Tag: Tarik Sugarmon

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Advocates: Too Many In Juvenile Detention Aren’t Going to School

Credit: Shelby County Sheriff's Office

Shelby County officials are coming under fresh pressure to deal with education deficiencies in the juvenile-justice system, where advocates say not enough young people who are detained are regularly attending school or learning what they need to graduate.

A group of those advocates sent a letter this week to Shelby County Sheriff Floyd Bonner, warning about the low rates of school attendance, and demanding improved conditions for youth in detention, beyond just their education.

The county’s Juvenile Court has known about the issues at the county’s Youth Justice and Education Center, and at the school inside, called Hope Academy. A consultant it worked with to identify issues facing youth in the facilities reported that just half of them were attending school each day, and that course offerings weren’t comprehensive enough to give students the classes they need to graduate, according to Stephanie Hill, the court’s chief administrative officer.

The findings were also shared with the Countywide Juvenile Justice Consortium last fall.

But the problems raised by the consultants, from BreakFree Education, can’t easily be solved without collaboration between the sheriff’s office, which oversees the detention center, and Memphis-Shelby County Schools, which operates the school.

Youth crime has been at the center of public discussion in Memphis and across Tennessee. Arrests of young people are down over the past decade, but more of them involve gun-related crimes that draw added law enforcement attention.

Meanwhile, detention facilities in Tennessee have faced intense scrutiny for failing to provide appropriate care to young people. In detention centers like Shelby County’s, where detainees have not yet been tried, missed school days put students who are already facing challenges outside of class at a greater disadvantage for long-term success.

Cardell Orrin, who leads Stand for Children Tennessee, one of the organizations that signed the letter, said part of the issue with improving youth attendance at school is knowing which agency to approach.

“Whose responsibility is it, and then how are they held accountable?” Orrin told Chalkbeat.

In a reply to the organizations, Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon said that staffing issues at the facility have contributed to low school attendance rates of 50 percent to 60 percent, much lower than the court’s goal of 90 percent.

Bonner wrote in his own response that the 110 youth currently there were “far more than we had ever expected or planned for.” Instead, he said, 40 to 60 youth were expected to be in the facility.

Sugarmon called that “erroneous,” pointing out that the facility was newly built to accommodate some 140 youth. “It appears there are no physical facilities limits to school attendance,” he wrote.

The young people detained at the center are awaiting trial, and the number of students can vary day-to-day as trials progress.

Memphis-Shelby County Schools told Chalkbeat that it plans to keep working with the court and sheriff’s office to address concerns about Hope Academy. Marie Feagins, who took over as MSCS superintendent on Monday, toured the school last week, and said in a video interview that leaders should consider strengthening rehabilitative programs and expanding opportunities within the facility.

“When I think about education and the power thereof, it’s important to make sure that education, a quality education and experience, to the degree possible, is happening in all of our spaces and places,” she said, pledging to return often to speak with Hope Academy students.

Beyond the education issues, the advocacy groups said they wanted the sheriff to address complaints that youth aren’t allowed outdoors, and parents are being denied in-person visits with their children in detention.

They also said efforts to collect research that would improve programming for youth have been stymied by the sheriff’s office.

Shirley Bondon, the executive director of the Black Clergy Collaborative of Memphis, is hoping to conduct research with the youth at the facility to help improve their access to effective diversion programs, as an alternative to detention, and also get a better understanding of what youth need.

“Part of that research requires me to talk to youth in detention and have them complete a survey and get their perspective about why crime occurs, and what resources they need to keep them out of trouble,” Bondon told Chalkbeat.

“We need to scale those programs, and those programs need more funding,” she added. “We also found that the programs often aren’t evidence-based and don’t collect the correct data.”

Laura Testino covers Memphis-Shelby County Schools for Chalkbeat Tennessee. Reach Laura at LTestino@chalkbeat.org.

Chalkbeat is a nonprofit news site covering educational change in public schools.

