Tag: Josh Spickler

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Female Population On the Rise at Shelby County Jail

CREDIT: Google Maps

Google Maps

The female population in the Shelby County Jail has grown by about 50 percent over the last three-and-a-half years, according to the latest jail figures.

In January 2015, the jail had 201 female inmates. By August 2018, the jail had a daily female population of 299. Over those many months, the population has never been higher than 300 or lower than 194.

Anthony Buckner, the interim Public Information Officer for newly elected Sheriff Floyd Bonner, said the issue is complex. The jail houses many inmates detained by different law-enforcement agencies across the county. But maybe the biggest problem, he said, was “the length of time it takes to conclude felony cases, particularly post-indictment.”

Josh Spickler, executive director of Just City, said the increase is “remarkable.”

“It led me to question what we’re doing that impacts women so differently,” Spickler said. “I don’t necessarily have an answer.”

Shelby County Sheriff’s Office

But Spickler guessed that it may have something to do with the fact that women typically earn less than men and have less access to wealth than men do. Shelby County Sheriff’s Office

Spickler said incarcerating a woman is “much, much worse” in Memphis because of the hole it leaves behind in the woman’s community. Women are typically the primary care-givers here and typically the breadwinner.

“The domino effect of this on families, and children, and homes is much more destructive than if this was happening to men, because the primary role that women play children’s lives,” Spickler said.

Buckner said Sheriff Bonner “is greatly concerned about the increase” and is now working on a plan to fix it. 

“We obtained a grant and are receiving assistance to develop a case management system to address (the length of stay issue),” Buckner said. “We are working with the judiciary, prosecutors, defense counsel, pretrial services, specialty courts, and many others on issues such as increasing the use of misdemeanor citations in lieu of arrest, bond amounts, increasing the use of monitors, and accelerating the appointment of counsel.”

As of October 2017, 219,000 women were locked up in America, according to a report from the Prison Policy Initiative. This makes the United States “one of the top incarcerators of women in the world.”

Prison Policy Initiative

Of those, 96,000 were in local jails, like the Shelby County Jail. Of those in local jails, 58,000 had not been convicted of a crime. They sat waiting on court dates or could not buy their way out of jail on a bond.

The Prison Policy Initiative said poverty was, indeed, the likeliest indicator of why women face pre-trial incarceration.

“Women who could not make bail had an annual median income of just $11,071,” according to the report. “And among those women, black women had a median annual income of only $9,083.

“When the typical $10,000 bail amounts to a full year’s income, it’s no wonder that women are stuck in jail awaiting trial.”  Shelby County Sheriff’s Office

Spickler said when people sit in jail not because they’re a danger or they’re a flight risk, they only sit there because of poverty.

“They cannot buy their way out of that jail,” he said. That is really, really, dumb — for lack of a better word — as a use of our jail.”

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News The Fly-By

A Sessions Session

U.S. Attorney Jeff Sessions didn’t say anything during his Memphis visit.

That is, the content of his speech here didn’t make any headlines. But that speech did send a shudder through the criminal reform community, who fear a time-travel return to a “lock-’em-up” approach to prosecuting criminals.

To run the elephant out of the room, Sessions did not mention Russia. Reporters were not allowed to ask questions. Sessions’ route through the building to his car was blocked by very-serious-looking security personnel (and, yes, they had those earpieces and talked into their wrists).

Spickler (left) and Sessions (right)

Sessions knows criminal prosecution. Before he was U.S. Attorney and a Senator, he served as the U.S. Attorney for the Southern District of Alabama and served as that state’s Attorney General. For that time, Sessions gave himself some credit Thursday for the crime reduction wave that has gripped the nation.

“Yes, we’ve had 30 years of declining crime,” Sessions said. “I’d like to think what we did with tough sentencing, and tough prosecution, and the work we did laid the groundwork for a longtime decline.”

But, he warned, “[Crime] is up again.” He said the nation has had three consecutive years of increases. The murder rate, he said was up 11 percent over last year, “the biggest increase since [1968].” Memphis, he noted, broke its homicide record last year.

He pointed to the Sycamore Lake Apartments in northeast Memphis, where two men were murdered last week and seven people were murdered in 2014.

“Imagine what it does to good people and families that must live every day as hostages in their own homes, facing potentially deadly violence just to walk to the bus or avoiding certain gang-controlled territory just to get to work,” Sessions said.

For them, Sessions promised a return to a tough-on-crime approach to sentencing and prosecution with “severe consequences.” Sessions called the approach “common sense.”

“A lot of criminal justice reform is simply the application of logic and common sense,” said Josh Spickler, executive director of Just City, a Memphis-based criminal justice reform advocacy group. “Almost all of Sessions’ policies run completely counter to this.”

Spickler said, for example, that Sessions would have local law enforcement crack down on those with small amounts of marijuana, “resulting in even more arrests, more supervision, more jail cells, and more costs, with no evident benefit to public safety.” That would crowd the already-crowded Shelby County Jail, he said.

Sessions’ ideas will “cost local taxpayers many more millions of dollars in additional law enforcement officers, corrections officers, and jail cells,” Spickler said.

