Seattle City Council Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development & Arts Lunch & Learn 12/6/18

Greetings, and welcome to the December 6th special meeting of the Civil Rights, Utilities, Economic Development, and Arts Committee.

I'm Lisa Herbold.

I'm the chair of the committee and council member for District 1, West Seattle, and South Park.

And I'm joined by Council Members O'Brien, Bagshaw, and Council President Harrell.

Thank you all for joining.

Today's topic for our Lunch and Learn is a subject that the Council has been working to address with community members and the Office of Civil Rights since the adoption of a 2015 Council resolution.

This resolution was spearheaded by now Council President Harrell in 2015, and this resolution established a work group that is led by the Office for Civil Rights, and it is focused on developing policies and strategies to strengthen the city's efforts to assist with reentry after incarceration.

The resolution itself requested a report to the City Council.

with recommended changes, changes recommended by the workgroup itself.

Also looking at possible ordinances, strategies, or programs that the city should consider.

The scope of work for the reentry workgroup consisted of four main tasks.

And those main tasks will guide the structure of the report that will hear from the workgroup what their recommendations around those four main tasks are.

So without further ado, I would ask that the presenters and members of the workgroup come and join us at the table.

And I think we have about 14, did you say, people joining us?

So we're going to be doing some scooching.

Well done.

We are all assembled.

So the folks that

before us now are members of the work group and the work group itself was comprised of people who have engagement and awareness of the criminal legal system.

We've got representatives in the work group from King County social justice organizations and designees of to departments.

I'm going to turn it over to you guys to introduce yourself and let us know what your affiliation is and how you come to the work group.

Hi, I'm Alex Bergstrom.

I work at Columbia Legal Services and did some organizing with the Fair Coalition around fair chance housing.

My name is Lalitha Williams and I'm a community member.

I'm Cadman Kale.

I'm from Seattle Office for Civil Rights.

Erica Pablo with the Seattle Office for Civil Rights.

I'm Marcos Martinez.

I'm the Executive Director at Casa Latina.

I'm Jenna Robert.

I'm with the City Attorney's Office in our pre-filing diversion programs.

I'm Carol Ann Sanders.

I'm with King County's Behavioral Health and Recovery Division, and I'm in the Divergent Reentry Service section.

I'm here to provide technical assistance as a collaborative partner to the City of Seattle.

She said a lot.

I'm Eddie Howard, represent Urban League, as well as King County Credible Messengers Initiative, as well as Black Prisoners Caucus, as well as the Progress Pushers.

I'm Pamela Stearns, and I am representing the King County Native American Leadership Council.

I'm also a person living with criminal history.

My name is George Farrell.

I work at Chief Seattle Club, and I'm also a member of the community.

Thank you all for joining us.

Oh, yes.

Also, I'm Sidney Wilson, Volcker, Washington.

Also, Office of Civil Rights and Black Prisoners Caucus and a member of the community also.

Thank you, Sidney.

So who would like to start?

So I'll start us off.

Thank you again for having us.

We're really excited to talk with you all today.

And I know we briefed you all last year on some of our preliminary recommendations.

So we're really excited to finally have a report for you all and to talk about it.

So this is just a roadmap for our discussion today.

We'll do a brief introduction, which originally you've met some of the folks here today, and you've met them outside in the community as well.

And we'll give some brief background and overview of the workgroup.

And then the chunk of the time will focus on key strategies.

Some of the $250,000 that has been allocated to this work, we'll talk about that.

I can't take this.

My life story in a little chair at a big table.

Thank you.

And then lastly, we'll just give a brief update on the legal financial debt study.

And so, as folks introduce themselves, there are some folks that aren't here today and some that are sitting in the audience, but this is just an overview and list of all of our workgroup members.

So, a few other affiliations that haven't introduced themselves, we have Rich Cook from Seattle Municipal Court that was on the workgroup, Gordon Hill, who may still be arriving and may sit at the table if he does arrive, from the Public Defender's Office, and Kim Mozoff from the I'm sorry.

Disability Rights Washington.

Yeah, I'm sorry.

Disability Rights Washington.

So as Erica said, we were last here about a year ago to provide preliminary recommendations.

And I know that you've all received, or all the council members have received, the final report.

And so we're going to emphasize some key strategies and kind of move along for some of the ones that we may have briefed a year ago.

As Council Member Herbold, you shared, in 2015, the Council unanimously passed the resolution that brought our work group together.

And on behalf of the work group, I just want to express a lot of gratitude to the Council and to the Mayor to establishing this kind of work group that allows city representatives, county representatives, and community members to work together to develop recommendations.

And it's been a long process, and we so appreciate your attendance and support of this briefing and throughout this entire process.

The resolution required the workgroup to do four things, and these are the four things that it asked the workgroup to do, and it was a pretty broad scope that was given to us.

I will say I think we did a good job of doing almost everything.

The one thing that we didn't get to is a real comprehensive fiscal analysis to provide you exact numbers of how to fund all of these strategies.

And perhaps if we had more time and more capacity, we would have been able to do that.

But we wanted to get this to you regardless.

