#DividedBaltimore, Session #6: The Justice System - Entrepreneur Generations

Tonight's #DividedBaltimore class at the University of Baltimore focused on the criminal justice system, and how it helps perpetuated I divisions within Baltimore. The Criminal Justice system and its role in segregation is a very unwieldy subject for one night of presentations, but the three presenters managed to look at both specific issues (women re-entering society after incarceration, housing issues) and cases (the Veney Brothers raids), while also providing a wide breadth of information of criminal justice in Baltimore since the Civil War.


The first speaker was UB Professor Michele Cotton, whose primary focus was on civil courts, specifically housing courts. I learned a great deal during her presentation: firstly, that people who go to civil court have no right to counsel, unlike criminal courts. Unsurprisingly, most of these defendants are poor, and Cotton emphasized how these civil cases have a profoundly negative impact on their families, housing, and finances, and how a lot of people's downfalls begin in civil courts. She also presented some really shocking statistics, such as the following: last year, 150,000 cases were filed against tenants by landlords in Baltimore in the civil courts; in a city with only 250,000 total households, this is an astounding number. And next to do that is the fact that less than 1000 cases were filed by tenants against landlords for bad housing conditions. 250,000 to 1000. Crazy.

Presenters Seabrook, Cotton, and Henderson on far left.

The explanation that Cotton offered was that most tenants in Baltimore are low income and people of color, and that there's just not enough information out there about how to litigate against landlords (slumlords?). She then offered several solutions, which she described as "somewhat radical": to use trained, educated non-lawyers to help (since lawyers are rarely provided); to get prejudicial officers to handle cases instead of judges, to help manage the tremendous caseload; and, lastly, to make the process easier for tenants; Cotton described how even efforts to change forms to make them more user-friendly has been difficult.

The next speaker was Professor Jose Anderson, and I learned so much during his presentation on Crime and Justice in Baltimore. Professor Anderson is currently writing a book about Charles Hamilton Houston, Thurgood Marshall's mentor, and Anderson began his presentation with a Houston quotation: "So goes Maryland, so goes the nation." Maryland, Anderson reminded us, was a slave state, but it also had the largest number of free people of color, plus the largest railroad in the world and some of its largest industries. In Maryland, the need to control people was based upon issues of commerce, so the Fugitive Slave Act was not just slaves, but also persons who had committed crimes. Laws were very harsh. And these Maryland laws spread around the country.

Professor Anderson continued, with this hypothetical: "If I could arrest you of a petty crime, then I could put you back in the condition of servitude, meaning you could work for free for the government. Big incentive to put people back into the criminal justice system." It wasn't until the 1930s when this practice stopped.

He went on to describe the Veney Brothers case in 1964. This particular case involved a robbery that went bad on Greenmount Avenue on Christmas Eve. In responding to the robbery, one police officer, Sergeant Jack Cooper, was killed by the brothers, and another, Joseph Maskell, was stabbed. In searching for the Veney brothers, the police department knocked down the doors of "hundreds" of Black households. 

Veney Brother Raids at 700 Poplar Grove Street (Baltimore Sun photo)

Professor Anderson used the example of the Veney brothers searches to illustrate how courts can improve themselves and get better, and this creates real social change surrounding criminal justice in Baltimore and beyond. In this particular case, the NAACP attempted to get an injunction to stop these illegal searches, and the first judge agreed that the searches were illegal, but put it back on the police to monitor themselves. But they didn't and the searches continued. But the next judge, on appeal, judge Simon Sobeloff (1894-1973), stopped the raids. He was a judge of Jewish descent (and an alum of City College) from Baltimore, and, according to Anderson, probably cost him a seat on the Supreme Court with his strong rulings against injustice, but did it anyway. Anderson cited another great judge, Frank Kaufman, who was another judge who made local governments do what they were required to do, asking for equality in the juvenile justice system.

Judge Simon Sobeloff, a champion of social justice

Professor Anderson then discussed a modern example, that of the drug-free zones which were brought about by the city council, signed into the law by mayor Kurt Schmoke. At the time, Professor Anderson was public defender, and, as an advocate, he didn't like the tool very much, as it just moved the crime around. However, it was a solution, even though it was a half-solution. Finding the balance between providing safety and enforcing law, preserving rights and upholding law, is always the challenge of the courts.  

Professor Anderson's solutions to improve justice:
1) Police training, remove pride from the process
2) Be mindful it's not always the leaders who have the answers
3) Deference to community leaders and block captains

The third speaker was Renita Seabrook of the University of Baltimore, and her presentation was entitled From Victim 2 "Shero". Professor Seabrook's work focuses on formally incarcerated female inmates and their re-entry to society.

Professor Seabrook began with numbers, reporting that there are currently 111,287 women locked in state and prison federal prison. White women compose the majority, but black women are sentenced significantly higher (115 per 1000,000), Hispanic/Latino women (64 per 100,000), and white women (49 per 1000,000).

Professor Seabrook: From Victim to "Shero"

Why has this happened? A number of reasons: the war on drugs, mandatory minimums, get tough on crime policies. According to Professor Seabrook, African American women are disproportionately represented in the criminal justice system and generally receive longer sentences than their white counterparts. They represent 13% of US population and 50% of incarcerated population.

What are the pathways that lead women to incarcerated? street women, harmed and harming women, battered women, drug-connected women, and economically motivated women.

Professor Seabrook then went back to the title of her presentation.

From Victim: What are social injustices and challenges they face?

1) lack of basic education

2) life skills

3) support systems

4) employment opportunities

5) housing

Challenges: they are likely to return to one of the six poorest Bmore neighborhoods:

1) Sandown/Wichester

2) Waverly

3) Edmondson Village

4) Belair-Eidson

5) Park Heights

6) Walbrook-Forest Park

Demosgrapically, residents in these neighbhords are predominantly AA female-headed households with children under the age of 18

And how can we create a "Shero"?

1) Stimulate social change

2) Promote social justice

3) Establish partnerships with non-profit and governmental agencies

Professor Seabrook offered several community organizations that are committed to improving the lives of formerly incarcerated women:
1) Alternative Directions, Inc. (Seabrook's organization, Helping Others 2 Win, operates under this one)
2) Marion House
3) Tuerk House
4) Baltimore City Mayor's Office, ReEntry Program
5) New Life Program for Ex-Offender Women, Inc.

Next week's session is about Health Care in Baltimore, and how it reinforces segregation. The class is at 5:30 on Mondays at UB. More information here: http://ift.tt/1k1koPH

from Epiphany in Baltimore http://ift.tt/1Na8bSr #DividedBaltimore, Session #6: The Justice System - Entrepreneur Generations

Posted by Entrepreneur Generations

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