Community-powered criminal justice reform | Raj Jayadev

Summary

The speaker discusses the concept of 'participatory defense,' a community-driven approach to support families whose loved ones face criminal charges. By organizing weekly meetings, reviewing cases, and producing social biography packets and videos, communities can impact court outcomes and provide emotional support. The program helps reduce sentences, secure acquittals, and ultimately, save lives. With its focus on collective action and personal stories, participatory defense has saved thousands of years of incarceration time across the U.S., shifting the way justice is understood and practiced.

Takeaways

• 👕 Community members created a 'Protect your people' shirt, symbolizing their dedication to standing up against police violence and systemic injustices.
• 💪 The power of community organizing has changed police practices, holding officers accountable and providing support to families in difficult times.
• ⚖️ Families often felt powerless in the judicial system, where public defenders were overworked, leading to plea deals without a fair trial for over 90% of people charged.
• 🚫 Despite not being lawyers, the community decided to intervene in the court system through a strategy called 'participatory defense,' empowering families to affect legal outcomes.
• 📋 In participatory defense meetings, families gather for support and strategy, reviewing cases, investigating evidence, and showing solidarity in court.
• 🎥 Social biography videos and packets were developed to present defendants' full stories to the courts, allowing judges to see beyond case files and better understand the person they are sentencing.
• 👨‍👧‍👦 The participatory defense model helped prevent unjust outcomes, like reducing sentences from years in prison to months in treatment, allowing people like Carnell to stay with their families.
• 📝 Participatory defense has expanded nationwide, training organizations in over 20 cities to help families navigate the legal system and challenge the incarceration cycle.
• ⏳ The community measures 'time saved' instead of 'time served,' with over 4,218 years of incarceration prevented through their efforts, providing more opportunities for individuals and their families.
• 🌍 This movement represents a new form of justice, with people wearing the 'Protect your people' shirt in courts across the country, redefining how justice is sought and delivered.

Q & A

What is the main focus of the speaker in the transcript?

The main focus of the speaker is the concept of participatory defense, a methodology where families and communities collaborate to support their loved ones facing criminal charges, with the goal of transforming outcomes in the judicial system.

What is the problem that the speaker identifies within the judicial system?

The speaker highlights that most people facing criminal charges, particularly those who cannot afford private attorneys, are often forced to take plea deals. This contributes to mass incarceration, with many individuals losing their right to a fair trial due to under-resourced public defenders and systemic racial biases.

What is participatory defense, and how does it work?

Participatory defense is a community-driven approach where families come together in weekly meetings to support each other and develop strategies to impact court outcomes. They review police reports, identify inconsistencies, gather evidence, and attend court hearings to show solidarity. This method helps reduce sentences, dismiss charges, and provide emotional support.

How did participatory defense help Ramon Vasquez in his case?

Ramon Vasquez, who was wrongfully charged with a gang-related murder, was facing a life sentence. His family used participatory defense to identify contradictions in the case, disproving assumptions like a red hat being linked to gang affiliation. They provided evidence, including phone records and receipts, which ultimately led to the dismissal of charges and his release.

What is the significance of social biography packets and videos in participatory defense?

Social biography packets and videos are tools that families use to present a fuller picture of their loved ones to the court. These include photos, letters, and interviews that showcase the individual's challenges, accomplishments, and future prospects. This helps judges see the person beyond just the case file, leading to more humane sentencing.

What example does the speaker give to show the impact of social biography tools?

The speaker shares the story of Carnell, who faced a five-year prison sentence for a low-level drug charge. By creating a photo essay showing his role as a father, Carnell's lawyer used the photos during sentencing. The judge, moved by the fuller picture of Carnell's life, converted the sentence into a six-month outpatient program, allowing him to stay with his daughters.

What is the 'time saved' metric mentioned in the transcript?

'Time saved' is a metric used in participatory defense to quantify how much incarceration time is avoided through the work of families and communities. It contrasts with 'time served,' which refers to the time spent in prison. In the transcript, the speaker mentions that over 4,218 years of incarceration have been avoided through this method.

How does participatory defense affect mass incarceration according to the speaker?

Participatory defense helps to reduce mass incarceration by empowering communities to actively engage in the judicial process. It enables families to prevent unnecessary prison sentences, thereby keeping people out of the criminal justice system and breaking generational cycles of imprisonment.

What challenges do public defenders face, according to the transcript?

Public defenders, while doing heroic work, are often under-resourced and overwhelmed with too many cases. This limits their ability to provide thorough defense, contributing to the high rates of plea deals and unfair sentencing, particularly for those who cannot afford private attorneys.