As you can see, the workgroup is comprised of a lot of different organizations, a lot of different community members, and the workgroup worked hard to center and elevate the voices of those who have been impacted by incarceration in criminal history and I think I want to I want to highlight and illuminate that fact that you have city representatives and county representatives sitting together and yet really putting their own agendas aside and providing technical assistance so those community members who have lived experience can push all of these recommendations forward.

inform the city and the county and the other community representatives about what are best practices in supporting folks living with criminal history.

So I want to again emphasize that those folks who are representing the city or representing the county or other community agencies at the table, really provided only technical assistance, and these recommendations don't represent any city department, any county department, or any singular community organization, but it's really the development and thought of the work group as a whole.

Because the scope of work was so broad, the work group spent about six months really developing principles that would help us narrow down what we were gonna focus on.

And the work group came up with these four principles to help kind of give us boundaries about what we should focus on, the work group.

in all of its recommendations, centered race, tried to address structural barriers, tried to decriminalize poverty and our health needs, or worked within that framework, and then really looked at what does the city have control over, rather than looking at state or regional level, the power in the city, where does that lie, and where can we leverage that to really make changes within our own criminal legal system?

One of the tasks that the resolution tasked this work group was was do a fiscal analysis on our investments for folks reentering the community.

And due to capacity, we weren't able to do that work.

So we're hoping that's one of our recommendations moving forward is Perhaps this new council position or some of the work that OCR is doing is to look into that and do that fiscal analysis more deeply But initially we looked into what our current investments are and that was the initial task and so we looked and saw that the city currently invests in 2.7 about 2.7 million in re-entry support and which kind of varies because we kind of looked at organizations that are doing the work and kind of got to that total but we know about 20 million is used to incarcerate misdemeanant defendants of Seattle Municipal Court and so moving forward and keeping our recommendations in mind.

We want the work group to urge the city to move forward from something we know causes significant harm, like incarceration, to moving towards restorative and effective responses that build stable and safe communities.

I have a quick question.

Yeah?

doubt very much that any jurisdiction is balancing these investments in the way that we would like to see in an ideal world, but I'm wondering if there's a desired or advised ratio that you maybe either heard from an academic perspective or a public policy perspective or maybe there are actually jurisdictions who have identified goals for that ratio.

Yeah, I don't want to speak for folks too, but so feel free if other work members have ideas.

This is something we challenge ourselves with and struggled with.

I think from a lot of our perspectives is any investment that's going into the criminal legal system and incarceration is harmful.

So any way we can minimize that harm is helpful.

As far as totals, I don't know if we've been able to do that work and have details in that way.

Thanks.

And so this is another overview of the strategies we're going to talk about today.

And so the report focused on seven strategies.

And some of the strategies we're going to move through pretty briefly, because we had a prioritization of what we cared about most.

And given the limited time we have with you all, we wanted to focus on a few.

But here is listing all of the strategies we have.

So one is support for indigenous community healing.

Two is support for reentry healing and navigation.

Three is increased economic opportunities.

Four is increased housing access.

Five is reimagined cities use of jails.

Six is decriminalize and divert.

And the last one is the reentry work group next phase.

So as Erica mentioned, we have the seven strategies, and we would like to prioritize two of those strategies, and you'll hear more about that in a moment.

We want to acknowledge that Council, in its budget, has set aside $250,000 for implementation, and we'll have more to say about that as well.

Oh yeah, we want to also acknowledge and thank Council for ending the Snohomish County Jail Contract.

That was actually one of our recommendations and we feel that it's extremely beneficial, so we wanted to just acknowledge that and thank Council for taking that step.

And also, we are recommending a commitment to a Seattle criminal legal system alignment driven by principles that are developed by the workgroup.

And if I could say more about that, Seattle's criminal legal system processed 9,700 misdemeanor case filings in 2017, resulting in approximately 63,000 nights in jail.

So this has obviously an enormous impact on the city and it's felt by community and constitutes a significant portion of the city's budget.

Because the city's criminal legal system requires involvement of SMC, the city attorney's office, the legislative department, and the executive department, all four independently elected branches should work closely together to build a coherent strategy, one that's coordinated, and that is in alignment with identifiable values and objectives that are developed in partnership with communities that have been most impacted by the criminal legal system.

Though coordination is often an indicator of an effective legal system, the Seattle Reentry Workgroup supports increased coordination only if the system is driven by, in a way that promotes trust and partnership with those communities that are disproportionately represented throughout the criminal legal system.

So in order to reach this goal, the reentry workgroup supports community engagement by judges, prosecutors, and court staff in a way that ensures that the criminal legal system benefits Seattle's most vulnerable residents and visitors.

So, how better coordination is developed?

First of all, by developing goals.

The first step to achieving better coordination would include an opportunity for those most impacted by racism and incarceration to share their own definition of safety and accountability to help inform the objectives of that criminal legal system.

by developing partnerships.

While the City of Seattle must develop formalized communication between pathways between departments and across jurisdiction, the first priority must be to develop paths and partnerships with communities that are most impacted by racism and incarceration.

Also developing pathways creates sustainable opportunities for formerly incarcerated individuals to obtain city jobs where they're able and in position to help shape and inform the city's criminal legal system.

The benefits of increased coordination can include dedicated paths for communities most impacted by racism and incarceration to inform criminal legal policies and reforms, development of non-criminalization approach to violence, substance use, mental health needs, trauma, and poverty, Development of more efficient communication with other jurisdictions that would increase person-centered and restorative responses, such as warrant quashing, alternatives to incarceration, and better tools to connect individuals with the services that they need to address root causes.

