$87 dollars per day, that's the cost per inmate in jail here in Shelby County awaiting trial. That comes to over $31,755 dollars a year.
$60 dollars per day, that's the cost per inmate incarcerated in a state prison.
That's about $21,900 a year.
Multiply that by two and that's the price for holding inmates with mental illness.
56%, that is the percentage of the Shelby County Sheriff's budget consumed by Jail operations.
Nine to ten months, that is the average time from arrest to disposition for a person charged with criminal wrongdoing here in Shelby County.
Two to five times longer. That is the amount of time a person with mental illness spends in the jail awaiting trial as opposed to someone without mental illness.
700,000, that's the current estimate of the number of adults nationally entering jails each year that have active symptoms of serious mental illness and three quarters of these individuals have co-occurring addictive disorders.
14. The number of schools listed as high crime sites. These schools account for fifty percent of the crimes committed within Memphis City Schools.
62. That's the average number of children entering the Juvenile justice system, from Memphis City Schools PER WEEK.
Over half. That's the number of child abuse cases in Tennessee that occur in Shelby county.
Twice as much. The likelihood of an abused child engaging in criminal activity.
75%. The percentage of children nationally Juvenile Detention centers for non serious violent offenses.
50% to 70%. The percentage of youth incarcerated in juvenile institutions that go on to commit additional crimes.
8 times as much, that's the how much more likely juveniles in adult facilities are to commit suicide.
5 times as much, that's how much more likely juveniles in adult facilities are to be victims of sexual assault.
50% more, the likelihood of juveniles in adult facilities to be attacked by a weapon.
0. the number of free homeless shelters in the City of Memphis.
We have a serious problem here in Shelby county. We have an overwhelmed and overworked and criminal justice system, for adults, and a equally overwhelmed juvenile justice system, that largely locks children into the cradle to grave cycle of crime and incarceration. Solutions from the political arena, are largely based not on research but on knee jerk reactions to crime. Reactions like calls for trying more juveniles as adults, or for increasing bail to the point where the poor cannot post bail for nonviolent crimes. Increased sentencing guidelines for petty or nonviolent offenses. The political sphere has long been apart of a campaign of fear against the general public in collusion with the prison industrial complex. This is especially true in cases of the For Profit Prison industry and in the case of many, but not all juvenile detention centers.
That is why we are glad to see the positive leadership shown by Shelby County Mayor A.C. Wharton, and Sheriff Mark Luttrell and the members of the Criminal Justice Coordinating Council in proposing and supporting increased funding for Alternatives to Incarceration. A plan that will bring some positive and progressive reforms to our local criminal justice system, in a fiscally responsible manner.
Chief among these reforms is the expansion of the JERICHO INITIATIVE. A program that targets those inmates with mental illness as well as co-occurring substance abuse issues, who's previous criminal records make them ineligible for pre booking public mental health options. This program pioneered by A.C. Wharton and Stephen Bush in the Public Defender's office puts together an individual and comprehensive plan for recovery and addresses the serious medical,and psychological needs of the client as well as access to treatment,safe housing, restoration benefits, and bridge medication. Those who successfully complete this program can have their sentences reduced or dismissed entirely. Securing community support and County Commission funding for the Jail Master Plan initiatives is a major part of the new JUSTPEACE MEMPHIS campaign.
JUSTPEACE MEMPHIS is a coalition effort between The Mid-South Peace and Justice Center and Turning Point Partners. The JUSTPEACE MEMPHIS coalition works to find positive progressive, and fiscally responsible reforms to help our local criminal justice system better serve the needs of this community.
