Criminal Justice News

African American men incarcerated at the Washington State Reformatory in Monroe founded the Black Prisoners’ Caucus (BPC) in 1972. The men organized Black Culture Workshops between 1969 and 1972. These workshops laid the foundation for the development of BPC. The organization fosters respect, responsibility, self worth and unity. The BPC stands as a testimony to the potential of the African American community to create a healthier future for ourselves. In spite of the challenges, the men of the BPC have kept the organization moving forward since 1972. Today the BPC is open to all inmates regardless of ethnicity and was featured in the documentary Since I Been Down.  Its inmate-run TEACH education program is highly successful, but needs sponsors in order to comply with WA DOC requirements. This Application form is for all interested community members who are invested in actively dedicating their time & wisdom in the form of Sponsorship for a BPC chapter/program across the state of Washington. The purpose of this application is for us to be able to identify, assist and document any interested community member in navigating the sponsor and volunteer process. Please take a couple minutes to complete this form.  Or contact Kimonti Carter of BPC directly for more information kimonti[at]blackprisonerscaucuscg[dot]org.

In 2018, the legislature passed a bill reducing legal financial obligations (LFO) imposed on defendants convicted of crimes. At that time, LFO legislation was one of the priorities identified at the 2017 Justice Summit. LFO’s are court costs and other financial costs that recently incarcerated people are required to pay after release, and they can deter them from paying other costs such as housing or job searches. HB 1412 would reduce these costs even more because it:

• Allows a court to refrain from imposing or waive full or partial restitution and accrued interest owed to any insurer or entity that is not an individual if the offender does not have the means to pay.
• Allows a court to not impose interest on restitution after inquiring into and considering specified factors and input of the victim.
• Revises standards for the waiver of accrued interest on restitution and non-restitution obligations.
• Revises the time periods in which judgments for restitution and non restitution legal financial obligations may be enforced.
• Establishes a revised standard of indigency for purposes of a number of provisions applicable to legal financial obligations.

The Interrupting the School or Prison Pipeline group is exploring bystander intervention training opportunities that JUUstice Washington might offer to congregations.  We are checking various options and there are a couple of training opportunities coming up in February that help this exploration. Bystander intervention training opportunities.  One is coming up on February 13^th.  Some key providers include Cortney Wooten, Seattle 350, Peace Keepers, and Poor People’s Campaign. The first, on February 13, is by a training team out of DC.  They describe it as "an interactive, participatory, beginner’s workshop designed for those that may have none to little prior studies of bystander intervention."  Payment is on a sliding fee scale.  The two times listed are two sections of the same training. https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScUlPNGG7coDk5dQPYW-nbntdz08_iEr2Blj4-07g5SOp4N-Q/viewform Edmonds United Methodist Church is offering a related workshop "Stepping into Allyship" workshop will be on February 9 from 6-8 pm. As we seek to create beloved community and dismantle racism, we are intentionally making the workshop free for all participants. The workshop will be led by local equity consultant and organizer, Courtney Wooten, who has collaborated with Edmonds UMC over the last three years. We hope that this offering will bless your communities as we work to together dismantle racism and white supremacy.  Registration information is available at Stepping into Allyship (google.com)  The presenter also does bystander intervention training. The Interrupting the School or Prison Pipeline (post-Summit) group is exploring potential ways to find and boost existing programs that directly interrupt the school to prison pipeline.  Two programs that we are looking into are Speaking Justice and Community Passageways.  If you already work with either of these programs or have insights about their work, please let us know by contacting John Hilke at jhilke@juustwa.org. The Interrupting the School or Prison Pipeline (post-Summit) group is monitoring and encouraging your engagement with the following legislative proposals dealing the police reforms and racial justice improvements.  We welcome additional assistance in monitoring and insights about these bills.  Please contact John Hilke at jhilke@juustwa.org, if you would like to help.   HB 1054 (Johnson) banning choke holds etc. HB 1092 (Lovick) database of police use of force HB 1089 (Ramos) compliance with I-940 on independent investigations of police violence HB 1082 (Goodman) reform process of decertification and sanctions for police misconduct HB 1088 (Lovick) standardizing reporting of police misconduct and impeaching office testimony SHB 1044 educational opportunities in prisons HB 1078/SB 5086  restoration of voting rights when persons leave prison HB 1090  ban on private prisons HB 1282/SB 5285 reduced prison terms for participating in educational programs HB 1310  statewide de-escalation standard and limits on use of force SB 5226  end debt-based suspensions of driver licenses HB 1186 youth alternative corrections SB? 5228 Antibias curriculum development SB 5229 continuing education regarding antibias practices