Also, a framework to redistribute resources from law enforcement, courts, and incarceration to community-based services that support those most impacted by racism and incarceration.

In addition, increased alignment with other city initiatives and strategies that aim for healthy and accountable relationships with communities most impacted by racism and incarceration.

In addition, a means to measure progress and outcomes and to hold systems accountable through benchmarks.

And lastly, by prioritizing city representation on state and regional workgroups aimed at criminal justice reform.

and re-entry support, the city can develop collaborative partnerships, share innovations and solutions, integrate systems, and share responsibility and increase accountability.

Thank you.

Before we move on, I thought maybe this might be a good chance for, not to put you on the spot, Council Member O'Brien, but I know you are working with Council Member Gonzalez in leading the effort around a resolution to state and set out some goals for criminal justice reform.

And maybe if you could talk a little bit about that.

It's a bit of a work in progress.

I think I'll just reiterate what you said and highlight that during the budget process, we heard a lot from community members consistent with some of the things here.

And I think we're trying to craft a path for, you know, the city council and the city of Seattle as a whole, you know, as an institution collectively that's doing harm.

for having conversations with community members and trying to, you know, frankly address a lot of things you raised.

I'm curious to hear from folks at the table, actually, to kind of help inform what a collaborative approach might look like.

I know there's a lot of institutions that have their you know, influence over this entire system.

And it sounds like some of those institutions were members of the work group.

What I can tell you is during the budget process, I mean, there were things that came up that were on a relatively short timeline.

But the reaction from a lot of folks was there are a variety of opinions.

And it seemed like we were a long ways from consensus on what solutions were.

And this report seems like you've done a good job of building more consensus.

And so I want to figure out how to pivot us to where there is consensus and build off that, as opposed to starting at a spot where it feels more adversarial.

One of the things I think we're struggling with with the resolution at the moment, but there's been work on it.

And as Council President Harrell reminded me, as well, their council included some funds in the budget this year so that we could actually have a dedicated analyst on staff who will serve as a point person on some of these issues for the council and for the community in working with the executive and this reconstituted criminal justice, what is it called?

And I think that's what we're trying to do.

The yet to be reconstituted criminal justice work group that I think is both will have an internal component as well as an external component.

Thank you.

I want to say something about that.

First, let me say I read the full report and the executive summary.

Usually I just read the executive summary.

But I read the full report.

And it was very, very rich with information.

And so whatever you were paid to do that work, just double it.

Write that down.

It was an incredible piece of work, and I want to thank all of the community members for doing that.

Relative to the legislation position we created, one of the, I think, the biggest problems that the city has had is that really no one sort of owned this work.

I mean, no one's success was dependent upon any outcomes on doing a good job in this work.

And so we know that both the city, the state has a reentry council, the county's doing some work.

It's sort of scattered.

Such a complex issue, by the way.

And this is not meant in a criticism report.

But the report sometimes does exactly what I do, and that is when you really are looking at the challenges of a person reentering.

And I recall the criticism of talking about reentering and the concept of it assumes they're going right back to a great situation without addressing what they're going back to.

But I don't know what else to say.

So I'm going to say reentering today.

That there's so many moving pieces that it's When we're trying to look at the barriers to the reentry, it's also very seductive to go to what caused the incarceration to begin with.

And so your report actually dovetailed into the causes, but you have to look at the causes because otherwise you're just looking at the results of the policies.

So that's why I thought it was a good report tackling both areas.

And I have to admit when we first started talking about the work in 2015, I was focused on the back end.

Just, I have too many friends that we grew up with that would call me and just tell me their stories about they couldn't even get an application in and these kinds of things.

And so, but the report I just wanted to say was very well done and I look forward to, we're going to turn this into some serious work this year.

So, I don't want you to think it was just going to sit on someone's shelf.

This is going to be an action document we're going to use and I look forward to it.

Thank you.

Well, thank you for saying that.

Hopefully, the rest of the discussion can help guide that as well.

Well, the cameras were off when I said it.

So you saw our seven priorities, but we wanted to highlight two in particular, which you can see here.

The support for indigenous community healing and support for reentry, healing, and navigation, and there's certainly some overlap between those two, but they're separate in the report, and you've seen that.

Given that the amount of money committed to this work so far is relatively modest, we actually thought that it would be most effective to narrow a little bit further, and so we want to really pick one of these to lift up in particular.

And so our recommendation is that the most effective use of the $250,000 is to spend it on support for the re-entering indigenous communities specifically.

Through our work, we discovered a shortage of government support for culturally relevant resources in this community.

And in the interest of race equity, we feel a need to respond to the targeting of our indigenous families by the criminal legal system.

a system that plays an active role in the suppression and denial of indigenous histories.

We therefore recommend that the city fund pilot programs focused on healing and navigation for indigenous individuals returning from incarceration and living with criminal records.

These programs should be created by and for the people most directly impacted.

And for what that might look like, I'll pass it off to George.

And then I think Eddie will follow that with some more information on navigation.

How are you guys doing today?

My name is George Farrell.

I'm a member of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe.

I am an individual who has lived experience, I guess you could say.

I went to prison just after my 16th birthday, and I gave him 17 and a half years.