What broader impact does participatory defense have on society?

Participatory defense not only reduces incarceration but also saves states money by avoiding the costs associated with imprisonment. It allows families to stay together, promotes rehabilitation over punishment, and shifts resources toward mental health, drug treatment programs, and education.

Outlines

00:00

👕 The Power of Community Action through Participatory Defense

The speaker discusses their experiences with community organizing to combat police violence and support families affected by arrests. Wearing a shirt that says 'Protect your people,' the speaker reflects on how collective action has changed arrest practices and held officers accountable. However, they faced challenges in helping families navigate the court system. Without legal expertise, many families relied on under-resourced public defenders and often faced prosecutors seeking harsh convictions. This led to over 90% of defendants taking plea deals, contributing to the mass incarceration problem in America. The speaker highlights the need to bring the strength of community organizing into the judicial system.

05:03

🛠️ Creating Participatory Defense: A Solution to Court Challenges

The speaker introduces 'participatory defense,' a methodology where families facing criminal charges attend weekly meetings that serve as both support groups and strategic planning sessions. By analyzing police reports, identifying investigative needs, and attending court, these families empower themselves and show the courts that their loved ones are supported by a larger community. This grassroots approach has yielded significant successes, from dismissals to reduced sentences, and in some cases, saved lives. The speaker shares the story of Ramon Vasquez, who was wrongfully accused of a gang-related murder but had his case dismissed after his family used participatory defense to disprove faulty evidence.

10:06

🧢 Ramon Vasquez’s Story: How a Community Saved an Innocent Man

Ramon Vasquez’s family worked diligently for seven months to clear his name after he was wrongfully charged with a murder. By attending participatory defense meetings and investigating discrepancies in the case, they successfully disproved the prosecution’s claims, including that a red hat found in Ramon’s home was gang-related. The family provided proof that the hat was from his son's Little League team, and they used phone records and receipts to show that Ramon was elsewhere during the crime. After months of hard work, the charges were dismissed, allowing Ramon to return to his family and inspiring other families in similar situations.

📜 Social Biography: A Tool to Show the Full Story

The speaker explains how families developed tools to humanize their loved ones in court. They began creating social biography packets filled with photos, certificates, and letters that portrayed the full scope of their loved one’s life, achievements, and future prospects. These packets were so effective in influencing court decisions that they evolved into social biography videos, which provided a more immersive way for judges to understand the defendants as real people. The speaker highlights the success of this approach with Carnell, a father facing a five-year sentence for drug possession. By sharing photos of his daily life as a dad, Carnell was able to get his sentence reduced to a six-month outpatient program, keeping him with his daughters.

📅 Celebrating Wins: Erasing the Names from the Board

Participatory defense meetings offer hope to families by giving them a sense of community and a path to a potential victory. The speaker describes a powerful tradition in these meetings: when a family wins a case, they get to erase their loved one's name from the board. This symbolic act is a deeply emotional experience, representing the completion of a difficult journey. For families just beginning their fight, seeing this ritual gives them hope that their loved ones may one day come home. This act of erasing a name symbolizes victory over the system and the power of collective community support.

🏘️ A Growing National Movement for Participatory Defense

Participatory defense has expanded into a national movement with over 20 cities across the U.S. adopting the practice. The model has spread to diverse groups, including churches in Pennsylvania, parent associations in Tennessee, and youth centers in Los Angeles. The speaker highlights how Ramon Vasquez, once a participant in the program, now serves as an inspiration to others. He recently traveled to Philadelphia to share his testimony, demonstrating the power of community perseverance. With each new hub, participatory defense continues to grow, empowering families to engage in the justice system and change outcomes.

⏳ Turning 'Time Served' into 'Time Saved': A Measure of Impact

Participatory defense measures its success using the concept of 'time saved' — the years of incarceration avoided due to the efforts of families and communities. Instead of accepting 'time served' as a given, participatory defense allows families to convert that into 'time saved' by keeping their loved ones out of prison. The speaker shares that across all the hubs, they have collectively saved 4,218 years of incarceration, translating to families staying together and breaking cycles of suffering. This not only saves lives but also resources, as the high cost of imprisonment could be redirected to essential services like mental health and education.

💡 Building a New Field for Justice Reform

The speaker concludes by explaining that participatory defense is not just a practice but a movement that aims to fundamentally change the way justice is perceived and carried out in America. With the success of participatory defense, families are taking control of the legal process and creating a new field that prioritizes justice and community over punishment. Wearing their 'Protect your people' shirts in courts nationwide, participants are building a new system where collective action and community involvement challenge the traditional legal framework, offering a transformative approach to justice reform.