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THE POLICE KILLING of Breonna Taylor, who was fatally shot in Kentucky in March when plainclothes officers barged into her apartment in the middle of the night, has set off a series of state and local efforts to ban “no-knock” raids — the police practice of breaking into someone’s home unannounced to execute a search warrant. A bill introduced by New York state legislators on Thursday goes further than most of those efforts, seeking to not only ban the vast majority of no-knock raids, but also strictly limit other avenues for forcible entry by police. The New York bill, co-sponsored by Sens. Brian Benjamin and James Sanders Jr. and Assembly Member Daniel J. O’Donnell, seeks to limit the use of unannounced, no-knock raids to the most severe circumstances, like the pursuit of a murder suspect or incidents involving active shooters, hostage-taking, terrorism, or human trafficking. It would ban the issuance of no-knock warrants aimed exclusively at searching for drugs, currently the most common use of these heavily militarized raids. But unlike other current and draft state and local legislation, as well as three federal proposals, the New York bill would also impose a host of restrictions on what are known as “knock-and-announce” search warrants, a more common type of forcible entry that has led to dozens of deadly encounters in recent years. Read more here.

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The Washington Immigrant Solidarity Network is thrilled to share that the Fair Fight Bond Fund is open and accepting applications for people who are detained by immigration in the State of Washington and need support with paying bond. To request assistance with paying a bond, a request form must be completed. This request form will be reviewed by the Fair Fight Bond Fund steering committee. The steering committee is made up of seven community members, including people who have been directly impacted and have experienced being in immigration detention. All requests for funds will be fully considered on a case-by-case basis and the steering committee will try to pay as many bonds as possible, so long as funds are available. The steering committee will aim to meet on a weekly basis to review applications and give responses as soon as possible. The steering committee will aim to prioritize individuals who are facing especially difficult situations due to being detained. This includes applicants who are facing physical and/or mental health issues that are aggravated by being detained; applicants who are the primary caretakers to dependents who are facing immediate hardship due to the applicant’s detention; applicants who face serious economic hardship and have no or limited support, options, and resources to pay their bond; applicants who will face negative long-term effects on their immigration status due to being detained; applicants who are members of the LGBTQ community; and applicants who face marginalization based on their language, race, ethnicity, or religion. Please find the English version of the application at this link: https://bit.ly/FairFightBondFundSupportEn. And the Spanish version of the application at this link: http://bit.ly/FairFightBondFundSupportSpa. If you would like a PDF version of this application, please send an email to bond@waisn.org. We hope to have this application available in other languages soon. Please email vanessa@waisn.org if you are able to support with translating this form into other languages. Applicants who are able to pay for part of the bond can note this on the application. It is not required to pay a part of the bond, but for those who can and want to, we provide this option as it helps the bond fund to cover more bonds.

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As COVID-19 continues to impact our communities, those most at risk are the members of our community who are in detention. Last week, La Resistencia broke the news that dozens of immigrants at the Northwest Detention Center had been exposed to COVID-19 by a GEO guard. Last month, we heard how in Georgia, immigrants held at a detention center were subject to forced hysterectomies and general medical neglect. These reminders are just two of the many reasons that we know immigration detention centers should be shut down and ICE should be abolished. While we prepare for the long-term fight, we are also doing what we can to free the members of our communities who are in immigration detention. I am pleased to announce that the Fair Fight Bond Fund is gearing up to re-open in the coming weeks to pay the immigration bond funds of community members detained by ICE in Washington State. Next week, we will be participating in Fall Freedom Day---an effort coordinated by the National Bail Fund Network to pay bonds to free hundreds of community members from immigration detention in one day. Last year, the NBFN moved $2.1 million and was able to pay the bonds of nearly 200 people detained by ICE across the country. The Fair Fight Bond Fund will be participating in these efforts this year and hope that with our partners across the country we can release even more of our community members. As we work out some of the final details before we officially resume accepting and reviewing applications to help pay for immigration bonds, we ask that you consider donating to the Fair Fight Bond Fund so that we can have as much money in the fund to start paying bonds. If you have any questions, interest in volunteering with the bond fund, or other comments, please contact me at vanessa@waisn.org. Please send questions or requests about paying for bonds for specific cases to bond@waisn.org. In Solidarity,

Pronouns: They/She/Ella

The views & opinions expressed here are those of the author & do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of JUUstice Washington.