I came to Seattle in 2016 and was released out of the work, released down here on 4th Avenue.

Some of the things that we're talking about here and that we've been discussing is there is a major lack in, I'll just say re-injury as a whole.

But for the native peoples and indigenous peoples, you know, there is nothing there.

We don't have any programs that are set up for that.

to be able to give mentorship, to be able to guide these individuals that are coming out of there in the right direction.

And not only that, we don't have the proper mentorship to be able to get these guys into a position to succeed.

And I say that because Our recidivism rate, we'll just use some language that people throw around a lot.

We'll say recidivism rate.

We had the highest recidivism rate out of everybody.

And it has only went up.

So I'm going to say that there are a lot of programs out there and a lot of things that do individuals justice and do them good.

But there is nothing that has affected the Native community to this day.

A lot of the things that we do inside of the prisons are exactly the same that we do out here.

And it is very important for these guys that are coming out of there, you know, we have a few things in there that people out here, they strive to get, they strive to receive.

Our camaraderie in there is unlike any other group.

There's probably some individuals out here that have been to the joint and they see it.

Our groups are tighter than anybody else's group.

And it's because we all come from the same place and we all do the same activities.

We do the same functions.

We all go and we all pray the same and we get that suffering the same way.

And There has yet to be anybody or any group that has stepped up and said, hey, we'll take the weight on of catching these individuals that come out here.

Now, out of like the 1,200, 1,300 people that come to King County, you might have 10 or 11 that are indigenous.

Why can't we focus some funds on getting those 10 or 12 people set up on the right track to do the right things.

And, I mean, if you really look at it from, like, logistics, would you spend $3,000 on a person for a year?

Or would you rather have this person go back to prison and spend $30,000 to $40,000 on them for a year to house them when You know, we could have made a small investment now and made a difference in the future.

Some of the other things that we do, there was a lot of individuals out here in the community that have the lived experience and are looking for the opportunity to be able to step up to the plate and do that work.

And they need that opportunity.

Um, a lot of the work that I do just at the Chief Seattle Club, like I do outreach down there and I see many individuals at the encampments that are on the side of the road that have been to the joint that I've seen in the closed custodies in the medium, the minimum and at the work releases and they're all back doing the same thing because nobody caught him when they came out.

Nobody was there to give them that mentorship and that understanding of, hey man, this is what you need to do.

Because inside the prisons, that's all that we had, that's all that we do.

When people come in there and they're of the younger generation, the older generation steps up and takes them under the ring and shows them how to do things.

You know, how to function properly.

And we need that same concept out here.

You know, out here, I'm sure that everybody's been to like powwows and stuff like that.

I'm gonna tell you, it practically took an act of Congress for me to go to a powwow when I was in the work release.

It's so crazy, and I promise you, I think I told you guys this before, but it was like, all the stuff that I was doing in the close custody setting, That's aside from the max being in the IMU in the hole, I was doing more stuff in there than I was doing at the work release.

So everything that I knew to be good, that fed my spirit, that helped me to understand what it is that I need to do, and that was culturally relevant, I couldn't do.

I wasn't allowed to do.

And to me, that made no sense.

And I didn't have a organization or a group that I could look to when I came out here to Seattle.

I don't have any family out here in Seattle.

When I came out here in 2016, it was just me.

And there's, you know, everybody that I talked to that's out here, they're coming from different reservations.

Just because I'm Native, that doesn't mean that, you know, that this is my reservation.

I'm still a visitor here.

You know, so my reservation is in South Dakota and we don't get no support out here.

So, you know, what this is asking for is that opportunity.

And not only that, but it's a call to do something bigger than just that.

You know, the opportunity is to build and build some more and build it until we get it right.

Because right now the situation that we're going through and the cookie cutter is not gonna work for us.

That's really what I need to say.

Thank you, George.

I appreciate you making, I think what some people call the business case for these investments, but really what's more important to me and I think to my colleagues on the council and in the executive, aside from the business case, that these investments make sense, what really matters is that it's just the right thing to do.

So thank you for sharing your experience with us.

I have one person that I'd like to have say a few words real quick, if that's okay.

Oh, you got your own mic.

I got my own mic.

Hello, my name is Pamela Stearns, and I'm a member of the Central Council of Tlingit and Haida Indian Tribes of Alaska.

I am also a person who is formerly incarcerated and living with a criminal history today.

I had the fortunate experience to meet Mr. Farrell here, who has served as a mentor to me.

In 2016, I reentered from the state prison system, where I was handed down an 18-month sentence.

And I should probably share just a little bit about my story.

By the age of four, I was already abandoned and abused and I come from a very violent history.

which led me to run away from my culture and make Seattle my home.

But by the time I was four, I was already in the trauma state.

And earlier, Councilman Harrow talked about what are the challenges and the barriers.

As indigenous people, we are returning and reclaiming our history.

So we're at various...

journeys of reclaiming who we are as true Indian people.

I went into the state prison in 2015, and that devastated my entire family.

We barely made it.

I don't know how we made it, but we made it.

There was, like George said, there was no, I am your example of a little girl that fell through the cracks.

There was no system.

The system is not there to support indigenous people.

It is time that we make the system fit us.

And the only reason I am sitting here today and enjoying my life is because I have this mentorship I have a group of people that I can go to.

I was taught the Lakota way inside that state prison.