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Politics Politics Feature

Turning the Corner

Van Turner with wife Tammie at Health Sciences Park (Photo: Jackson Baker)

It was Labor Day weekend, the seam between the dog days of a pit-bull summer and the open road of a hopefully cooler fall, the beginning of a new cycle of county government with the swearing-in of officials and of a pending city election season with early announcements from mayoral candidates.

Still, it felt like a lull, and then suddenly the vacuum was filled with a sinister event, the kidnapping and apparent foul play wreaked on teacher and young mother Eliza Fletcher while she was jogging on a city street, and, wherever you went, that was all anybody was talking about.

It was the subject of discussion Saturday night at The Magnolia Room in the Overton Square district, where newly inaugurated District Attorney General Steve Mulroy had invited a few guests to share in an “Almost Newlyweds” gathering, the reenactment of the nuptials of his daughter Molly and her Moroccan husband, Abdellah.

Mulroy, the perfect host, lost himself in the revelry and line dancing and in a joyous chorus, along with the rest of his Brooklyn-bred family, of “New York, New York.” But some corner of his brain had to be occupied by this ominous new development, joining there such preoccupations as he has about a forthcoming hearing on the fate of two young carjacking suspects accused recently of killing Dr. Autura Eason-Williams, a revered local Methodist cleric.

Amy Weirich, Mulroy’s predecessor, whom he defeated in the recent county election, had called for one juvenile suspect, whom she had previously put into a restorative-justice program, to be transferred to adult Criminal Court to be tried for the carjacking murder. The matter broke very late in the election campaign, and Mulroy, as the new DA, in tandem with new Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon, will have to make the ultimate recommendation about the transfer, to Criminal Court of one or both juvenile suspects on or after a hearing on the psychological circumstances of the two, which is scheduled for September 12th in Juvenile Court. A third accomplice in the crime, who has already reached adulthood, is also part of the equation.

And now, on top of that conundrum, the Fletcher affair, which has gripped the nation as well as the city, has further dramatized the issue of crime in Memphis. No rest for the weary.

• Candidates for Memphis mayor in 2022 aren’t getting much rest, either. Two of them made formal entries into the race last week — local NAACP head Van Turner at an organized announcement at Health Sciences Park and Downtown Memphis Commission president/CEO Paul Young via an online post.

Turner, who recently left the Shelby County Commission after serving two terms, had his coming-out on a platform erected on the former long-term site of the grave and statue of Confederate Civil War general Nathan Bedford Forrest. Turner is the president of the nonprofit which, in cooperation with city government, took over the park grounds and authorized the removal and relocation of the statue and the remains of Forrest and his wife.

• The aforementioned Weirich is already at work as special counsel on the staff of DA Mark Davidson in the 25th judicial district, which serves the several rural West Tennessee counties immediately adjoining Shelby. She began her duties last Thursday at a salary, conforming with state guidelines, of $139,908, only 18 percent less than she made as Shelby DA.

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Politics Beat Blog

Harris, Mulroy, Sugarmon Win the Big Ones

Steve Mulroy. Photo by Jackson Baker.

While Republicans in Nashville were still smarting from the defeat — early in the week — of their hopes to host the 2024 Republican National Convention in the state capital, Democrats in Shelby County were rejoicing over their second straight sweep of countywide positions in the August 4th election.

To start with the most closely followed of all the races, the one for Shelby County District Attorney General: early voting totals, coupled with mail-ins, showed Democrat Steve Mulroy well ahead of incumbent Republican DA Amy Weirich, 76,280 to 59,364. As Mulroy correctly told his delirious election-night crowd at his Poplar Avenue headquarters, barring a statistical improbability, he had become the first Democratic DA in Shelby County history.

Fellow Democrat Lee Harris, operating out of the same HQ, was comfortably ahead of Republican challenger Worth Morgan, 78,552 to 56,789, thereby winning a second four-year term as Shelby County Mayor for his own reformist mission.

Completing a trifecta of sorts, Memphis Municipal Judge Tarik B. Sugarmon had apparently won out in a four-candidate race over Republican incumbent Dan Michael for the position of Juvenile Court Judge, with 53,267 votes to Michael’s 40,720. William Ray Glasgo and Dee Shawn Peoples were also-rans.