Keywords

💡Community Organizing

Community organizing refers to the collective effort of individuals coming together to address social issues, in this case, focusing on criminal justice reform. In the video, community organizing is portrayed as a powerful tool to affect change both on the streets and in the courts, through actions like protests, strategic planning, and support systems for families facing legal challenges.

💡Participatory Defense

Participatory defense is a community-based methodology designed to help families and communities directly influence the outcomes of legal cases involving their loved ones. This approach allows non-lawyers to actively participate in legal defense by gathering evidence, identifying inconsistencies, and providing emotional and strategic support during court processes. It shifts the power dynamics in the judicial system by involving the community in decision-making.

💡Social Biography Packets

Social biography packets are compilations of personal documents, such as photos, certificates, and letters, that humanize defendants by showing their lives in full context. These packets are created by families to present to the courts as a way of showing that their loved one is more than just a case file, helping judges and attorneys understand the person’s life, challenges, and potential. This approach is part of the participatory defense model.

💡Mass Incarceration

Mass incarceration refers to the large-scale imprisonment of individuals, particularly in the United States, which has the highest incarceration rate globally. The video highlights how mass incarceration disproportionately affects minority communities, especially Black men, and how over 90% of criminal defendants end up taking plea deals instead of going to trial. The participatory defense model aims to reduce incarceration rates by challenging this system.

💡Public Defenders

Public defenders are court-appointed attorneys who represent defendants who cannot afford private legal representation. While they are praised in the video for their dedication and heroism, they are often under-resourced and overworked, handling an overwhelming number of cases. This contributes to the high number of plea deals, as many defendants do not receive the full legal defense they need.

💡Racial Bias

Racial bias refers to the prejudices or discriminatory attitudes embedded within the criminal justice system, affecting how people of different races are treated at every stage of the legal process. The video explains how racial bias, especially against Black men, is 'baked' into the system, influencing arrest rates, sentencing, and incarceration. Participatory defense seeks to counteract these biases by allowing communities to support and advocate for defendants.

💡Time Saved

Time saved is a metric used in participatory defense to quantify the years of incarceration avoided by engaging with the model. Families who use participatory defense techniques, such as social biography packets and community support, can help reduce or dismiss charges, resulting in significant reductions in prison time. For example, Carnell's five-year sentence was reduced to six months in an outpatient program, saving years of incarceration.

💡Plea Deals

Plea deals are agreements in which a defendant pleads guilty to a lesser charge to avoid a more severe sentence. In the video, it is mentioned that over 90% of criminal cases in the U.S. are resolved through plea deals, often because defendants feel pressured by the overwhelming odds against them, including mandatory minimum sentences and overburdened public defenders. Participatory defense seeks to help families avoid such outcomes by providing additional support and resources.

💡Systemic Injustice

Systemic injustice refers to the structural and ingrained inequalities within the criminal justice system that disproportionately affect marginalized groups. The video highlights how racial bias, economic inequality, and over-policing contribute to mass incarceration. The participatory defense model is presented as a grassroots solution to fight against these systemic injustices by empowering communities to influence court outcomes.

💡Social Biography Videos

Social biography videos are short documentaries created by families to showcase a defendant’s life in the context of their community, family, and work. These videos help judges see defendants as more than just case numbers, highlighting their struggles, contributions, and potential. The videos are an evolved form of social biography packets and have been used successfully in courtrooms to reduce sentences and change legal outcomes.

Highlights

The speaker shares their favorite protest shirt, which says, 'Protect your people,' symbolizing their commitment to community organizing.

The speaker discusses their experience participating in rallies, protests, marches, and vigils to support families affected by police violence.

The organization struggled to translate their power in community organizing into the court system, realizing that families were often left to face the courts alone without adequate legal support.

Nine out of ten individuals facing criminal charges in the U.S. can't afford their own attorney, leading to reliance on under-resourced public defenders.

Over 90% of people charged with a crime take plea deals, contributing to mass incarceration in America, with over two million currently incarcerated.

The organization developed 'participatory defense,' a method for families and communities to actively impact court outcomes through strategic planning and collective action.

Families attend weekly meetings that are part support group, part strategic planning session, allowing them to influence their loved ones' cases and strengthen community ties.

By working together, families have helped get charges dismissed, sentences reduced, and won acquittals at trial, often leading to life-saving outcomes.

A key success story involved Ramon Vasquez, who was wrongfully charged with murder. His family's collective efforts helped prove his innocence and got his charges dismissed.