I attended a sweat lodge, a neat piece, they call it.

And then when I got out, there was no system in place for me.

I did find George and I joined this drum circle called Anjidawa.

And it was there that I did the healing.

The healing that I needed this entire, my entire life.

That I have been walking the red road and trying to fit into these systems that don't really work for me.

So, I'm just here to express my...

my perspective as an indigenous woman, and the women inside those walls need help.

I've seen it with my own eyes.

That was an eye-opening experience that I will never forget.

The women need help inside those prisons.

I see mamas, grandmothers, aunties, teenagers behind those walls that don't get access.

We didn't get the access to the crafts or the nipis.

I had to fight to be able to join that sweat lodge.

So I'm just here to ask you to support the indigenous healing.

Thank you.

And I just want to say one thing before we turn it over to Eddie.

and all of our elders in all the communities, whether you're black, you're native, you're from the South, all of the elders, they have always told me, and my mama told me this, that the only thing that is gonna heal the trauma is the culture.

That is the only thing that has sustained us forever.

Those are the things that we're trying to focus on.

Thank you.

Hello.

Good to be here.

Thanks for having us again.

Bruce Hill, we're going to keep you to your word on what you said earlier.

My name is Eddie Howard.

First of all, I do want to say it is an honor and a pleasure for me to be here, because I think back to old times when I was incarcerated, having these conversations on the yard, wishing I could be a part of the conversation when it comes to us, individuals who have experienced this thing we call incarceration.

And now that I am, I do appreciate the opportunity.

Franklin Smith, said, re-entry begins the day that you get incarcerated, right?

And it reminds me of the five Ps of proper preparation prevents poor performance, right?

And we know this, proper preparation prevents poor performance.

But unfortunately, many individuals who are incarcerated are not being properly prepared before their release.

I went to Lakewood, with some of my group, some of my youth leaders.

We've got Irene and Shadi.

Raise your hands, be known, be seen.

Yeah.

So, they're a part of our Credit Messenger group at FedAway, and we took them to Lakewood to speak on these policies when it comes to, you know, the impact that it's having on youth, the JRA, and things of that nature.

And there was three boys who were at the group home who had just got out from Green Hill.

One had served four years and he had three months left, I believe.

The other one had served like two years and had two days left.

And the other one had served about a year and he had about three months left.

And I asked all of them, who has a release plan?

Well, I have an idea of what I want to do.

No, no, no.

Who has a written release plan?

When we talk about proper preparation prevents poor performance, there's nothing that's established in these facilities for these kids to get out to, for these adults to get out to.

I also teach life skills and job skills at the Regional Justice Center Jail.

Just came from my group today.

It was our final day.

We did mock job interviews.

The men did great.

Anyway, Three of the men said, I've never had a job interview a day in my life.

This job interview right here in jail was the first one in my life.

When we talk about proper preparation prevents poor performance, we have to have, forget a program, forget a class, we need transformational processes.

And we need transformational people to be a part of that process, to lead that process, not individuals who, It doesn't have that experience.

It doesn't have that lived experience.

Another thing I wanted to speak on as far as what exactly re-entry looks like, my personal experience, I served 12 and a half years in prison from ages 18 to 31. I'm 33 now.

I remember, what was that like for me, right?

I remember thinking like, damn, what am I gonna do when I get out?

There was no transformational processes there.

Then I got to Moreau Camp.

The facility itself is not, they don't have no programs that are led by transformational people who have that lived experience.

So a guy by the name of Augustine Cedar took it upon himself to create the Ready for Release class.

Waiting for release class is a job readiness and life skills class.

The same curriculum I'm teaching now at the jail.

I took the class and it shocked me.

It changed my whole perspective, right?

I was just telling the girls on the way here, Les Brown said it best, you can't see the picture if you're in the frame.

Somebody else may have to come and put that mirror up and show you, hey, this is what's going on.

This is maybe what you need to do.

We become hamsters on hamsters wheel.

We think we're moving, but we're really not going nowhere, right?

So, who came up to me and was able to put that mirror in my face was Augustine Cedar.

Took his class, loved it.

He said, hey, I'm getting ready to get out.

I want you to continue with this.

I said, whoa, I don't know about teaching no classes.

And he said, sometimes it takes somebody else to see something in you that you don't yet see within yourself.

We don't have people around us, unfortunately, in these institutions that had a mentality.

They do look at, oh, you're a criminal.

We're going to treat you like one.

You're a number.

We're going to treat you like one.

And as a result, we see the results, right?

We know the statistics.

And this is not coincidence.

So we do need to be more strategic when it comes to doing things differently in order to get different results.

We can't continue to take the traditional routes.

because the traditional routes is not getting us the place that we need to be.

So I took the class, started facilitating it for three years.

And it gave me a different type of understanding when it comes to this thing called life.

I never experienced life as a grown man.

I transitioned from boyhood to manhood in prison.

And we live in a society, unfortunately, where we got false expectations.

You expect a boy or a young girl to be in prison, incarcerated, never knowing what the right track looks like.

Never shown, seen, heard about nothing.

And all of a sudden, I'm expected to get out, get on the right track.

What is the right track?

Ain't nobody showing me nothing.

Proper preparation prevents poor performance.

Who's preparing me, right?

I got out and immediately was greeted in work release.