Rep. Steve Cohen said in a brief speech Thursday that Sessions’ speech sounded like “something out of the ’50s or ’60s.” He said Sessions talked tough on crime, but he “didn’t talk at all about the costs of crime.”

“There’s a smart way to attack crime, and there’s a dumb way to attack crime,” Cohen said. “The dumb way is to return to the era where we failed because we locked up so many people at $30,000 a year. The only people that are happy about [Sessions’] approach is the private prison industry who make money out of people’s miseries and crime.”

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News The Fly-By

Bailing Out

CREDIT: Jackson Baker

Edward Stanton Jr., the Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk, said his office never opposed a now-suspended criminal justice reform project but did not say whether or not he’d continue to advocate for it on his own.
Last month, leaders of Just City, a Memphis-based nonprofit, said they suspended their pursuit of a bail fund program here. The program is designed to use a reserve of private donor funds to cover cash bail for people who are deemed likely to return for their court dates.

The group began work in January on bail fund programs in Memphis and Nashville. Just City launched the Nashville program in June and has bailed out six people since then. But the project hit snags in Memphis, according to Just City executive director Josh Spickler.

In Shelby County, portions of bail money are sometimes kept to cover court costs and other fees that might apply as people make their way through the court system. Just City asked Stanton for an exemption on the court costs to keep the money rolling through its revolving bail fund.

That process, Spickler said, dragged on, and the list of people weighing in on the project grew to include the Shelby County Attorney’s office, judges, and more.

Jackson Baker

Edward Stanton Jr.

“It just became apparent that it’s going to be a series of unending meetings, and each meeting is going to expand the cast of characters who have input on this,” Spickler said, last month. “But to continue to go on an unending quest to find approval from people whose approval is not legally required … I’m not going to engage in that.”

Stanton defended his office and his process noting that he and his staff have “worked closely with and engaged in meaningful discussions with Just City concerning its proposed bail bond program.”

“We have never taken the position that we oppose the program but simply that we would perform due diligence, including conferring with the General Sessions Court Judges and the county attorney’s office, to ensure any new initiative launched is legally and fiscally sound,” Stanton said. However, Stanton did not say whether his approval was the only one needed to green-light the bail fund project, whether such a program would be of help to his office, or whether or not he would continue to advocate on his own for a bail fund project.

In response to a question about the speedy implementation of the program in Nashville, Stanton said clerks’ offices are all different. “While I cannot speak for other jurisdictions, the Shelby County General Sessions Court Clerk’s Office is the largest clerk’s office in the state and has one of the largest fiscal operations in the entire Southeast region,” Stanton said. “Therefore, one size does not always fit all.”

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Cover Feature News

Woke: Was the Protest on the Bridge a Sign of Real Change to Come?

CREDIT: Brandon Dill

Stay Woke.

You may have seen the T-shirt. You may have read the phrase on social media. Those two simple words, a play on “stay awake,” have become a rallying cry for the reawakening civil rights movement that’s swept the country again since the deaths last week of two more African-American men at the hands of law-enforcement officers and the subsequent attack that killed five Dallas police officers.

Memphis got its wake-up call last Sunday night. It began with a small protest at the National Civil Rights Museum, then transitioned into a larger crowd that had gathered in the plaza area in front of FedExForum. Organized via social media by local minister DeVante Hill, the group was joined by members of Black Lives Matter and other groups and individuals, including a few tourists and Beale Street patrons who got caught up in the spirit of things.

The rally evolved into a protest march, and eventually more than 1,000 people headed north through downtown Memphis toward the Hernando de Soto Bridge, where the group managed to block all traffic in both directions on Interstate 40 for several hours.

It was a situation that could have gone wrong in a number of ways, but it didn’t, instead ending peacefully five hours later, with no arrests made and little or no property damage reported.

Interim Police Director Mike Rallings had a possible career-altering night. Early on, he took off his protective vest and engaged with the crowd and speakers repeatedly, assuring them that he understood their frustration and that he — and the city — were open to starting a dialogue toward effecting change. MPD officers were the model of restraint and patience, and peace was maintained despite several potentially tense moments during the five-hour episode.

The question now becomes: Will the protest result in any real change? Or was it just a matter of the city and police artfully allowing people to let off steam before returning to business as usual. Will Memphis “stay woke”?

Monday morning, Mayor Jim Strickland and Rallings held a press conference to assure Memphians that change would happen, or at least that communication would happen, beginning with a meeting Monday at Greater Imani Church between the mayor, the police director, ministers, and members of Black Lives Matter. 

When asked about whether there would be more tangible steps, Rallings said, “I’m here to hear the community, and then we’ll lay out the next, tangible steps.” Strickland said the meeting at Greater Imani would be one of many meetings to come with members of the community.

That first meeting turned out to be combative and chaotic, with some audience members demanding that Strickland hire Rallings as permanent police director immediately. Strickland declined to do so, saying he would allow the hiring process to play out as planned. Another community meeting was planned for July 21st.

Flyer writers reached out to city and county officials, movement leaders, protestors, and others to gauge their reactions to the events of recent days, and where they might lead. Their responses follow.

Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland: “Memphis set an example for the world — of who we are and how we stand at times like these.”

Strickland said he didn’t walk onto the Hernando de Soto Bridge Sunday, because Memphis Police Department (MPD) interim director Michael Rallings had asked him to stay away. Instead, he gathered his senior leadership team at Memphis City Hall and stayed in “constant communication” with MPD and other emergency management agencies.

“To those who protested last night — we hear you,” Strickland said during a news conference Monday, “and we want to continue to hear you.” He said he’d initiated a set of public meetings around Memphis to hear from the community, and he praised Memphis Police Department interim director Michael Rallings, noting, “I hope people see why I asked him to apply for the job.” 

Brandon Dill

Michael Rallings with crowd

Memphis Police Department interim director Michael Rallings: “We have seen enough death; I’m sick of death,” Rallings said. “I don’t care where you’re from. I don’t care if you’re black or white, if you’re a Vice Lord, or a Crip, or a Gangster Disciple. We just have to bring about a change in this city. That’s what I’ve said from day one.

“Everybody has a place in and a part to play in this struggle, and it is indeed a struggle.” On Monday, Rallings called for 30 days of “no killing” in Memphis. 

Rallings described the protest as “probably the most tense situation of my 26 years in law enforcement” and that keeping the protest peaceful and ensuring the protestors’ safety was like “juggling 500 hand grenades.”

“I don’t think God put me in that situation for this to end in violence. So, I invited those young people and said, ‘let’s have a forum, let’s lay out a plan’. We can all talk about each other and yell at each other. We can ball our fist and threaten to do bodily harm. We all know how to do that. We all learn how to do that as a child, as a baby. But I’m not a baby. I’m not going to throw a temper tantrum. I’m going to try to speak peace and calm to the city and to the situation.” 

Shelby County Commission chairman Terry Roland: “I was glad to see that things ended peacefully, and I’m proud we didn’t have any violence. That’s a testament to our community. I have to hand it to our local black leaders, Pastor Norman, the police chief, and others. They did a lot to keep things from getting out of hand.

“I can understand the frustration of the marchers. Something that bothers me, though, is that a lot of those people weren’t even from Memphis. That, and they shouldn’t have blocked the roads, especially a federal highway.

“I think we just need to take a step back, take a breath. We need to quit elaborating on our differences and emphasize our similarities, show each other how much we mean to each other.”

Ninth District Congressman Steve Cohen: “Director Rallings was the star of the evening, the way he handled things. He showed a sure hand and understanding, as did many of the demonstrators. One of them, who was arm-in-arm with the director, was DeVante Hill, an intern in my office this summer. I was proud of him. The police have to use perseverance and restraint, and they did that quite well last night. We avoided injuries or other difficulties, and it ended peacefully.  

“I’ve been calling for reforms and action on the justice front for decades. We need to look seriously at reviewing policies and priorities relating to arrests and incarceration, the rate of which has been disproportionate for African Americans and negative in its impact on their community. There’s a real need to move actively toward more community policing.”

Brandon Dill

Shira Torrech, 19, protestor: “I found out about the protest on Facebook. I decided to go because I’m passionate about unity between all humans. When I got there, I saw hundreds of people gathering together — whites, blacks, Hispanics, Asians. I started choking up and had to wipe away a few tears. It was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. I was in front of the police officers on I-40 the entire night. I got the chance to speak to the people of Memphis and even the police officers of Memphis. People were singing and crying together, and chanting as one. The protest was simply to allow our voices to be heard.

“The media is saying that people were acting like hoodlums because they were standing on an 18-wheeler, but in fact those people got permission to climb on top because the driver was in support of the protest. No one got hurt. No fights. We let some cars get by because of emergencies. It was the most peaceful protest.” 

Shelby County Commissioner and longtime civil rights activist Walter Bailey: “I commend those participants who were committed and sensitive to the issue of overbearing acts by police throughout the country. I was ecstatic to see that kind of commitment from this younger generation, showing their discontent with prevailing conditions.

“As a lawyer,  I’ve handled a number of shootings and other misconduct problems, but that march was more than just about the mishandling of black suspects by police officers. At its core, it was about the social fabric of racism and the frustration and discontent of those who want to struggle and see social change.  

“One important matter is black-on-black crime. We have one of the highest homicide rates in the coutry. Concern about that is widespread, almost ubiquitous among blacks. I hope this demonstration will help start an effort by community leaders — business, corporate, religious, and governmental — to pay attention and to move forward and embrace all those various concerns. The first act, it seems to me, would be to put some sort of commission in place.” 

Michael Pope, chairman of the Shelby County Democratic Party: “I’m just glad it turned out peacefully. Their point was well taken. It was good that Director Rallings made such a point of acknowledging their grievances.

We need to seize the moment, engage in this process by giving these young African Americans, Latinos, and others some input. They need to become active at election time. That would be a logical continuation of what they set in motion last night. If they want change, they need to be part of the voting process.”