Though his was a non-partisan race, Sugarmon, who had lost to Michael eight years earlier, campaigned at times with Mulroy and Harris. The three of them had made a ceremonial visit, late on election day, to the statue of Ida B. Wells on Beale Street, where they had issued a call for late voters to turn out. 

In other results, who would have thought that Charlotte Bergmann, largely written off as a perennial candidate for the Republican nomination for Congress in the 9th District, would dust off a new face, entrepreneur Brown Dudley,  who had  lots of money and the apparent ability to make a real race in the fall against 9th District Democratic Congressman Steve Cohen (the odds-on favorite to win again)?

Bergmann prevailed over Dudley, 9,382 to 7,811, a win for long-term party fidelity. All bets are on Cohen, though, in November. The 9th District is wall-to-wall Democratic, the last such in Tennessee after ruthless GOP gerrymandering.

8th District Republican incumbent Congressman David Kustoff easily won out in a four-candidate race to seal his renomination and will take on Democrat Lynnette Williams in the fall.

GOP Governor Bill Lee will compete in the fall with Democratic nominee Jason Martin of Nashville, winner of a three-way Democratic primary with Memphians JB Smiley and Carnita Atwater. Smiley won in Shelby County.

Sheriff Floyd Bonner, the Democratic nominee and the Republican endorsee, finished with 96,289, blowing away two independent candidates.

Assessor Melvin Burgess, a Democrat, had fairly easy going over Republican challenger Steve Cross, 51,517.

Democrat Jamita Swearengen, 79,329,  defeated Republican Soheila Kail, 51,801, for Circuit Court Clerk.

Incumbent Trustee Regina Newman, also a Democrat, had similar ease over the GOP’s Steve Basar, 80,327 to 51,746.

Incumbent Criminal Court Clerk Heidi Kuhn won 81,223, over the GOP’s Paul Houston, 49,772.

Democrat Janeen Gordon was unopposed for Juvenile Court Clerk.

Democratic incumbent Wanda Halbert survived a scare from Republican Jeff Jacobs, with 65,520 votes to Jacobs’ 54,519. Harold Smith had 13,699 in third place.

As expected, Democrat Willie Brooks won Register of Deeds, 76,801 to Bryan Edmiston’s 50,191. George “Dempsey” Summers had 4,896.

Unofficial early indications were that all Shelby County legislative incumbents won their primary races. More details to come soon on vote totals and matchups for the fall.

As anticipated, there will be 9 Democratic members of the 13-member Shelby County Commission. Winners are Amber Mills, R, District 1; David C. Bradford Jr., R, District 2; Mick Wright, R, District 3; Brandon Morrison, R, District 4; Shante Avant, D, District 5; Charlie Caswell, D, District 6; Henri Brooks, D, District 7; Mickell Lowery, D, District 8; Edmund Ford Jr., D, District 9; Britney Thornton, D, District 10; Miska Clay Bibbs, D, District 11; Erika Sugarmon, D, District 12; Michalel Wehaley, d, District 13. 

The most competitive Commission race was between Whaley, with 7,036 votes,  and Republican Ed Apple, 6,702.

Judicial Results:

Circuit court Judge Division I, Felicia Corbin-Johnson

Circuit Court Judge, Division II, Carol J. Chumney

Circuit Court, Division III, Valerie L. Smith

Circuit Court Judge, Division IV, Gina Carol Higgins

Circuit Court Judge, Division V, Rhynette N. Hurd

Circuit Court Judge, division VI, Cedrick D. Wooten

Circuit Court Judge Division VII, Mary L. Wagner

Circuit Court Judge, Division VIII, Damita Dandridge

Circuit Court Judge, Division IX, Yolanda Kight Brown

Chancellor, Part I, Melanie Taylor Jeffe

Chancellor, Part II, Jim Kyle

Chancellor, Part III, Joe Jenkins

Probate Court Judge Division I, Kathleen N. Gomes

Probate Court Judge Division II, Joe Townsend

Criminal Court Judge Division I Paula Skahan

Criminal Court Judge Division II Jennifer Fitzgerald

Criminal Court Judge Division III, James Jones

Criminal Court Judge, Division IV, Carolyn Blackett

Criminal court Judge Division V, Carlyn Addison

Criminal Court Judge Division VI, David Pool

Criminal court Judge Division VII, Lee V. Coffee

Criminal Court Judge, Division VIII, Chris Craft

Criminal court Judge, Division IX, A. Melissa Boyd

Criminal Court Judge, Division X, Jennifer J. Mitchell

General Sessions Civil Court, Division 1, Lynn C obb

General Sessions Civil Court, Division 2, Phyllis B. Gardner

General Sessions Civil Court, Division 3, Danielle M. Sims

General ESessions Civil Court, Division 4, Deborah Henderson

General Sessions Civil court, Division 5, Betty Thomas Moore

General Sessions Civil Court, Division 6, Lonnie Thompson

General Sessions Criminal Court, Division 7, Bill Anderson

General Sessions Criminal Court, Division 8, Lee Wilson

General Sessions Criminal court, Division 9, Sheila Bruce-Renfroe

General Sessions, Criminal court, Division 10, Greg Gilbert

General Sessions Criminal court, Division 11, Karen L. Massey

General Sessions, Criminal Court, Division 12, Ronald Lucchesi

General Sessions Criminal Court, Division 13, Louis Montesi

Environmental  Court Division 14, Patrick M. Dandridge

General Sessions Criminal Court, Division 15, Christian Johnson

These judicial results, preliminary only, are subject to appeal and possible recount. Several races are very  close.

County School Board District 1: Michelle McKissack

County School board, District 6, Keith Williams

County School Board, District 8, Amber Huett-Garcia

County School  Board, district 9, Joyce Dorse-Coleman

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Politics Politics Feature

Down to the Wire

Tuning it Up: GOP state Senate candidate Brent Taylor at campaign kickoff last week with country singer John Rich (Photo: Jackson Baker)

As the August 4th countywide election cycle winds down, the marquee race is still, as before, that for district attorney general between Republican incumbent Amy Weirich and Democratic challenger Steve Mulroy. The race remains the focus of attention in local politics. It has also engendered significant statewide and national attention.

A quiet moment in a turbulent campaign (Photo: Jackson Baker)

The Tennessee Journal, a weekly which is the preeminent statewide source for political news across Tennessee, featured the race in its lead story for the July 15th issue. Editor Erik Schelzig recaps some of the significant charges and other back-and-forths of the contest, highlighting the two candidates’ major differences regarding the state’s new “truth-in-sentencing” law, which eliminates parole in several major violent-crime categories.

Weirich, who boasts her years-long efforts on behalf of passing the law, points with pride. Mulroy sees it as a case of vastly increasing state incarceration expenses while blunting possible rehabilitation efforts.

In the several recent debates between the two candidates, the challenger notes that his skepticism puts him on the same page regarding “truth-in-sentencing” as opponents like the American Conservative Union and GOP Governor Bill Lee, who declined to sign the bill, letting it become law without his signature. Weirich seizes upon Mulroy’s mentions of that fact as an opportunity to advertise her purported independent-mindedness, noting that she also disagrees with Lee (and the Republican supermajority) on such issues as open-carry gun legislation. “I don’t care what the American Conservative Union says,” she adds.

All that being said (and it’s consistent with her would-be crossover slogan, “Our DA”), the race as a whole is between Weirich’s right-of-center hard line and Mulroy’s highly reform-conscious point of view. Mulroy wants cash-bail reform and systematic post-conviction reviews, the latter including DNA testing. Weirich is open to modifications in those areas but not to major changes.

The two have battled over the matter of alleged racial disparity issues in the DA’s office, with Mulroy charging, among other things, that Weirich has an 85-percent white staff of attorneys prosecuting a defendant population that is 95 percent Black. Weirich says she’s trying to alter the ratio but cites the difficulty of competing with better-paying private law firms in efforts to acquire African-American legal talent.