I wanted to go to school.

That's what I wanted to do, educate myself further.

And I was told, this is work release, not school release.

So when you got that type of mentality by staff in the work release, who's telling you right off fourth, right?

This is work release, not school release.

Wait a minute.

Now you want to prevent me from preparing myself to succeed, but I'm expected to succeed, right?

So these are the things, these are barriers, these are some of the barriers that we do face.

Shout out to a lot of individuals who's still incarcerated right now, who's still fighting the fight when it comes to bettering themselves.

Black Prisoners Caucus, you got, like you said, the native groups and all of the groups who's really creating a transformational process in there, right?

Again, Augustine Cedar created this curriculum.

The facilities didn't come with this, right?

So that's on the inside.

Now, when we get out, Organizations who often provide assistance or this type of navigation are not employing formerly incarcerated individuals to do this work.

That's a big issue.

Now, we can't mention that without talking about the poverty pimping going on, right?

We can't mention that without talking about the mentality that's tainted.

They're worried about the object opposed to the results.

We got to be able to put individuals in positions to get results led by individuals who's already been affected by that same corrupt system.

I don't believe it's a corrupt system actually.

I don't believe it's broken at all.

It's working exactly where it's designed to do so.

But I will say this, I don't want to take too much time, but in conclusion, We say in the Credible Messengers training that it takes a spider to repair its own web, right?

The spider can't go to the butterfly, can't go to the moth for the mosquito to do its work, right?

Meaning those of us who's been infected, we have to go to those of us who's been infected in order to see what the result will be or should be, right?

Today, I'm happy to say, yes, I went to prison as a teenager, got out when I was 31. And now I do got my own business.

We're going to be going to Green Hill.

I'm not just talking about a transformational process.

I'm bringing a transformational process to the institutions.

Absolutely.

And those who those who I'm working with are doing just that too, because we all know and believe that everybody has the ability to progress.

Forget change.

That's going to happen anyway.

Progress in life.

But there can be no progression if we don't have individuals around us that's in certain positions to help us progress, to show us what progression looks like.

I'll end with that.

Amen.

Can you just, before we move on, just a quick, really brief thumbnail sketch of what a curriculum looks like?

What are the important components?

Great question.

I've been creating curriculum, actually.

And what are the components?

Number one, you got to have, you got to talk about, when we talk about life skills, we need to be discussing the importance of forgiveness, trauma.

PTSD, what does that look like?

We need to be discussing the importance of effective communication, generational curses, the fact that your mom, nobody in your family that's a male graduated high school.

So, subconsciously, how does that play out in your life?

How does that manifest in your life?

We need to have real-deal dialogue within that first phase, I would say.

I would say the transition should definitely be to job readiness, right?

Not just how to get the job, because we can funnel a lot of people into a lot of positions that they don't want to be in.

Not just how to get the job, but how do you keep the job?

How do you create value for yourself?

And how do you put yourself in a situation where you can now create value for others?

Right?

So that's the job readiness piece.

Like I said, my job interviews.

We just did my job interviews today.

I've never had a job interview a day in my life.

I can relate to that.

My first job interview I had was when I was incarcerated, taking ready for release class.

Right?

So that definitely needs to be implemented.

We also need to have what I call results-based projects.

We need to, you know, we all have these issues.

We all see the issues of the world.

But if we're not able to be part of the solution, to present a solution, then how are we going to actually address what needs to be addressed?

So I would say results-based projects.

And lastly, leadership.

I was just listening to, who was I listening to?

Les Brown, Dr. Miles Monroe, on the way here.

And I believe what he was saying.

Everybody's a leader.

Sometimes we just experience things in life that taint us so much so, to the point to where that leadership is now unseen.

We can't even see it no more, right?

So we need processes that's really going to draw out the leadership in individuals and boost them to the point of greatness that they was meant to be.

Unfortunately, we live in a society that will rather press you down, opposed to lift you up.

And that's unfortunate.

Thank you.

You're welcome.

Council members, my name is Caroline Sanders and I work for King County.

I'm in the diversion and reentry service section and I just like to share with you a little bit of my team's experience managing a reentry services program for the county and more specifically how the recommendations from this work group have informed the way that we have changed our RFP process and the way that the program looks overall.

The Diversion and Reentry Service Section has administered a reentry program that serves all of King County's jails, the seven jails, since 2008. And this program has historically been focused around the APIC model, which is an evidence-based model of reentry support for individuals living with mental health needs or substance abuse needs that was developed by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Service Administration.

So we've been focusing on that particular population, and there's been a strong emphasis in connecting people to inpatient treatment.

To this end, Sound Mental Health has historically contracted with us for this program.

And through this program, we've been able to serve roughly 300 people per year with an annual budget of approximately $400,000.

However, based on the learnings from this group and our participation in this work group, as well as the county's commitment to racial equity, we've significantly modified the program design as well as the RFP process before we reissue the RFP this year.

And our team's largest takeaway was that if we truly believe that the people closest to the problems are closest to the solutions, then it's not actually the county's role to dictate what the program looks like.

Rather, it's our role to provide the tools and the support and the relational accountability for communities to be able to create the reentry services that they want and need for themselves.

So, we've also had to work to identify and remove the barriers that we have put in place that make it really difficult for the communities who have been doing this very same reentry work for decades with no recognition and no compensation to be able to participate in a government contracting process.

