Thread by @iniquitousme

ARLINGTON! Here's a firsthand account of how Theo Stamos worked against programs she's now taking credit for. If you think this community can do better (it can), vote for @parisa4justice TOMORROW, JUNE 11.

A letter from Dayna Belfiore, broken into tweets:

“Having served as a forensic mental health professional with Washington, D.C.’s Mental Health Court and then with the Arlington Public Defender, I know the truth about Theo Stamos’ complete lack of support for diversion programming.

Her modus operandi is to oppose diversion until no longer politically tenable, then do whatever she can to ensure programs restrict eligibility and are as punitive as possible. That's what happened with Drug Court, which she opposed, and currently has only 9 participants.

The programs she’s taking credit for now--such as diversion of mentally ill people from pretrial detention--were created by others, with virtually no support from her office.

I know because I wrote the memorandum creating that program, and vividly recall having to deliberately minimize her office’s duties. I also sat on many committees aimed at exploring the creation of a mental health court and expansion of diversion programs. Stamos showed up once.

High-ranking officials from the Department of Human Services, probation, the Sheriff and others found time for these meetings and made their support known. Stamos didn’t.

She didn’t even attend when a distinguished judge from Miami visited to share his considerable experience with mental health courts and stress the importance of creating one.

During my tenure, several grant applications were written to secure funding for diversion programming and a mental health court. I don’t recall Stamos writing a single letter of support.

At the one meeting she did attend, Stamos announced her philosophical opposition to diversion programming and mental health courts, citing the need to hold mentally ill people “accountable” through existing methods like competency and sanity proceedings.

When stakeholders explained how competency proceedings aren’t therapeutic, and insanity proceedings aren't an option for people with low-level offenses (who shouldn't be court-involved in the first place), Stamos became infuriated, threw what can only be described as a tantrum,

and never came back. We saw her as an impediment to progress, and here we are—we’ve been talking for 15 years about creating a mental health court, and haven’t even submitted an application yet.

As long as Theo Stamos is chief prosecutor, our courthouse will never reach its immense potential for humane, progressive diversion programming."