Both contenders have seemingly forsworn the Marquis of Queensberry rules regarding the etiquette of competition. With no real evidence to base her claim on, Weirich’s ads consistently try to saddle Mulroy with the onus of being a “Defund the Police” enthusiast. He answers that he would like to see more police hired, and at higher salaries, and given “better training.” His ads portray Weirich as being a Trumpian (a stretch) and the “worst” district attorney in Tennessee, one saddled with several citations for misconduct from state overseeing bodies and with an ever-rising violent-crime rate during her 11-year tenure that is the worst in the nation.

The two candidates took turns in verbally pummeling each other in a series of almost daily formal debates the week before last. The venues were the Rotary Club of Memphis, the Memphis Kiwanis Club, and an Orange Mound citizens’ association. Neither gave any quarter, each attacking the other along lines indicated above.

Much of the aforementioned Tennessee Journal article is dedicated to the two candidates’ fundraising and campaign spending. In the second quarterly disclosure of the year (April through June), Weirich reported raising $130,400 and spending $240,400 — much of it on the Memphis consulting firm of Sutton Reid, where her blistering TV and radio ads are prepared. She began the quarter with nearly half a million dollars on hand and ended it with $361,00 remaining.

Mulroy raised $279,000 in the period, a sum which included a loan from him to his own campaign of $15,000. He spent $194,000 and had a remainder on hand of $159,000.

As noted by the Journal, Weirich has gotten almost all her funding from within Tennessee, all but $1,600. Mulroy, who has the avowed support of such celebrities as singer John Legend and author John Grisham, is also boosted by several national groups with a professed interest in criminal-justice reform. Some 35 percent of his funding has come from out of state.

One key venue for Mulroy is New York, where he has traveled twice recently, attending public occasions in tandem with such supporters as criminologist Barry Scheck, mega-lawyer Ben Crump, and entertainer Charlamagne Tha God. Mulroy’s travels and his funding sources are reportedly the target of a new Weirich TV spot which begins this week. It should be noted that the vast majority of Mulroy’s trips out of town during the campaign — all unpublicized until now — have been to Pensacola, where he drives down regularly to look in on his elderly mother.

With early voting about to expire and a week to go before the judgment day of August 4th, polling information is being held close to the vest by both principals, though Mulroy publicized an early one showing him with a 12-point lead.

A fact that looms large to all observers and to both participants and their parties: The position of district attorney general, is, as of now, the only major countywide position held by a Republican. Early voting statistics gave evidence of serious turnout efforts by both parties.

• There are other key races, to be sure. The race for county mayor, between Democratic incumbent Lee Harris and Republican challenger Worth Morgan has been something of a back-burner affair, with neither candidate turning on the jets full-blast in the manner of the DA race. Harris basically is resting on what he sees as a high productive record, and Morgan, though he challenges that, saying the county “deserves better,” has not featured many specifics beyond Morgan’s ill-based claim that Harris has — wait for it — defunded the police (strictly speaking, the Sheriff’s Department).

A recent TV ad shows Morgan in interview mode, chatting about his life and outlook and looking and sounding likable. Given Harris’ edge in incumbency and party base, that is probably not enough for now, but it does bolster Morgan’s name and image for later on.

In the race for Juvenile Court judge, Dan Michael’s incumbency works for him, while his opponent, city Judge Tarik Sugarmon, has a well-known local name and an active Democratic party base working on his behalf. Michael is heavily backed by the GOP in what is technically a nonpartisan race.

Few surprises are expected elsewhere on the ballot, though Democratic County Clerk Wanda Halbert, who has fumbled the issuance of new automobile plates, may get a scare (or worse) from Republican opponent Jeff Jacobs.

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Politics Politics Beat Blog

A Second Juvenile Court Judge?