So, in order to do that, we've implemented a number of changes.

We simplified the RFP language.

We removed a lot of the legal language and government jargon and changed that format to make it more readable and accessible to the audiences.

We increased the length of service for this program from 30 days to 90 days.

We partnered with community consultants to be able to provide free technical assistance to groups who wanted to participate in the RFP process but were less familiar with it.

We widened the language to not just include those evidence-based practices, but also promising practices and culturally responsive practices.

We removed the credentialing requirement that mandated that the supervisor for this program be a master's level mental health clinician.

And most importantly, we reframed the RFP itself to be less prescriptive and to let the applicants tell us how they intended to or envisioned connecting people to their self-identified communities.

Our only stipulations were really that the programs be low barrier, that they be trauma-informed, and that they be culturally responsive and sort of holistic in the care that they're providing for people.

So I'll wrap it up there.

But I did want to say that our process is not perfect.

We still have a lot of learning to do and changes that need to be made.

But I think I can speak on behalf of my team in saying that we are immensely grateful to this work group and particularly to the people in this work group who have been harmed by these systems that we're talking about for sharing your wisdom with us and giving us the opportunity to be responsive.

Carolyn, can you tell me whether or not the King County reentry program provides services for Seattle misdemeanants that are in King County Court?

Yes.

OK.

All right.

Just checking, figuring whether or not we might need to buy some of those services.

But if they're covered, great.

Yeah, thanks.

And so I'm just going to do a time check for folks, too.

So it's 102 right now.

There may be some folks on the work group that need to return to work.

So just so you know if there's some shuffling or things like that.

But I'll try to move this along.

So we're going to briefly, I'm just going to briefly talk about the economic opportunity strategy.

And then we're going to focus on the last two, reimagining city jail contracts and decriminalization and diversion.

So just really briefly, these are the, I guess, key economic opportunity strategies that we, I guess, formed in that way.

And I'll briefly talk about the increasing city tech hire opportunities.

So I know Office of Economic Development is already working on some of these strategies and partnering with I guess, tech boot camps that are inside the prisons, so like Unloop, Floodgate.

But some of the barriers that they're experiencing is they have folks that have gone through the boot camp and are ready for internships or employment, but they haven't been successful even getting employment or internships with the city of Seattle, right?

And so we've made a commitment through the Fair Chance Employment Ordinance years ago to have private employers to invest in folks living with criminal history.

but whether we've made that own commitment to invest in those people.

And so there's, I know specifically one staff person in OED that's working on this and having those partnerships.

So I was wanting to lift up that work and hoping we can provide strategies.

So I did briefly want to talk about that.

And then I wanted to move on to, I guess we can briefly talk about strategy for increased housing access.

Sure, our strategies for increased housing access include matching the investments that are currently involved in the criminal justice system to To housing, we believe that it's important that the city is not spending more on incarceration than it is spending on providing housing assistance, and that this would be a critical investment strategy.

We believe that it's important to dedicate a portion of the city's investments to end homelessness to specifically focusing on individuals living with criminal history.

Whenever possible, we think it's important to redefine homelessness for non-HUD funded projects, specifically to include people who are held in institutions for longer than 90 days in that homelessness definition so that they can benefit from homeless services.

We believe it's important to support increased coordination across the Office of Housing and the King County Housing Community Development.

to target and leverage any housing dollars to identify models that work particularly well for this population and then to find increased opportunities for funding and resources and ways to breed those resources.

And finally, we think it's important to work with public housing providers to offer increased technical assistance in complying with the Fair Chance Housing Ordinance.

Some challenges around that one.

Thank you.

So we know that the council has spent a lot of time thinking about the city's relationship to its jail contract, so we're not gonna go much more into that right now, but I did want Lalitha to share some of her insight that helped us get to our understanding about how even short-term stays in jail that you might experience being a misdemeanor defendant in Seattle Municipal Court can have devastating impacts on your life.

Okay, so first I'm gonna say that it's important for people to be able to see themselves in the people that are offering them help.

If I look at you and I don't relate to you, I can't see myself in you.

But when I look at Eddie or somebody looks at me or they look at George, not to take away from the value of formerly educated people or anything like that, but they have to be able to see hope in someone, to think that it's possible for them to make the change.

And that's what we represent and we're grateful to be on this board.

I would like to say that the short term stays in jail.

ruin lives.

So we put them out of, we get them and we put them with the PO that says you got to have a job, you got to do anger management, you got to do parenting classes, you got to do all these things, you got to maintain employment.

So I get a house, I go to my anger management classes, didn't get paid like I was supposed to because sometimes when you don't make a lot of money they play with your money, and then I get arrested for not paying a fine or for any kind of survival crime, right?

And while I'm in jail for three days waiting for somebody to come see me, I lost my job, my housing.

I'm now not in compliance because I have missed classes.

So I'm out, right?

It ruins everything somebody thought they were gonna do or on the right track because one little part didn't work.

Then Now everything is like, what the hell?

Why keep trying, right?

I just can't get out.

It's that rat race that Eddie was talking about, going on that cyclical ride.

I'm gonna bring it more personal for myself.

The last time I was in jail was 1990, what, 91?

I was in jail between 87, 91. I was exposed to human trafficking at 12 years old.