Brandon Dill

Executive Director of the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center Bradley Watkins: “The question not being asked: Why are we so accustomed to a punitive, force-driven law enforcement that Director Rallings’ actions took us so off guard? What happened [Sunday] night should be the norm, but it took us all by surprise. And it happened without the benefit of coordination between law enforcement and protesters. It happened without highly trained professional organizers.

“In Memphis, we kind of have a backwards mentality towards civil disobedience and nonviolent direct action, in spite of our history. We think peaceful protest can never be confrontational and to be peaceful there can never be disruption. The same people who go to the civil rights museum and praise Dr. King want to chastise these young people for doing exactly the types of things he would have done.

“These people came out [Sunday] because of the economy, because of jobs, because of public transit, and housing. They’re not being listened to. Their grievances aren’t being addressed. And so many things could be enacted right now with the stroke of a pen. We could initiate racial and cultural sensitivity training for officers. The Steven Askew case could be reopened. There are a number of transparency issues, and I’m just barely scratching the surface.

“When people doubt the tactics of nonviolent direct action, remember these protesters got a meeting with the mayor and the police director. Whatever positive thing comes forward, it’s because of their disruption. I am cautiously optimistic.”

Executive Director of Just City, Josh Spickler: “This isn’t a conversation that just started. It’s a conversation that has finally gotten attention. I’m very excited about police director Rallings’ actions. I think video of him stepping out in front of those officers with their batons and shields should be shown to all the new cadets at the police training academy. Because that’s exactly what it takes. If everyone policed the way he did last night, we wouldn’t need more officers — which Mayor Strickland is still calling for.

“His response was proportional. His response was based on relationships that he made very quickly. He de-escalated based on human contact and human connection. We should be very proud, as the mayor said. But we have to translate that kind of discretion into how we handle driving offenses, which largely criminalize poverty. And into how we manage minor drug offenses, which disproportionately criminalize African Americans.

“[The police could] say to the state of Tennessee, ‘We’re not going to be the frontline in your department of safety’s war on poor people. We’re not going to do it, because our courts are overrun, because we’re suspending way too many licenses, and people have to get around. You need to come up with a new system that can self-fund. Don’t count on us to write tickets.’ Dialogue is good, but it’s time to act. These folks are right. They are excluded from the economy. They are treated differently in the criminal justice system.”

State Senate Majority Leader Mark Norris: “I’m up here in Lexington, Kentucky, at the annual meeting of the Southern Leadership Conference. A lot of the people I’m here with, legislators from 15 Southern states, have first-hand knowedge of Memphis, and we all saw the Black Lives Matter protest on television together and on Facebook, as well. I think everybody paid attention to it. There were people here from Louisiana and Texas, which were trouble spots just last week. I might have gotten a better perspective here that I would have at home.

“My basic perspective is one of pride in how the situation was handled and at least temporarily resolved. There are many steps to be taken, though, a lot of work to be done. I serve on the Crime Commission with both mayors and others, Director Rallings, Sheriff Oldham, and others, and I have been talking a lot with [Pastor] Keith Norman about how to do things differently. Keith and I raised the subject at a recent meeting of Crime Commission. We need to shift our focus from crunching numbers to the issue of what must be done for the community, in the way of showing sensitivity.”

Marti Tippens Murphy, executive director of Facing History and Ourselves: “I was heartened by what looked to be a peaceful protest and an opening for a conversation and dialogue with civic leaders and the police director. I think that is part of what Facing History has had the ability to do, to convene people in the community who may be coming at things from very different points of view and providing common ground for solving problems.

“It seems like there is a real groundswell building. My hope is that if it is a watershed moment, we have the leadership in place to be able to move from awareness to conversations to action — to really think about what it means to create a more just and inclusive community.”

Brandon Dill

Angie Ash, coordinating committee member for Black Lives Matter: “It was amazing to have that turnout from the city [Sunday]. I’ve never seen this city so unified or a turnout like that. We support any organization protesting under the banner of Black Lives Matter or any work moving us toward black liberation. Getting the attention of city officials was a success, but it doesn’t end there.

“I wasn’t able to make it to Monday night’s meeting, but I heard things got heated and the mayor wasn’t speaking to anyone directly. So there’s still a lot of work to do, and we won’t stop protesting and holding them accountable. Inter-community violence could be solved if people had their basic needs met.”

Reporting by Bianca Phillips, Chris Davis, Toby Sells, Joshua Cannon, and Jackson Baker.

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News The Fly-By

Grand Jury Secrecy Questioned in Wake of Stewart Case

A secret group got secret information about a very public matter. They formed a secret opinion, which was made public, but all of their other secrets will remain secret. Public officials herald this secrecy, noting that it shows the system works.

The shooting death of Darrius Stewart remains a mystery to most in Memphis. Few know what really happened. But members of a Memphis grand jury know. This secret group recently heard secret details of Stewart’s shooting death by Memphis Police officer Connor Schilling.

Shelby County District Attorney General Amy Weirich very publicly asked the grand jury to indict Schilling on charges of voluntary manslaughter — the intentional killing of another under adequate provocation or “in the heat of passion” — and of firing his weapon during a “dangerous felony.” The grand jury indictment would have given Weirich permission to put Schilling on public trial for the charges.