Families create 'social biography packets,' which provide a fuller picture of their loved one’s life to the court, often including photos, letters, and certificates of achievement.

The organization evolved the concept of social biography packets into 'social biography videos,' which are 10-minute mini-documentaries designed to humanize defendants before the court.

One success story involved Carnell, who avoided a five-year prison sentence for drug possession after presenting a photo essay showing his role as a father. His sentence was reduced to a six-month outpatient program.

The participatory defense model uses a symbolic ceremony where family members erase their loved one's name from the board after winning their case, marking the end of their legal journey.

The model has expanded nationwide to over 20 cities, including Philadelphia, where families and communities continue to transform the criminal justice system.

The organization uses a 'time saved' metric to measure its impact, with over 4,200 years of incarceration time saved through participatory defense efforts across the country.

Transcripts

Translator: Ivana Korom Reviewer: Krystian Aparta

This is my favorite protest shirt.

It says, "Protect your people."

We made it in the basement of our community center.

I've worn it at rallies,

at protests and marches,

at candlelight vigils

with families who have lost loved ones to police violence.

I've seen how this ethic of community organizing

has been able to change arresting practices,

hold individual officers accountable

and allow families to feel strong and supported

in the darkest moments of their lives.

But when a family would come to our center

and say, "My loved one got arrested, what can we do?"

we didn't know how to translate

the power of community organizing that we saw on the streets

into the courts.

We figured we're not lawyers,

and so that's not our arena to make change.

And so despite our belief in collective action,

we would allow people that we cared about

to go to court alone.

Nine out of ten times -- and this is true nationally --

they couldn't afford their own attorney,

and so they'd have a public defender, who is doing heroic work,

but was often under-resourced

and stretched bare with too many cases.

They would face prosecutors aiming for high conviction rates,

mandatory minimum sentences

and racial bias baked into every stage of the process.

And so, facing those odds,

stripped away from the power of community,

unsure how to navigate the courts,

over 90 percent of people that face a criminal charge in this country

will take a plea deal.

Meaning, they'll never have their fabled day in court

that we talk about in television shows and in movies.

And this is the untold part of the story of mass incarceration in America --

how we became the largest jailer in the world.

Over two million people currently incarcerated in this country.

And projections that say

one out of three black men will see the inside of a prison cell

at some point in their life on this trajectory.

But we have a solution.

We decided to be irreverent to this idea

that only lawyers can impact the courts.

And to penetrate the judicial system

with the power, intellect and ingenuity of community organizing.

We call the approach "participatory defense."

It's a methodology for families and communities

whose loved ones are facing charges,

and how they could impact the outcome of those cases

and transform the landscape of power in the courts.

How it works is,

families whose loved ones are facing criminal charges

will come to a weekly meeting,

and it's half support group,

half strategic planning session.

And they'll build a community

out of what otherwise would be an isolating and lonely experience.

And they'll sit in a circle,

and write the names of their loved ones on a board,

who they're there to support.

And collectively,

the group will find out ways to tangibly and tactfully

impact the outcome of that case.

They'll review police reports to find out inconsistencies;

they'll find areas that require

more investigation by the defense attorney;

and they'll go to court with each other,

for the emotional support

but also so that the judge knows that the person standing before them

is part of a larger community

that is invested in their well-being and success.

And the results have been remarkable.

We've seen charges get dismissed,

sentences significantly reduced,

acquittals won at trial

and, sometimes, it has been literally lifesaving.

Like in the case of Ramon Vasquez.

Father of two, family man, truck driver

and someone who was wrongfully charged with a gang-related murder

he was totally innocent of,

but was facing a life sentence.

Ramon's family came to those meetings

shortly after his arrest and his detention,

and they worked the model.

And through their hard work,

they found major contradictions in the case,

gaping holes in the investigation.

And were able to disprove dangerous assumptions by the detectives.

Like that the red hat that they found when they raided his home

somehow affiliated him to a gang lifestyle.

Through their photos and their records,

they were able to prove that the red hat was from his son's Little League team

that Ramon coached on the weekends.

And they produced independent information

that proved that Ramon was on the other side of town

at the time of the alleged incident,

through their phone records

and receipts from the stores that they attended.

After seven long months of hard work from the family,

Ramon staying strong inside jail,

they were able to get the charge dismissed.

And they brought Ramon home

to live the life that he should have been living all along.

And with each new case,

the families identified new ways to flex the knowledge of the community

to have impact on the court system.

We would go to a lot of sentencing hearings.