The issue of Criminal Justice reform cannot be raised without also addressing the vital need for intervention and outreach to our young people BEFORE they enter the Juvenile criminal justice system. As a person who once worked in a Juvenile dentition Center, I know first hand that large numbers of our young men and women are entering such facilities each week. These children are there for a variety of reasons. While some are in there for serious offenses, a great deal more are in the system for petty crimes,like truancy and being a runaway, issues that could be better addressed by local school and community intervention and involvement. In fact many of my previous residents had no criminal charges at all, but were locked up for issues stemming mostly from custody disputes or were in fact VICTIMS of physical, sexual, and emotional abuse. To my employers it did not matter, because for the most part, all they cared about was filling bunks.The quality of the food,the training of the staff and oversight from the administration were all substandard. Sadly these centers make their money by how many beds they fill, as opposed to any real standard of rehabilitation. Yet despite the varied backgrounds of our residents they were all put together, in what I used to call "Boarding School for Criminals".
So, say you have a unit of about forty boys, ages 12-17, about ten of them, are guilty of serious criminal offenses, the other twenty are there for non serious infractions, and the remaining ten are there for non crime related or petty criminal activities. Now despite this range of offenses, and issues, these young men were put into the exact same program. Over time, I saw some of the same kids come back over and over again, either repeating previous offenses or escalating into more serious crimes.
The answer is not more incarceration, but intervention,and not condemning our children to a system that sees our young people as cash cows for a corrupt network of nonprofits that exist to exploit societies ills rather than address them.
That is why the JUSTPEACE MEMPHIS campaign is proposing an innovative new process that aims to decrease criminal activity within our schools, as well as promote greater transparency, and parental and community involvement within school security concerns.
This process is called Restorative Justice. Restorative Justice,"RJ" is a process that allows for the creation of Community Circles, involving the school administration,the offender, victim and parents and concerned community leaders to deal with the less serious offenses on school grounds. This process has made great strides in not only reducing juvenile criminal recidivism but more importantly creates empathy between the victim and offender, thus breaking growing cycles of violence and escalation, that currently leads to more serious acts of violence. In Pre Katrina New Orleans RJ techniques were shown to have reduced recidivism rates in participants at an incredible rate from 77% down to 6%.
This is why, myself and members of the JustPeace Coalition, met with Memphis City Schools Security Chief Gerald Darling to discuss more viable and progressive solutions to these serious issues. We discussed our concerns about the state of crime within MCS and our mutual desire to stem the growing tide of our young people being sent to Juvenile Court. Chief Darling, who is well versed on the benefits of Restorative Justice, was open , helpful and supportive of our efforts, and is working with our coalition to launch a RJ pilot program this fall in four of our local High Schools.
The JUSTPEACE MEMPHIS Campaign is also working with Jennifer McKissick, Community Service Coordinator for Juvenile Court to open our doors to these young people who are assigned Community Service hours. It is our belief that Community service should be just that, service to their community. A major problem facing those who need community service hours is lack of transportation from where they live to service provider locations. Thus the Mid-South Peace and Justice Center is redoubling it's efforts to match young people who have court assigned community service hours to have the opportunity to serve these hours in their OWN communities.
Our GrowMemphis program is expanding this year from five to ten community gardens in low income neighborhoods. Neighborhoods with little access to fresh produce or grocery stores.This results in a larger population of those at risk for preventable medical risks such as ,Obesity,Heart Disease, Stroke and type 2 diabetes. By allowing area youth to serve their hours within these gardens, they not only avoid the transportation barriers that prevent their consistent compliance with their community service requirements, but also will be more directly invested in the work. As they will see the positive effect that these gardens will have on their neighbors,friends and possibly their own families.It allows them to seamlessly reconnect to their communities, and gain a sense of pride that does not stem from criminal affiliation.
Over the next five months the JUSTPEACE MEMPHIS campaign will be working to engage and educate the public about these reforms, and lobbying our elected officials to share the community's concerns. If anyone has any questions concerns or if you wish to become a part of this campaign please feel free to contact me at anytime about this important issue at Brad@midsouthpeace.org
DEMAND CHANGE
Tell them you support alternatives to incarceration, that we don't need more people behind bars, we need ways to keep nonviolent offenders out of the system in the first place.
Shelby County Board of Commissioners
160 N. Main Street, Suite 450 Memphis, TN 38103
Phone - (901) 545-4301 FAX - (901) 545-4283
We do so much with what you give. Fund this work. It matters.