But in an instance that experts call “rare,” the grand jury denied the D.A.’s request altogether, apparently unconvinced that Schilling had done anything wrong. That was that for Schilling, as far as the Shelby County criminal justice system is concerned.

This left many in Memphis scratching their heads. Weirich must have known it would. She spent a chunk of a news conference last week explaining the basics of the grand jury system to reporters and handed out a fact sheet that called the system “one of the most important, yet least understood aspects of the criminal justice system.”

When pressed by reporters, Weirich stressed the fact that she wanted the indictment but that the grand jury is an independent body: “They don’t work for me. They don’t work for the D.A.’s office. They are selected from the community.”

But her statement isn’t enough to convince some in Memphis. Josh Spickler, the executive director of Just City, a group advocating for criminal justice reform in Memphis, said it is rare that such a case wouldn’t get an indictment, “especially when it’s a case that’s strong enough for the top elected law enforcement official in the county to ask for a particular charge.”

“It’s a whole lot to ask of us to accept that a white police officer, who [Weirich] wanted to indict, was not indicted and that you’ve done the best you can do,” Spickler said.

He called getting a grand jury indictment “routine,” and even Weirich’s handout noted grand jurors return more than 10,000 indictments a year “ranging from shoplifting to first-degree murder.”

For years, legal groups, including the American Bar Association (ABA) and the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, have pushed for reform of the grand jury system.

The ABA notes that grand juries are closely guided by prosecutors, though Weirich has said case officers, not prosecutors in her office, work with grand juries. No judge oversees the proceedings, and lawyers for those under investigation play no role in the hearings, according to the ABA, “meaning that the grand jury makes its findings without hearing both sides of the case.”

“Today some legal observers fear that grand juries have become simply a tool of prosecutors and that grand jurors have lost their independence,” reads an ABA statement.

Spickler said the Shelby County grand jury system indicts a “disproportionately high percentage” of African-American men and that “99.9 percent” of the people grand juries do indict here are not police officers.

“It’s just too much,” he said. “It’s just too much to accept that the grand jury system worked [in the Stewart case].”

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News News Feature

Clean Slate

America loves a comeback story, except when it’s ex-offenders seeking redemption after they’ve served their time. For these men and women, a criminal record often stands between them and a job, an apartment, or a loan. Although they’re no longer behind bars, they’re not free.

But last week, a new nonprofit organization committed to criminal justice reform brought emancipation to a few people.

In one of its first official actions, Just City wrote six $450 checks to cover the expungement fee for six people who’d completed the process to have their records wiped clean.

The Clean Slate Fund covered the cost through a grant from the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center and the Memphis Bar Association.

“One of Just City’s core values is that you should not be defined by the worst thing you’ve done,” Kerry Hayes, one of the organization’s co-founders, said.

Of the six Clean Slate Fund recipients, three were first-time offenders convicted of theft of property under $500, said Josh Spickler, director of the Defender’s Resource Network for the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office.

After they served jail time and paid monthly probation fees and court costs that may have totaled more than $1,000, another hurdle awaited: an expungement fee that rivals the amount of property that they’d taken.

“These are shoplifting cases, and then they’re stuck, because $450 is rent,” Spickler said.

Helping ex-offenders reintegrate into society isn’t a conservative solution or a liberal solution, Hayes said. It’s just common sense.

“This is an investment we’re making in the lives of people who want to work, who do want to contribute to society, but for $450, they would probably be unable to do that,” Hayes said.

I wasn’t able to talk to any of the people who had their records cleared. It defeats the purpose of getting a fresh start if your name or identifying characteristics show up in the paper, Hayes said.

The motivations of some who want their records expunged were sometimes more psychological than practical, Spickler said. “I was just really surprised about how many people have wanted it for peace of mind,” he said. “They feel like they’re marked. And what we see and know about people who have been in contact with the criminal justice system is they are marked.”

In 2012, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers (NACDL) issued a report denouncing the “vast, half-hidden network” of collateral consequences that create a second-class status for the 65 million Americans who have a criminal record.

In Tennessee, a felony conviction means you can’t vote. You can’t work as a home inspector or reflexologist. You can’t be a security guard at the mall. You can’t even sell fireworks.

In 2012, the state legislature amended the expungement law, but it’s still so narrowly tailored that few ex-offenders qualify. Of the 10 recommendations issued by NACDL, number nine is exactly what Just City and the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office has done.

“Defense lawyers,” the NACDL wrote, “should consider avoiding, mitigating, and relieving collateral consequences to be an integral part of their representation of a client.”

The city of Memphis adopted a “ban the box” ordinance in 2010, but Shelby County and most private employers still ask job applicants about their criminal record.

“Some of these people are 20 years out of this mistake, and we still force them to answer this question this way,” Spickler said.

In late July, Just City held its inaugural event to introduce the organization to Memphis — and to ask the question: What is a just city?

“We titled it that so we would not give you an answer,” Hayes told the audience at Hattiloo Theatre. “What we want is for you to start asking the question with us … because when you start to ask the question, everything around you will change.

“If we believe that expectations create reality, which we do, it starts with having a different set of expectations for ourselves and our city. If justice is going to mean anything to any one of us, it’s got to mean absolutely everything to every one of us.”

