Thread by @GalvinAlmanza

You know what would create a massive, system-wide push in juvenile justice, sentencing, restorative justice work, &the criminalization of poverty?

Resourcing public defense equally to prosecution.

Instant impact for people actually ensnared in our legal system.

https://twitter.com/BrendonWoodsPD/status/1431326861280399372

Equal pay ≠ enough. We need staffing, infrastructure, funding for collaborations & community facing initiatives. For policy work informed by real world experience. For training. For technology. For case loads that allow us to have all the time to do all the things clients need.

People in the policy/legislative world often don't realize how hard it is to make great policy actually reach the people it is supposed to reach. That's that's the role of those of us on the ground. And to ensure we can fulfill that role, we need to #FundPublicDefense

In places where the policy is abysmal, you need smart creative expert people on the ground to put their literal bodies between communities who are being harmed and the system doing the harm. To do that, you need to #FundPublicDefense

Do you like progressive prosecution as a concept because you think it'll get more people access to treatment instead of jail? Well who do you think fights to get people into treatment court/ diversion over the restrictions even those prosecutors have in place? #FundPublicDefense

Do you believe that kids should be treated like kids and not processed in an adult criminal legal system? Who do you think is there to stand up for each kid and argue that the kid is, in fact, a kid and should be treated as such?
#FundPublicDefense

Do you think that people who are aging in prison because of something that happened decades ago should be given another chance and assisted in creating a plan to come home? I mean follow @RAPPcampaign and @FAMMFoundation and @Keith_Wattley but also #FundPublicDefense

Do you love @bailproject & your local bail fund because you believe it's wrong for liberty to be conditioned on wealth in America? That's awesome! But also who do you think is standing up in court arguing that bail should be lowered or eliminated in each case? #FundPublicDefense

Did you stand up and march last summer because it tore your soul apart to watch Black and Brown people be harmed by police again and again and again? Public defenders can document injuries and help people find civil rights counsel *right* after arrest so #FundPublicDefense

Do you think it's awesome that some prosecutor's offices have added departments to find wrongful convictions and undo them? You can also reduce the chance of that happening in the 1st place when you #FundPublicDefense

It's appalling that people have been forced to forego rent, medicine, food & even commit new crimes bc of fees imposed by the criminal system. The people best positioned to fight that in the 1st place ar3 public defenders. #FundPublicDefense
alabamaappleseed.org/underpressure/

Padilla v Kentucky holds that if you were not born in the US you have the right to know how that might impact you when involved in the criminal legal system. But knowing that impact requires expertise. Expertise you can't get if you don't #FundPublicDefense

Jury service is one of the most fundamental ways Americans can control what their government does. Black people have been systematically excluded from this too. Who stands up in objects to the lack of Black voices on juries? #FundPublicDefense

sfchronicle.com/local/article/…

Are you in favor of restorative alternatives in the legal system, where people get the support they need instead of getting put in a cage? Donate to @PFJ_USA but also who do you think fights for & helps ppl craft those alternatives? #FundPublicDefense
washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2021/…

Prosecutorial reliance on junk science is a massive problem. But who looks at the science the prosecutor is trying to use and objects, explaining to a judge why it's junk? #FundPublicDefense themarshallproject.org/records/1115-j…

We also need to focus on the forms of police misconduct that do the subtle violence of stealing peoples entire lives. Testilying and civil rights violations are rampant. Who catches the lies and exposes them in court? #FundPublicDefense

nytimes.com/2018/03/18/nyr…

Who was it who exposed the history of a racist law and proved that the law was being applied 97% against Mexican people? A public defender, actually.
#FundPublicDefense

nbcnews.com/politics/immig…

Wonderfully, we are having a national conversation about mental health 1st responders in lieu of police. But when people experiencing mental health symptoms do get arrested, who fights to get them treatment instead of jail? #FundPublicDefense

Did you know being evicted makes you more likely to end up in the criminal system? We need a right to counsel in housing court. Let public defenders fight eviction & lower the number of people in the criminal legal system to begin with. #FundPublicDefense journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10.11….

The criminal legal system targets Black and Brown people. Similarly, the the child welfare system targets Black and Brown families. We should recognize that defense means family defense too and love orgs like @BronxDefenders ... and #FundPublicDefense

bronxdefenders.org/mother-jones-d…

It's hard for me to find an issue relating to systemic oppression on the basis of race/poverty that public defenders couldn't be empowered to help. This thread could go on forever bc there is almost no area in which we could not have a beneficial impact if we #FundPublicDefense