PEOPLE: Despite the state of emergency, public health crisis, & warnings to social distance, crowded criminal courts across the country remain mostly business as usual. Judges requiring appearances even for low level offenses or warrants will issue. This is just not okay.
Most appearances are already unnecessary. People miss work, school, appointments, have to arrange for child care, just to have a case adjourned. But now, on top of this unnecessary societal waste, people are at risk of infection or spreading the virus for no good reason.
This doesn’t just impact people accused of crimes. It’s family who comes with them, including babies & children. Witnesses. Crime victims. Public defenders. Prosecutors. Judges. Court officers. Clerks. Court reporters. Janitors. Social workers. Investigators. Program staff.
These are crowded courtrooms already with subpar sanitary conditions in many locations. People have to sit around for hours at a time in close quarters. On hard wooden benches. If you leave, you may miss your call.
People are rightfully focused on conditions in jails and prisons. But we must also focus on shutting down criminal courts and not requiring people who are now released to appear for foreseeable future. For the good of all.
Police departments should stop “creating crime.” End stop & frisk. Stop targeting Black & Brown neighborhoods. Things they should do anyway. But why not start now to stem the number of people coming through precincts & criminal court unnecessarily?
Prosecutors should decline to prosecute most misdemeanors. Again, something they should be doing anyway to limit the size of a system & reinvest in communities. But for now, also limit unnecessary interactions with the system.
I forgot to mention jurors:
But don’t worry. The “progressive” NYC Mayor remains committed to continuing to arrest Black & Brown people (“criminals” in his words) for mostly low level offenses. He also remains committed to killing new bail reform & jailing thousands more on Rikers.