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Cover Feature News

Getting Straight

Brittni is an American hero. She’s also a convicted felon.

The Southaven resident signed up to serve on a unit in Iraq in 2005, when she was still a teenager. But the war took its toll on the young woman, and she began using drugs, which eventually led to her being arrested for selling pot and cocaine.

“Before I went over there, I didn’t smoke, didn’t drink, didn’t even look sideways. But I ended up smoking and drinking and doing a total 180 from who I really was. I lost myself in that process,” said Brittni. “When I got home, I tried to re-gain that, but I just could not grasp it.”

Brittni

She was kicked out of the military in 2009 after she failed a drug test. The military promised veterans’ skills would lead to jobs, but Brittni was trained as a truck driver in Iraq, and truck driving employers back home wouldn’t hire anyone under 25. Unable to find a job, Brittni went to school and continued partying and using drugs.

“I got addicted. I did every drug there was and didn’t get stuck on anything until I got stuck on coke. That’s when I committed my crimes, when I was on cocaine,” Brittni said. (The Flyer is only using first names in this story to protect anonymity.)

Brittni was caught selling two ounces of marijuana on the campus of North Mississippi Community College. Later, she was busted selling an eight-ball of cocaine at a Danver’s in Southaven. She was indicted in early 2010.

“I didn’t know I was caught until some months later. They wore a wire, and eventually, they decided to indict me,” she said.

Brittni was facing five years in prison, but after serving three months in jail, she convinced the DeSoto County district attorney to allow her to attend DeSoto County’s drug court instead. She was sentenced to three to five years in drug court, two years of house arrest, and 10 years of unsupervised probation.

“I told them, ‘If you send me to prison, I’m just going to get high every day I’m in there. There are more drugs in the prison system than on the streets.’ I said, ‘If I go to prison, I’ll just come out a better criminal.’ A couple months later, they told me I was getting into drug court.”

Today, Brittni is clean and sober and nearly finished with her drug court program. She graduates in October, and she says she wouldn’t have gotten sober without it. But despite her sobriety, she now has a felony conviction on her record that continues to hold her back.

“The hardest thing about being a convicted felon is finding a job. The economy isn’t bad, but you have so many people out there without a felony record who need jobs, and they will get picked over you every time,” Brittni said. She’s been turned down for job after job, and her dreams of working in law enforcement are likely squashed for good. It’s an issue faced by so many Mid-Southerners with felony convictions. They’ve done their time and yet they remain held back by their past actions.

Cycle of Disenfranchisement

Expungement of felony convictions, which varies from state to state, is rare and only allowed in select cases.

“When you make a person a felon for life, you’re making the criminal justice system not about reform. It’s about punishment, and how can we punish people forever? We all end up paying in the end,” said Brad Watkins, executive director of the Mid-South Peace & Justice Center (MSPJC).

There is a little hope though. Programs like drug court, both in DeSoto County and Shelby County, can help people move past their addictions. And Memphis and Shelby County has a newly formed Office of Offender Re-entry to help felons with job training, job placement, and life skills.

Additionally, a new Tennessee law can help some felons in this state gain employability certificates, which prevents employers from discriminating against those with felony records.

Through his years of working in various social justice movements, Watkins has become all too familiar with the negative cycle that felons face. Since he took over as director at MSPJC, he’s made helping break the cycle of felony disenfranchisement a priority.

The center has partnered with Memphis Area Legal Services, the Memphis Bar Association, and the Shelby County Public Defender’s Office to help felons restore their rights. The organizations co-sponsor a free legal clinic on the second Saturday of each month at the Benjamin L. Hooks Central Library, and there, felons can chat with attorneys about their options for expungement or limited restoration of rights. The next clinic will be held on Saturday, June 13th from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m.

“We’ve made felons non-citizens. We’ve taken away their ability to earn a living and to do normal things that we expect everyone to do. We’ve even removed their ability to engage in the political process to change that,” Watkins said. “So let’s not mince words — we’re creating a slave culture with people who are now willing to work for whatever wage someone will provide just so they can have a job. It destroys families. It destroys lives, and it leads people back into a life of crime.”

Watkins likes to share a story about a formerly homeless man he’s worked with through the center’s Homeless Organizing for Power and Equality (HOPE) group. The man has a felony record, and after unsuccessful attempts to find a job that would support his family, he turned back to selling drugs.

“He says he’d love to be legit, but he can’t afford to be legit. His daughter is pregnant, and he can’t afford not to sell drugs. That’s a reality. People think some guy selling drugs is Scarface, but this guy is living hand to mouth,” Watkins said. “What am I going to tell him? Don’t deal drugs? Don’t feed your children? It’s ridiculous. We have to throw away these simplistic notions of right and wrong and look at the reality of their daily lives.”

Besides the cycle’s affect on the individual, Josh Spickler with the Public Defender’s Office says there’s a fiscal effect on all citizens.

