BPNJ Valentines Day Meeting

The talk of the town is the Racial Justice Task Force recommendations as meetings and movement on various fronts has begun and interested parties are looking to put their energy towards something real and organized. Robert King beginning to organize and bring the Justice & Social Services Committee to life has people in various organizations, including Build Programs Not Jails, looking to see how they can push for criminal justice reforms in the report. Everyone is talking about who is talking to who, and who is working on this or that. It's still early and confusing and malleable. 

The County Board just passed two of the beginning recommendations of the housing section of the RJTF report, simply urging the Housing Authority of Champaign County and the City Council of Champaign to amend their rules and ordinances respectfully in order to reduce housing discrimination among those attempting to re-enter their communities from the criminal justice system. This intergovernmental move seemed to go off without too many toes stepped on, but not a non-zero number of toes as one Board Member found out.

The two government bodies urged to take action have meetings coming up next week:

Champaign City Council next meets February 20th at 7pm

Housing Authority of Champaign County Board meets February 22nd at 3pm

People interested in voicing support for the recommendations should probably attend and get to know who their allies on the Council and Board are. More information on that as I learn who's who and what side members are taking. There will almost certainly be resistance given the real concerns about recidivism, but also issues of bias and fears that may go beyond statistics. These aren't easy topics and it'll be tough to present data to allay those worries.

Speaking of data, the next County Board COW on March 13th at 6:30pm will have more RJTF issues raised including on a related database of racial data in the County's criminal justice system. More information on that as I understand it and can pass it along coherently.

Discussions continued into talking about interest in pre-trial reforms and then to their discussions with County Board Member Robert King and his interactions with other players within the system who note that Champaign was ahead of the curve on some of the state Bail Reform Act going into effect now. There's going to be disagreements on how well the system is already doing versus how much further work needs to be done. Activists will be pushing up against players within the system that believe they are doing a better job than most, and might take issue with the more pessimistic depictions of idealists and dreamers. Navigating those relationships and expectations successfully may what saves this ship from sinking on the rocks.

One of the contentious programs, Public Safety Assessment (PSA) Court risk assessments may not be very popular with some current officials. More information on the algorithms that attempt to factor out race, gender, socioeconomic status, etc and give a fair risk assessment for bail. The idea is to focus on public safety risks and further criminal activity risks as opposed to unnecessary and punitive jailing due to inherent bias or financial woes. More information on that here: http://www.arnoldfoundation.org/initiative/criminal-justice/crime-prevention/public-safety-assessment/

There was discussion of a charitable bail fund that UU and other local church members may be organizing to aid defendants beyond internal criminal justice mechanisms. Some other ideas about policing alternatives for neighborhoods were tossed around and might become ideas for a future reform proposal. Court observation groups were discussed, including possibly organizing one to watch for bail issues at arraignments given the new Bail Reform Act in effect.

A couple statements for and to other groups were discussed, including a statement of support for the GEO graduate student union now that there may be an impending strike. Some internal housekeeping on outside individuals who may want to attend meetings as part of the media or some official capacity and whether the current rules and information is adequate.

A discussion on how the group's primary "asks" should be presented as opposed to each member's individual policy goals for presenting and coordinating with the burgeoning Justice & Social Services committee, as well as communicating and working with other groups towards shared goals. Specifics on criminal justice reforms were discussed as well as the need to focus on the "Building Programs" aspect and ideas towards making mental health and treatment a viable and real alternative when appropriate here and across the State.

It was noted that jail expansion is still a factor with the candidates for Sheriff at their recent forum. This is even with the jail population at new low figures (recently as low as 130 with a capacity of more than twice that).

Orientation ideas were discussed for new members such as a casual introductory primer to help people get started with what they need to know to start catching up at meetings... as well as for short term student members who may only be around for a semester at a time and ensuring there is "institutional memory" for the work to be left off and picked up as people rotate in and out of the fight.

Finally a discussion of note takers and people to attend meetings. I became a topic of conversation briefly as I pointed out the Cheat Sheet as a haphazard resource as I've tried to learn about and bumble my way through how local government works so others can follow in my footsteps with less bumbling.

The meeting adjourned at about 8:43pm. The next BPNJ meeting is February 28th at 7pm at the UC-IMC. The first step to making a difference is showing up and learning what's going on.