Action toward justice: Reforming Berkshire County justice system in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. – theberkshireedge.com

The 1963 mug shot of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. after his arrest in Birmingham, Alabama, for leading marches against segregation.

Martin Luther King Jr.s words written from a jail cell in Birmingham, Ala., in 1963 resonate today when considering the current state of criminal justice in Massachusetts. Dr. King summed up his disappointment with white moderates saying: The white moderate would understand that law and order exist for the purpose of establishing justice and that when they fail to do this they become the dangerously structured dams that block the flow of social progress.

He had grown tired of hearing the word wait from those who believed that time, on its own, would solve grave racial injustices because [t]his wait has almost always meant never. Anyone who spends time in a courthouse in Berkshire County will witness the enduring truth of Dr. Kings words. In Massachusetts in 2016, Black people were six times more likely to enter jails or prisons than whites. In Berkshire County in 2015, cash bail amounts imposed on Black people was five times greater than their white counterparts. Although Black people make up only 6.5 percent of the states population, they are the subjects of 17.1 percent of criminal court cases, and Black people receive sentences an average of 168 days longer.

These numbers dont lie. White moderates in liberal Massachusetts have been complicit in perpetuating an oppressive criminal legal system. This system is a relic of the reconstruction era that was intentionally designed and implemented as a means of power and control over Black people as a substitution to slavery.

These stark realities fuel distrust in the legal system, especially for those who are the most vulnerable to victimization. All over Berkshire County, Black and Brown people tell me that they are afraid to report crimes. This distrust undermines the essential work of law enforcement to protect victims and public safety. An egregious example of this is the ineffectiveness of the legal system in addressing intimate partner violence perpetuated against Black women who suffer even higher rates of domestic violence than White women. The violence that Black women endure is largely driven by victims reasonable fear of the justice system. While White victims fear that seeking help wont result in a strong enough response from law enforcement, Black women tend to fear that law enforcement will be overly punitive to themselves and their intimate partners. In my experience as a defense attorney and as a prosecutor, these fears are well-founded.

Fear and distrust of the legal system also impedes my offices efforts to investigate crime and solve homicides. Building trust among our diverse communities and eradicating the scourge of racism from our criminal legal system is central to the mission of law enforcement and is necessary to our public safety.

My office is taking ownership of the prosecutors role in correcting an unjust system. We recognize that vulnerable communities are at heightened risk for landing in the justice system because for decades our society used the judicial system to stigmatize people with mental illness, substance use disorder, and those living in poverty. The prosecutors in my office decline to prosecute cases where people who present minimal risks to the public face charges resulting from symptoms of mental health or substance use disorder, and I actively advocate for the public health system to address public health issues.

Prosecutors in my office recognize that their power to punish through the courts has real-world, high-stakes consequences for those involved and their families, and we seek alternatives to incarceration. Our approach has impacted thousands of people and families in positive ways.

One of the more painful conversations that I have had since being elected was with an elderly, formerly incarcerated Black woman from Berkshire County at a talk that I gave about my offices preference for non-violent people to receive treatment for substance use disorder over incarceration. This woman was heartbroken that she did not have an opportunity to receive treatment in a therapeutic setting. She and her children, including a child who was incarcerated at the time, suffered horribly throughout their lives because of the punitive and oppressive war on drugs. She is among hundreds of thousands of Americans who have suffered thanks to an oppressive system designed to punish.

Conversely, I have a dear friend who is in recovery from problem opioid use. He has a thriving family and is making valuable contributions professionally to his community. He credits his recovery and success on his privilege he had never been charged with a crime even when he was stopped by police while carrying drugs. He speaks eloquently on the impact of his privilege as a white person and how devastating the shame and trauma that arise from arrest, prosecution and incarceration would have been for his recovery, not to mention the lifelong impacts of having a criminal record. Every member of our community deserves medical treatment in a health setting. Relying on incarceration as a substitute for high-quality treatment for substance use and mental illness has perpetuated long-term and multi-generational hardships for individuals, families, and ultimately for our entire community. Over-represented communities of color carry this burden at a vastly higher degree. Since taking office, the number of people newly incarcerated in Berkshire County has decreased thanks to my reforms.

My office will not participate in the over prosecution of communities of color. Instead, we redirect our resources toward investigating and prosecuting domestic violence, sexual assaults, and homicides. We are working with our community partners to organize the community around public health solutions to public health problems.

I made this cultural shift in the Berkshire District Attorneys Office by instituting a values-based review system for assistant district attorneys and staff members. I have provided prosecutors with the training and tools necessary to make decisions that are fair and just as opposed to the length and number of convictions that they obtain.

Our team has created a culture in the office that analyzes every aspect of our decision-making for bias and systemic racism. We carefully scrutinize cases arising from motor vehicle stops and decline to prosecute those that indicate any element of racial profiling while actively engaging with law enforcement officers to explain our decisions and the legal requirements of the Fourth amendment. We removed race-based questions from our jury selection process. We have created a diverse inner office working group led by retired Superior Court Justice and former prosecutor Tina Page to review and develop further recommendations for anti-racist prosecution policies.

I am proud of the strong cooperation from my law enforcement partners in establishing policies that ensure convictions are based on fairness, such as our Brady Policy which asks police departments to review their records for the last decade and provide my office with information that could undermine the credibility of a conviction to disclose to defense counsel.

My office virtually eliminated the use of cash bail, replacing the wealth-based model of pre-trial detention shown to perpetuate racial disparities for one that protects both a defendants due process rights and public safety.

Most cases are resolved through pleas as opposed to trials. This process has historically been cloaked in secrecy and rife with racial inequity. My office is opening that black box to identify bias that unfairly impacts how prosecutors use their discretion. Our plea tracker project is the first in the nation to allow researchers unprecedented access to our decision-making process. We are grateful for a partnership with the nations leading criminal justice scholars at the Wilson Center at Duke Law for their expertise in bringing this bold initiative to life. This tool will identify and remedy systemic racism in the plea process and serve as a national model.

These actions are designed to treat all members of our community with dignity. Our actions moves our historically oppressive system towards one that guarantees justice for all. That is how we will earn trust in the justice system.

Time in itself does not make change; actions do. I am humbled to lead a staff of public servants who care deeply not just about accountability but about justice. We are making substantial changes to reform the system to value the needs of the people that we serve over the desires of the powerful. We recognize that we have much work left to do, and we are acting with urgency to correct injustices others are scared to acknowledge because it upsets the status quo. This work takes courage.

This weekend I remember Martin Luther Kings words, Time is neutral. It can be used either destructively or constructively. I am coming to feel that the people of ill-will have used time much more effectively than the people of good will. We will have to repent in this generation not merely for the vitriolic words and actions of the bad people but for the appalling silence of the good people.

As your district attorney, I understand that justice goes beyond accountability and that it is my responsibility to correct the injustices prosecutors have historically perpetuated. I am leading my team of prosecutors to act with urgency because the community has bestowed a responsibility to uphold justice upon us rather than simply maintaining order. There is much left to do and continuing this work will require good people to speak out for the cause of justice.

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Action toward justice: Reforming Berkshire County justice system in the spirit of Martin Luther King Jr. - theberkshireedge.com