Josh Spickler

“We continue to exclude people from the mainstream economy, and we’re kidding ourselves if we think it doesn’t affect the rest of us,” said Spickler, the director of the office’s Defenders Resource Network. “People are tempted to earn money in an unlawful way or underground way without paying taxes. Not only does this take a human toll because there’s no dignity in having to live like that, fiscally, the city and county could use a broader tax base.” Though the lack of employment options is likely the biggest issue felons face, there are other issues, too. Some apartment companies won’t lease to convicted felons.

June, who lives in Olive Branch, has 15 charges on her record, mostly obtained in her 20s and 30s for writing bad checks to feed her drug addiction. She’s clean now, but her felony past still haunts her. Not only has she struggled to find work, she’s also faced housing discrimination.

“When I first moved here, I found an apartment. But when I moved out, I tried to get into other apartments and ran into problems. My daughter had to apply for me,” June said.

Mississippi’s voting laws are more lax for felons, and June can vote there. But she lived in Tennessee for awhile too, and she was unable to vote. In Tennessee, most people (except those charged with a handful of serious offenses) convicted of a felony after 1981 can reapply for the right to vote after their time is served, but most rarely do.

“[That] plays a huge role as far as elections go here,” Watkins said. “We have a large number of people who can no longer vote, and those people are predominantly black. Even though Memphis is 68 percent black, that doesn’t translate to electoral outcomes.

“We did a little research on certain districts and precincts, and we didn’t see a lot of black male voters,” Watkins continued. “We compared that to incarceration rates in those areas, and they matched up to voter turnout. We don’t have a representative government.”

And then there’s just the stigma of having that conviction on your record. Brittni says being a felon certainly puts a damper on finding a partner.

“I’ve been trying the whole dating thing, and that’s tough,” Brittni said. “Do you tell a person that you’re a convicted felon right off the bat? And how offended will they be if you tell them?”

June says even getting pulled over for minor driving offenses can be a hassle. “We got pulled over coming back from Texas, and when they ran my ID, they saw everything,” June said. “That puts a different spin on how they treat you. They think you’re up to no good.”

Glimmer of Hope

Brittni is living proof that drug court programs, which offer an alterative to serving time on drug charges, can help felons with addictions get clean and back on track through rehabilitation, counseling, and frequent drug testing. And those with other issues have new avenues in place to help with job training and placement and restoration of a few basic civil rights.

In 2012, the Memphis and Shelby County Office of Offender Re-entry was established as part of the Memphis Shelby Crime Commission’s Operation Safe Community initiative. They help felons with case management, job training, and other issues to prevent recidivism.

It’s been operating in a limited capacity out of a small space on Madison for awhile, but this month, the re-entry office moved into a bigger facility at 1362 Mississippi Boulevard. The new space allows them to house multiple offender services — probation and parole, employment, housing, education, substance abuse, and more —in one place. The facility is the first of its kind in the state.

Phyllis Fickling is the executive director, and she says her office makes re-entry easier by bringing together a range of services.

Phyllis Fickling

“There are a lot of groups working on re-entry, but we’ve found that it’s very fragmented and disjointed,” Fickling said. “If it’s fragmented for us as providers, imagine what it’s like for the person who needs it. We put all those services under one roof and make that delivery streamlined.”

The office accepts anyone from Shelby County with a felony record, whether they just got out of prison or have been out for years. Clients are often referred, but walk-ins are welcome. Clients are assessed for needs, and the office pairs them with the correct services. If they need work clothes, a partner agency will go shopping for them. If they need job training, there’s a program for that. They even place felons into jobs.

“If they don’t go back to prison, we’ve got safer neighborhoods. We’ve got a person who is back with their family and enjoying the same things we all enjoy,” Fickling said. “We help them to become a productive citizen, and that helps the economy all around.”

Meanwhile, the Shelby County Public Defenders Office is pushing a new employability certificate that’s available in Tennessee, thanks to a new state law.

It’s a piece of paper, signed by a judge, that felons can present to potential employers to show that a court has recognized the fact that they’ve turned their lives around.

The certificate gives protection to the potential employee, making it illegal for them to be automatically denied employment based on their felony record. Additionally, it protects employers from negligent hiring liability lawsuits.

“It’s a new law that passed last summer. Before that, nothing like this existed. And if somebody with a record went for a job interview, they could be automatically denied on the basis of their record,” said Assistant Public Defender Chris Martin.

It’s so new that, so far, only four people in Shelby County have received such certificates. One of those is Kenneth, a 47-year-old Memphian with multiple felony convictions who learned about the new law at an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting before the law was even passed. He attended one of the Saturday legal clinics and presented a copy of the draft bill to Martin, who assured him they would try to file a petition for him as soon as the law was enacted.

In April, Kenneth and three others went before a judge and were granted a restoration of some rights as well as the employability certificates.

“We looked into their records, and if you have multiple convictions in Tennessee, you’re not eligible for expungement,” Martin said. “They couldn’t get their records cleared, but they could petition in civil court to have their voting rights restored, to get their right to serve as a legal guardian, to serve on a jury, and to administer an estate.”

And thanks to the new law, they could also tack on a petition for an employability certificate.