D.A. candidate Steve Mulroy, Judge Tarik Sugarmon, and County Mayor Lee Harris at a press conference. (Photo: Jackson Baker)

Should there be more than one Juvenile Court judge in Shelby County?

It’s a question that first came up in the wake of the 2006 county election when a newly installed Democratic contingent on the County Commission proposed the establishment of a second judge and voted to create one. 

After a drawn-out legal process that effort was disallowed, it’s now baaack! Maybe. It comes via the suggestion of Tarik Sugarmon, a candidate for what is still a solitary position of Juvenile Court Judge.

That original  move to double the number of judges was stoutly resisted by the Republican minority on the Commission and, most importantly, by Juvenile Court Judge Curtis Person, a former state Senator and longtime Court referee who was himself fresh from an election victory in 2006. Person sued to block it.

The issue was argued over back and forth, subjected to a court stay and a lifting of the stay by a Shelby County Chancellor, until, finally,  a state Court of Appeals decision in 2007 ruled invalid the Tennessee statute empowering such an action on separation-of-powers grounds. The state Supreme Court declined to review the matter back then.

What may revive it was a statement made at a press conference on Friday by Sugarmon, one of the two candidates for Juvenile Court Judge (the other being incumbent Judge Dan Michael). The point of the press conference at a park adjoining Cummings Elementary School, was for County Mayor Lee Harris and Democratic D.A. candidate Steve Mulroy to endorse Sugarmon’s candidacy.

Once that was duly done, a brief Q-and-A session with reporters ensued, at which Mulroy was reminded of the second judge issue, which took place when he was a member of the Commission and a leading proponent. 

Mulroy said on Friday  said he still liked the idea. “I’ve thought for a long time that the current system we have where there’s one person that is sort of in charge of this whole fiefdom and appoints all these judicial commissioners, is probably not the best model. It’s not even the most common model around the country. Multiple judges and juvenile courts are really the norm. And we’re the exception.”

But the courts had ruled against it, Mulroy conceded, and “that is currently the law.”

But is it? Sugarmon didn’t think so. “If I’m not mistaken,” he said, “according to the Charter now, and the court records, one of them [a Juvenile Court judge] can be appointed by the County Commission. So I think that could be permission for upgrading the office. No one in the original ruling of the Court said they had to go back to the state legislature. So hopefully, with the legislative way, that can occur because we do need more judges on the Court.”

“So you support the proposal?” Sugarmon was asked.

“Certainly,” he said.

“That’s news. Welcome news,” a surprised Mulroy said.

Note that Sugarmon cited the Shelby County charter, not the state law invalidated in 2007 by the state Court of Appeals.

And consider the possibility that a newly empaneled County Commission might act on what Sugarmon says is by the authority of the Charter and vote again for a second Juvenile Court judge. If Sugarmon, now on record as advocating a second judge, were to be elected, he would obviously decline to claim a legal standing to oppose such an action, unlike  Person in 2007.

There could be more legal bridges to cross, of course.

As of this writing, Judge Michael has not expressed an opinion on the value of a second Juvenile Court Judge.

In endorsing Sugarmon, currently a city judge, for election as Juvenile Court Judge, Mulroy had recounted his own concerns about alleged outmoded procedures in the D.A.’s office and said, among other things, “We need a new approach. We need change. And real change is only going to happen if we have change at the top. Now, the situation I described accurately describes my race for District Attorney. But it also accurately describes the situation at Juvenile Court, which is why I am very pleased to be here today to say that I am endorsing Tarik Sugarmon for Juvenile Court Judge. That is one reason why I’m doing it.”

In his turn, Mayor Harris commented on an incident at nearby Cummings Elementary in which a child was discovered to have brought a gun to school. “Behind us, of course, you see Cummings Elementary School, the site of such tragedy. But that doesn’t mean that this is a site … where we’re gonna throw away our kids. We know that no matter what happens in the lives of young people in Memphis and Shelby County, they all have potential, and we all have to remind them that their future is bright and there is opportunity ahead of them. So I’m pleased to support Judge Sugarmon, because he’s the right kind of candidate for this moment.”