There are 39 article(s) tagged Just City:
“Returning Shelby County to a wealth-based system of justice that favors the affluent harms everyone else at enormous taxpayer expense. Policies like the Standing Bail Order that can build a safer, smarter, fairer future deserve our support.”
The local judge also told reporters Friday, Aug. 2, that local bail reform efforts have been working.
Local criminal justice reform nonprofit Just City has filed a federal lawsuit over a recently passed state law that changed Shelby County’s bail-setting procedures.
The bill seeks transparency from progressive criminal-justice reform groups like the Vera Institute of Justice, Justice Innovation Lab and Memphis-based Just City, which local Republican lawmakers blame in part for crime in Memphis.
Amid increasing scrutiny of local judges and the district attorney, two studies raise a magnifying glass to courtroom proceedings at the Shelby County Criminal Justice Center.
Most criminal cases in Shelby County took more than a year to resolve, reports show. Former Judge Robert “Bobby” Carter points to new court strategies that could help pick up the pace.
Although some judges were commended for their courtroom etiquette, a local nonprofit says some judges in Shelby County struggle with sensitivity and when to appoint public defenders for indigent defendants.
“Everyone wants the same thing — a just process for the accused and a safe city. But the truth is the public does not know if judges are being too lenient or even who they are. We need a centralized source of data where everyone can access the same information.”
“Loud and powerful opponents of progress, such as Mayor Jim Strickland, have wrongly claimed that Shelby County’s pretrial policies undermine public safety. There is no data behind his claims.”
A new Shelby County Standing Bail Order is intended to prevent people accused of crimes from being held in jail unnecessarily, fulfilling a constitutional right that bail shouldn’t be punitive. But some say more transparency and stricter bail schedules are needed to protect the community.Related content:
Representatives from the Memphis-Shelby Justice & Safety Alliance, a group of various local organizations, discuss crime and criminal justice reform during a discussion on “Behind the Headlines,” which first aired on WKNO at 7 p.m. on Friday, March 24.
Just City, a criminal justice reform organization that has often drawn Memphis Mayor Jim Strickland’s ire, has offered to help the City of Memphis publish more criminal justice data.
Though SCORPION already was affiliated with MPD’s larger Organized Crime Unit, all 35 of those officers were transferred to other parts of OCU.
“It’s time to move past surface-level ‘fixes’ that blame the community for the problems that systems create. We believe that communities, particularly communities of color, deeply and intimately understand the problem and therefore hold the transformative solutions that will last.”
Despite the U.S. Constitution’s sixth amendment guaranteeing a right to a speedy trial, Shelby County’s legal system can leave defendants in limbo for years. And it comes at a cost of millions and millions of dollars.
Just City requested the help from Joshua Perry, former Executive Director of the Louisiana Center for Children’s Rights, to conduct research. The current district attorney and juvenile court judge both question the timing of the report, however.
“This new law is not about ‘truth;’ it is about severity,” writes Just City’s executive director.
Josh Spickler, of the criminal justice reform group Just City, said on WKNO’s Behind The Headlines that there is another side to allegations the county’s criminal justice system is a ‘revolving door.’
Just City and the ACLU gave county officials until the end of December to respond to their letter and until the end of January to hold a “mediated discussion.”
A veteran Public Defender is seeking to become the first Indian-American to serve as a judge in Shelby County. But Sanjeev Memula is considering which of the nine criminal divisions of General Sessions Court he will seek.
The county is paying an average of $34,000 per month to a Jackson, Tennessee, law firm to represent Sheriff Floyd Bonner in a federal lawsuit.
Attorneys representing the inmates, including lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union and Memphis’ Just City, claim conditions at the jail are ill-equipped to deal with safety regarding COVID-19.
Fewer than 10% of detainees at 201 Poplar have been vaccinated and criminal justice advocates have filed a motion asking the court to get the Sheriff’s Office to do more to implement a vaccination program — one of the terms agreed upon in a lawsuit settlement agreement.
The federal class action lawsuit was filed in 2016, a month after a new computer system was installed by the county to track the movement of pre-trial detainees through the criminal justice system.
The NFL has granted $200,000 to Just City as part of the league’s social justice initiative. The money is important – but so is the message the money sends.
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