The certificate is a reprieve for Kenneth, who has been stuck in the cycle of disenfranchisement for years. His mother died when he was 12, and his father was an alcoholic. His housing situation wasn’t stable after his mother’s death. Hardships early in life led him to fall in with “the wrong crowd” when he was in the tenth grade.

At 19, he was selling drugs, and, in 1990, he sold to an undercover officer. He was convicted with a felony charge and put on three years probation.

“That first conviction started a cycle. I was losing hope because it’s hard to get a job. Everybody does background checks, even temporary agencies,” Kenneth said.

Kenneth got hooked in a cycle of addiction, and for the next 16 years, he racked up an impressive rap sheet, with 15 misdemeanors and five felonies, from fraudulent use of a credit card to theft to aggravated robbery.

He spent time in prison and managed to get clean off and on. He even started his own landscaping business in 2010 and studied auto mechanics at Southwest Tennessee Community College in 2011. But ultimately, he fell back into selling drugs to make ends meet, which led to him using drugs again in 2012.

“I went into treatment for six months at the Cocaine and Alcohol Awareness Program, and now I’m addressing my addiction. I’ve been to treatment five or six times, but I finally realized I can’t do this by myself,” Kenneth said.

Kenneth has been clean since December 3rd, 2012, and he’s held various odd jobs — a dishwasher at a country club, unloading trucks at a warehouse, etc. — working for anyone who would hire him.

“I was working for a temp service for a whole year, and everybody else there got hired. But they never hired me because of my background,” he said. “I applied to Walmart in Southaven, and a man shook my hand and said, ‘Congratulations,’ and I thought I had the job. But they never called me back about when to start.”

He even got his commercial drivers license in February, but Kenneth has yet to find to work to put it to use. Since he received his certificate, Kenneth has applied for several positions. He had hoped to take a job as a city sanitation worker, but even with his new certificate, he wasn’t hired. But he’s holding out hope for several other jobs.

Success Story

At least one of the four from Shelby County who earned employability certificates found almost immediate success. Rhonda, a 31-year-old mother of three from Memphis, got her felony charge after a single act of passion in 2006, when she was convicted of aggravated assault for stabbing her sister’s abusive boyfriend in the abdomen.

On New Years Day in 2005, Rhonda and her sister went to a New Years Eve party at a casino in Tunica. When they returned to her sister’s house, her sister’s boyfriend was angry and began hitting her sister. Rhonda tried to intervene, and the man hit Rhonda in the face and kicked her in the head and stomach. She was pregnant.

Rhonda

Fast forward to 2006: Rhonda’s sister was babysitting her kids, and Rhonda and her brother drove to their sister’s house to pick them up. While Rhonda and her sister were talking in another room, they heard their brother and the boyfriend get into a physical fight.

“We ran into the living room, where they were, and we see them fumbling and wrestling. We tried to break it up and told them to calm down,” Rhonda recounts, with a painful expression. “He mugged me in my face. He’s always trying to fight somebody — my sister, my brother, now me.

“What I did next is something I still regret. He didn’t ask me to do it. He didn’t say, come on, get this felony on your record,” Rhonda said. “I went to the kitchen drawer and grabbed a large knife. He ran. I ran after him. My brother didn’t see what I did, and he ran after him. They were still having words.”

Her brother chased the man down and had him on the ground when Rhonda caught up. The man begged Rhonda not to stab him.

“I was mad. I couldn’t believe what type of person he was, to do this to me or my sister. I stabbed him near his spleen, once or twice,” Rhonda said.

The man survived his injuries, and a couple months went by before a sheriff’s deputy came to her door with a warrant for her arrest. She was booked into jail but never served time. Yet she was still charged with a felony, and it’s haunted her ever since.

She went to school for medical assistant training at Remington College while she dealt with her legal problems. But because of her record, she could only get fast-food jobs.

“I applied for jobs at ACE Hardware, Family Dollar, even Mapco,” Rhonda said. “They wouldn’t hire me. I got through the door at Roses [department store] and worked there for two weeks before they let me go because of a background check.”

When she learned about the employability certificates, she jumped at the chance. “I was so excited because I knew this would be a big step for me and it could make a difference in my life,” Rhonda said.

And a big step it was. Just a couple weeks ago, Rhonda was hired as an office assistant in a phlebotomist’s office. Rhonda started her new job on June 3rd, the day before her 31st birthday.

“I was really nervous before my job interview. I kept calling Mr. Martin. This was a big deal job,” Rhonda said.

She proudly carried her new employability certificate into the interview. The employer was impressed but said she didn’t mind Rhonda’s felony. Still yet, Rhonda said the certificate gave her the confidence to carry through with the interview.

“[The employer] said she didn’t discriminate against people who were trying to better themselves. She said, how can you move forward if people are stuck on the past?” Rhonda recalls.

Martin says his office already has another four people lined up for certificates, and they plan to try to file a new round of petitions for employability certificates every three months.

Watkins urges those interested in learning more about employability certificates or basic restoration of rights to attend the free Saturday legal clinic at the Central Library on Saturday, June 13rd.

“There are people who think nothing can be done for them, and they’ve given up hope,” Watkins said. “But every case is unique, so you never know what options are available to you.”