a man says he he was sent back to jail in the 90s for a probation violation... for being shot. he’s been in and out of the system since he was 18.
he talks about SODA (stay out of drug area) zones - they have always been in black neighborhoods. it becomes criminal to travel through certain parts of town. while there are no SODA zones here anymore, he says the legacy remains.
“i’m not taking away that i committed a crime,” but “it’s not justice, it’s favoritism,” talking about receiving nine years “for $39 worth of drugs” vs people he served time with who got significantly less time for worse crimes.
he says there are plenty of people with experiences like his, but they don’t come to meetings like this because they don’t think talking about it will change anything.
“if an officer sees me in west haven, vs seeing me on university avenue,” his perception is different, says harold folley. an officer looking at a black man in west haven, a low income predominately black community, sees a suspect.
an audience member clarifies that the SODA zones were discontinued in about 2000 after a legal challenge, but that the previous speaker’s point is well taken - they are still policed differently.
an audience member raises the issue of upcharging, specifically in the county. current county commonwealth’s attorney robert tracci is padding his numbers by charging as many felonies as possible. “they’re getting hit with stuff they really shouldn’t be.”
he also worries about charlottesville city police officers leaving the department because they fear increasing scrutiny on the department... they’re just moving to UVA & county police forces.
the police’s failure to act to protect residents during the summer of hate was “a heck of a blow” to community trust of police - city, county, and university departments failed us. it was a huge violation of public trust.
“there needs to be the same microscope on the county as there is on the city,” the speaker says. (it’s true!)
the facilitator shifts the conversation to how that broken trust can be mended.
the facilitator shifts the conversation to how that broken trust can be mended.
the man who spoke earlier about his experience being arrested locally says he believes we need police & order but it’s hard for him to trust a department that has mistreated him.
harold is talking about the resistance the police civilian review board is being met with. how can we make bigger systemic change when we can’t even get this?
though they aren’t answering questions at this time, walt is asking anyway: who paid for this report? are they subject to non disclosure agreements that prevent them from disclosing information the city/county ask them not to?
how can we trust a report commissioned by the same government body that promised civilian oversight of the police & then withdrew support when it looked like we might really get somewhere with it?
a woman is talking about the problems of our overburdened public defenders office. people don’t have enough time with their lawyer to really talk through their options and often feel rushed in deciding whether to plead guilty.
“you’ve decided i’m not good enough or important enough” to warrant more of a lawyer’s time, she says.
(small town life means she is sitting maybe 8 feet away from the man who founded the local public defenders office, which she acknowledges)
(small town life means she is sitting maybe 8 feet away from the man who founded the local public defenders office, which she acknowledges)
a man i assume works for some local government agency (since he keeps answering questions posed, although that is not the purpose of this session) is addressing walt’s question about funding. “ultimately it’s federal money,” that passed through the state & localities.
(he’s the thomas jefferson regional criminal justice planner, apparently.)
a community member raises the issue of these meetings being announced with very little notice, held very close together, and two of them are today (the day of the dogwood parade and a divestment rally). it makes you wonder if they wanted people to come?
“there are people that would like to be here, but they’d already made commitments to other things.” (i myself didn’t hear about these until 5 days ago, because i’m subscribed to emails from the county - the city didn’t send an announcement)
the real issue is housing, harold folley says. the housing crisis in this area is significant - ex offenders have an especially hard time finding housing after getting out. that contributes to recidivism. he says we need some kind of incentive for landlords.
the man who spoke earlier says after serving nine years for a small amount of crack cocaine, he got FORTY SIX YEARS of good behavior. he’s at risk of being put back in jail for the slightest mistake for the rest of his life.
he says he was turned away from the jail’s re-entry fair because he’s still on probation. when he was in jail, seeing people like him (released ex offenders getting their life back together) gave him hope. excluding him from society like this won’t break the cycle of recidivism.
this community engagement process is definitely flawed but it is so important to include the voices of formerly incarcerated people in conversations about criminal justice. this seems incredibly obvious, but they’re often not represented.
he has to go to get his daughter ready for prom, but before he leaves, he says he was told he could do community service in lieu of paying his fines... but that program is only open to currently incarcerated people.
the system is set up for failure. poverty is its own crime.
“so i need to go back to jail to pay my fines & lose my job!”
“so i need to go back to jail to pay my fines & lose my job!”
if he gets sent back to jail for nonpayment, he’d serve time... which would be a probation violation, which he’d serve even more time for, incurring more costs he can’t pay. it is an unbreakable cycle.
city council candidate and criminal defense attorney lloyd snook recounts an incident in which a cop claimed to smell marijuana in his client’s car... but it was a rental car that had no smell whatsoever.
“the officer has never been tested on his proficiency to smell marijuana,” and in this case, a drug dog was in the car but not even used before the pretext of the smell was used to search the car.
(community meetings in the auditorium at carver rec center are always a little stressful because it’s right under the gym - the incessant banging from upstairs really frays my nerves)
this is surprising to me - the criminal justice planner says this is the first study of its kind, that all other comprehensive disproportionate minority contact studies have been on the juvenile system.
defensive white guys go home, please.
i think excluding cops & prosecutors was important for making people feel safe, but part of the reason it’s important to keep them out of meetings like this is to prevent them from speaking over, negating, and gaslighting people about their experiences.
i understand hingeley means well, but monopolizing the conversation by giving a painstakingly detailed history of the public defenders office that he founded & ran for many years is not appropriate for this moment.
monologuing for eight solid minutes to condescend to a black community leader is not a great way to demonstrate you are a good progressive ally.
well, it’s fitting that this black-led community conversation meant to center the voices of black community members’ experience with the criminal justice system ended with a long monologue by the old white man running for prosecutor.
the fourth and final of these community meetings will be this afternoon. i’m very interested to hear more (the community members who spoke about their experiences are the real subject matter experts here!!) but it’s too nice out and i’m going to the dog park.
