Thread by @ScottHech

THREAD: This story is important. Clarifies the failure of the criminal legal system. A man w/o a home. Trauma. Substance use. Mental health. 50+ arrests/convictions didn't "help" him. Right now: Caged over 800 days for stealing cold medicine. Faces 4 years.theappeal.org/rikers-nyquil-…

As a public defender, I met people like Reginald Randolph frequently. RAP sheet was literally heavy w/ crimes of desperation. To police, prosecutors & judges he was a "menace." To defenders: He long needed helped, but was failed time & again. "Homeless, sick, & trapped."

In San Francisco, NYC, & other cities, more & more people are expressing disgust over "shoplifters" & homelessness. Think it's a choice. The truth: "Shoplifting was to support my addiction & to deal with my homelessness, deal w/ my poverty." You can't deter desperation w/ cages.

When I'd get handed a case file like Reginald Randolph's I'd know the arrest was the result of systemic failure. Trauma. Untreated mental illness. Punishment, not healing. "Randolph’s stepfather regularly beat him. He left school after 8th grade. First arrested when he was 16."

Instead of proven prevention tools--for mental health, education, housing, trauma, substances--our cities have primarily invested instead in cages. The result: People like Reginald Randolph "primarily received mental health care when he has been locked up or at emergency rooms."

The consequence of our cities & states--country--failing to provide basic health, infrastructure, & healing to people most in need: those very people get *punished." And increasingly more harshly as people in need get further marginalized by arrest, prosecution, prison.

When I talk to people alarmed at "vagrants," "the homeless," & "addicts" they see, who are angry that police aren't arresting them & prosecutors aren't prosecuting them more, I ask: "Do you think arresting & prosecuting them will actually solve the problem or make it worse?"

The reality is the criminal legal system fails humans & then punishes humans for the system's failures. "By the time Reginald Randolph was arrested for stealing cold medicine, he’d been convicted of more than 50 misdemeanors & handful of felonies." Prosecutors had a choice. More:

In Reginald Randolph's case, the Manhattan DA office "had discretion to charge him w/ a misdemeanor (or not pursue charges at all). They *chose to bump up the charge to a felony*—3rd-degree burglary—bc Randolph had a “no trespass” order. A cruel & familiar prosecutorial practice.

A moment to stress: People charged w/ "Burglary" & "Robbery" far more often than not hurt no one. Among the most common burglary charges are petty theft from residential vestibules or retail theft. "Robberies" are often fake threats or brushing past someone on way out of stores.

Instead of using charging power for good, prosecutors typically charge highest possible crime. Then ask for the highest possible bail. For Reginald Randolph, cold medicine from Duane Reade: Manhattan prosecutors charged Burglary & asked for $20,000 bail for a person w/o a home.

Think about this: Manhattan prosecutors asked a judge to set $20,000 bail on a man w/o a home, who they knew had no home, who they knew had not even a cent, in order to ensure he was caged on Rikers Island for as long as possible. It's cruel. It's also unconstitutional.

For stealing cold medicine to support his drug habit, Reginald Randolph first suffered on Rikers for over a year. “We’re not treated as humans in here." Then defenders got him into "drug court." Better than immediately to prison, but often just a prolonged route there. More:

It's easy to point to "alternatives to incarceration" like drug court, mental health court, & other interventions as the answer. For Reginald Randolph like so many others I represented, however, it's both too late & the strict, coerced model of sobriety doesn't work. He failed.

The way drug court works is you plead guilty. Sentence is withheld. If you successfully complete sometimes up to 2-4 years of treatment, the plea gets vacated. But if you fail, you get the sentence. That sentence is always hanging over your head. Opposite of conducive to healing.

Best description I've ever seen on drug court: “The drug court is still using prison as a threat in order to coerce people to do what they want them to do. It’s not really ending the war on drugs … It’s modifying the way that the war on drugs is waged.”nysfocus.com/2021/11/02/rik…

There is always this moment even after someone I represented failed drug court where I'd think that someone, anyone -- the prosecutor, the judge -- might see how crazy it would be to still go through w/ the lengthy prison sentence. Human trauma. Millions of dollars wasted. Nope.

In Reginald Randolph's case, defenders pleaded w/ the prosecutor & judge for mercy. Cited traumatic past. Systemic failures. Deteriorating health. Prosecutors opposed. Judge denied: “Dismissal ...would undermine the public’s confidence in the criminal justice system." Really?

“Dismissal would undermine the public’s confidence in the criminal justice system." Should the public be confident in a system caging a man w/o a home & w/ mental health issues for over 2 years on Rikers & then sentences him to up to 4 years in prison for stealing cold medicine?

“Dismissal would undermine the public’s confidence in the criminal justice system." Should the public be confident in a system that spends millions & millions of dollars over half a decade to hurt a person in need instead of investing those same funds into health & community?

“Dismissal would undermine the public’s confidence in the criminal justice system." Should the public be confident in a system that further marginalizes & hurts people like Regionald Randoph, increasing a need to steal to survive, trapping him in an endless cycle of social death?

There's still hope--at least for Reginald Randolph: Clemency from the Governor. Here's what's crazy: He's currently eligible for parole, but if granted, parole would require him to go to a shelter where-like drug court--he'll be sure to fail. Clemency is his shot at change. More:

If Governor grants clemency, Reginald Randolph would be released & move into The Redemption Center’s transitional housing program. “We have the opportunity to get him supportive services. We’re going to ensure that he’s fed, has a place to sleep.Parole is not going to do that.”

"The governor’s decision on Randolph’s clemency petition could determine whether he continues a cycle of homelessness and incarceration, or whether he can finally attain the kind of stability and support that he’s been denied for almost 60 years."

Reginald Randolph wants to “live a normal productive life. I’ll be able to do that cause I won’t have too much poverty to deal with. I'll have living quarters. I’ve never had that stability in my life. And I would appreciate the opportunity to be able to have that.”

Please share this story of Reginald Randolph w/ any one disparaging people on the streets & in need, blaming "reform" or "progressive prosecutors" for trying something different than punishing them for societal failures, or calling for greater harshness.

https://twitter.com/ScottHech/status/1455572070113312770?s=20