As Seattle grapples with the future of policing and public safety, much of the attention has focused on the Seattle Police Department's budget. But looming in the background is the contract with the city's largest police union, the Seattle Police Officers Guild. In its current iteration, the contract was so concerning to a federal judge, James Robart, that he declared the city was out of compliance with its longstanding agreement to reform the Seattle Police Department. Read more here.

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On October 1st, the Harvest Moon will rise shortly after sunset in the Northern Hemisphere. This burst of evening light provides an extended time for farmers to harvest summer crops and plant new seeds for the Fall Season. What and how have you grown this summer --- personally, in connection to your community, and in connection to movement uprisings for justice? Unitarian Universalists are invited to mark this seasonal transition by reflecting on this question in the Harvest moonlight, and setting intentions to Harvest the Power of community this Fall through a sprint of collective action and faith formation weaving together all Unitarian Universalist justice ministries. This is a shared endeavor between UUA, Side with Love, UU the Vote, and UUMFE.

• October 21-27 Week of Action with UU the Vote
• November 4-18 Post-election Virtual Spaces for Community Care & Formation
• November 19-22 Virtual Justice Convergence & Decolonization Teach-In
• November 26 Plymouth Day of Mourning 50th Anniversary Virtual Observance (hosted on Side with Love and UUA FB page)

It would be the first federal execution in 17 years. The last time the U.S. government restarted executions after a long pause — killing Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh in a newly constructed death chamber in 2001 — throngs of protesters and national press overwhelmed the city of 60,000. But this was a significantly smaller event. Some 20 protesters had gathered at the intersection in front of the dealership earlier that day. The street that cuts across Route 41, Springhill Drive, leads straight to the entrance of USP Terre Haute, a sprawling supermax prison across from a Dollar General. The demonstration included a contingent of Catholic nuns, Sisters of Providence, from the nearby Saint Mary-of-the-Woods congregation. They held signs, prompting honks, waves, and the occasional expletive from passing cars. “What about the victims?” one woman yelled. Read more here.

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Cancer care poses problems that prison systems are badly positioned to meet. Prisons tend to be distant from urban centers with cancer doctors, and health services afforded most prisoners don’t include regular preventive care. Beyond those practical barriers, inmates, their families and critics describe a cost-obsessed culture pervasive in prison systems that encourages inattention and half-measures. Read more here.  

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Prisoner accounts laid out in lawsuits, investigations from a new watchdog office and internal department documents obtained by Crosscut point to a pattern of delay that leaves the state’s 18,800 incarcerated men and women unable to access basic health services. Homicides and suicides in prison may draw more focus, but, in Washington as in much of the country, nine out of 10 prisoners who die inside fall to illness. And, though many are lifers, about a third of those who don’t leave prison alive are dead before they turn 55. Read more here.

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“So much for the ‘pro-life’ administration,” the Rev. James Martin, a Jesuit priest and author, wrote in a Facebook post. “The taking (of) a life is always immoral. So is the taking (of) a life to punish the taking of another life. This is why the Catechism of the Catholic Church says that the death penalty is ‘inadmissible.’ It is an assault on the dignity of the human person and on human life.” More than 1,000 faith leaders signed a letter unveiled on Tuesday demanding the White House and Attorney General William Barr halt the practice. “As faith leaders from a diverse range of traditions, we call on President Trump and Attorney General Barr to stop the scheduled federal executions,” the statement reads. “As our country grapples with the COVID 19 pandemic, an economic crisis, and systemic racism in the criminal legal system, we should be focused on protecting and preserving life, not carrying out executions.” Read more here.

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Reducing the role of policing and the criminal justice system as a whole is not a radical concept and is based on the widely acknowledged idea that the justice system has taken on an outsize role in society.¹ For too long, American communities have allowed—and in many ways mandated—that the criminal justice system serve as the de facto response to a broad swath of social issues, from behavioral health crises to substance misuse to school discipline. Police officers are expected to address situations that they are neither trained nor equipped to handle, which can significantly exacerbate harm for civilians. In establishing a commission on law enforcement in January 2020, even Attorney General William Barr acknowledged this point, saying, “[O]ur officers must confront a wave of social problems, such as homelessness, drug addiction, and mental illness – problems that demand solutions beyond their authority and expertise.”²