And when we would leave the sentencing hearing,

on the walk back to the parking lot

after someone's loved one just got sent to prison,

the most common refrain we would hear

wasn't so much, "I hate that judge,"

or "I wish we had a new lawyer."

What they would say was,

"I wish they knew him like we know him."

And so we developed tools and vehicles

for families to tell the fuller story of their loved one

so they would be understood as more than just a case file.

They started making what we call social biography packets,

which is families making a compilation of photos and certificates and letters

that show past challenges and hardships and accomplishments,

and future prospects and opportunities.

And the social biography [packets] were working so well in the courts,

that we evolved it into social biography videos.

Ten-minute mini documentaries,

which were interviews of people in their homes,

and at their churches and at their workplace,

explaining who the person was in the backdrop of their lives.

And it was a way for us to dissolve the walls of the court temporarily.

And through the power of video,

bring the judge out of the court and into the community,

so that they would be able to understand the fuller context of someone's life

that they're deciding the fate of.

One of the first social biography projects that came out of our camp

was by Carnell.

He had come to the meetings

because he had pled to a low-level drug charge.

And after years of sobriety,

got arrested for this one drug possession charge.

But he was facing a five-year prison sentence

because of the sentencing schemes in California.

We knew him primarily as a dad.

He'd bring his daughters to the meetings

and then play with them at the park across the street.

And he said, "Look, I could do the time,

but if I go in, they're going to take my girls."

And so we gave him a camera

and said, "Just take pictures of what's like being a father."

And so he took pictures of making breakfast for his daughters

and taking them to school,

taking them to after-school programs and doing homework.

And it became this photo essay

that he turned in to his lawyer who used it at the sentencing hearing.

And that judge, who originally indicated a five-year prison sentence,

understood Carnell in a whole new way.

And he converted that five-year prison sentence

into a six-month outpatient program,

so that Carnell could be with his daughters.

His girls would have a father in their life.

And Carnell could get the treatment that he was actually seeking.

We have one ceremony of sorts

that we use in participatory defense.

And I told you earlier that when families come to the meetings,

they write the names of their loved ones on the board.

Those are names that we all get to know, week in, week out,

through the stories of the family,

and we're rooting for and praying for and hoping for.

And when we win a case,

when we get a sentence reduced, or a charge dropped,

or we win an acquittal,

that person, who's been a name on the board,

comes to the meeting.

And when their name comes up,

they're given an eraser,

and they walk over to the board

and they erase their name.

And it sounds simple, but it is a spiritual experience.

And people are applauding, and they're crying.

And for the families that are just starting that journey

and are sitting in the back of the room,

for them to know that there's a finish line,

that one day, they too might be able to bring their loved one home,

that they could erase the name,

is profoundly inspiring.

We're training organizations all over the country now

in participatory defense.

And we have a national network of over 20 cities.

And it's a church in Pennsylvania,

it's a parents' association in Tennessee,

it's a youth center in Los Angeles.

And the latest city that we just added to the national network

to grow and deepen this practice

is Philadelphia.

They literally just started their first weekly participatory defense meeting

last week.

And the person that we brought from California to Philadelphia

to share their testimony, to inspire them to know what's possible,

was Ramon Vasquez,

who went from sitting in a jail in Santa Clara County, California,

to inspiring a community about what's possible

through the perseverance of community across the country.

And with all the hubs, we still use one metric that we invented.

It's called time saved.

It's a saying that we actually still say at weekly meetings.

And what we say when a family comes in a meeting for the first time is:

if you do nothing,

the system is designed to give your loved one time served.

That's the language the system uses to quantify time of incarceration.

But if you engage, if you participate,

you can turn time served into time saved.

That's them home with you, living the life they should be living.

So, Carnell, for example, would represent five years of time saved.

So when we totaled our time saved numbers

from all the different participatory defense hubs,

through the work in the meetings and at court

and making social biography videos and packets,

we had 4,218 years of time saved from incarceration.

That is parents' and children's lives.

Young people going to college instead of prison.

We're ending generational cycles of suffering.

And when you consider in my home state of California,

it costs 60,000 dollars to house someone in the California prison system,

that means that these families are saving their states

a ton of money.

I'm not a mathematician, I haven't done the numbers,

but that is money and resources that could be reallocated

to mental health services,

to drug treatment programs, to education.

And we're now wearing this shirt in courts

all across the country.

And people are wearing this shirt

because they want the immediacy of protecting their people

in the courtroom.

But what we're telling them is,

as practitioners, they're building a new field,

a new movement

that is going to forever change the way justice is understood in this country.

Thank you.

(Applause)