So I lived a life like that, okay?

This particular time period in my life, I was exposed to crack, I was tired, didn't want to sleep with anybody for money, and decided to steal something.

I stole because I didn't want to sleep with a trick, right?

So, 30 years later, I've done Three college degrees.

I taught in a penitentiary.

I taught in juvenile.

I work with youth.

I do gang intervention, domestic violence prevention.

I work with the prosecutor's office on human trafficking.

And I went to apply for a job two months ago.

And they told me they could not hire me because of my 30-year misdemeanor charges.

Right?

I have done community court for municipal court for years, being the speaker with the prosecutor's office.

We speak at the same panels.

But they wouldn't give me a job that was paying $4 or $5 less than what I'm used to.

But because I wanted to be a part of that process as a juvenile assessment team member, right?

I was willing to take the pay cut and take some more hours on another job just so I could be part of the process.

So they could see that it's actually possible.

The lady that tried to hire me was so upset.

The one that recommended me was so upset.

The lady that called me from California was so upset that I was smart enough to say, so check this out.

You say you're doing these services for people that are dealing with human traffic.

I'm gonna use CSEC as an example, right?

That are still in misdemeanor crimes.

But you're telling them I'll help you to a point, because I'm never gonna value you, because you can't be part of my team.

That's like I help black people, but don't bring them home, right?

This is 2018. My name is good in the community.

I worked hard for my name to be good in the community.

And the woman was heartbroken to have to tell me.

She was embarrassed.

But I said, I told them I went and got a job while I was waiting to hear back.

I already knew.

I told the lady, I wouldn't work for an agency like yours.

is full of hypocrisy.

You guys are saying you want to help, but you really don't have any intention of utilizing the people that you're helping.

You don't ever value me.

If you don't value me, you don't count what you don't value.

I always say that about indigenous people.

They don't count you.

There's nothing there because they don't value you.

My babies need to see me.

My community knows what I've been through.

They know the struggles I've had.

When they see me, it represents hope.

I just hope that you, that barrier, that is ridiculous.

All the work, 30 years worth of good is not good enough to overtake three years of drug addicted homelessness.

Are you serious?

What is our community saying?

What are we really saying?

I've worked hard to get my cred, right?

I can go to the block order board room, but they won't hire me though.

Aletha, if that was an employer within the city limits, that might be an issue for our Office of Civil Rights Enforcement unit to take a look at for violation of the Job Assistance Ordinance.

Thank you for sharing that.

I also want to make a quick note.

The story you told at the beginning about the impact of three days in jail on your job, your housing, we have been working custody, we've been working with the King County Defender's Office in developing and providing some funding for, and I think King County has also added to some funding, to do what we're calling civil legal aid.

And so it's specifically designed to help a misdemeanor defendant, in the case of the city's dollars, a misdemeanor defendant, and in those cases where there's a public defender involved in defending, they also can help get legal assistance on the civil issues.

So whether or not it's avoiding an eviction, dealing with an employer, helping get services reinstated or making sure that they're not discontinued, that funding is intended to make sure that there's not greater harm done in other areas of people's life when they're in a position of still defending themselves for something that they haven't even been found guilty of yet.

So, thank you.

You're welcome.

Thank you for telling that story.

Yeah, the truth.

I believe that.

I'd love to talk to you after this.

I'd love to talk to you, too.

Write that down.

Thank you, Lalitha.

Thank you, Lalitha.

I think she teed up the next slide really well in that Council President Harrell at the very beginning talking about we need to go upstream instead of just looking at reentry.

So this work group took it upon itself to really look at, well, why do we even need to have that criminal record in the first place?

And I know that Council has really done a great job in supporting some of those organizations from the beginning.

looking at supporting pre-filing diversion options and pre-arrest options and really trying to look at community organizations as all of the community members today have spoken about.

So we are really appreciative of council's efforts thus far.

Our office is partnering with two organizations, Choose 180 and Legacy of Equality Leadership and Organizing on pre-filing diversion.

The council I know just supported expansion of the LEAD law enforcement-assisted diversion programs, and this work group is really supportive of continuing to expand diversion and decriminalization efforts.

So, even further than diversion, looking first at decriminalization.

We're excited today that we're coming to you with something that you can act on.

You can act on quick if you, you know, desire.

The work group really wanted to look at what is within council's power in terms of the criminal code and honed in on the loitering laws.

So there are two loitering laws, drug traffic loitering and prostitution loitering, that are specific to Seattle Municipal Code.

Looking back to the drug traffic loitering law, if you look to the ordinance, It's from 1992. August of 1992 was the last major modification.

It's the failed war on drugs.

I want to be clear that when the work group is asking to repeal that ordinance to decriminalize drug traffic loitering, that does not affect violations of the Uniform Controlled Substance Acts.

That does not affect actual drug dealing.

What that affects is the loitering law.

And this work group is very concerned about racial disproportionality of that law.

In 1992, community was concerned about racial disproportionality in that law.

And it still went forward and has been on the books since then.

Yes, please.

Please.

Please explain what does that mean, the loitering, as opposed to just drug traffic?

What action would I be doing if I'm loitering?

Yes.

Loitering laws, thank you for that question.

Loitering laws have been challenged all over the country as being unconstitutional for being vague.

They're often, the report lays out a connection to black codes, connections to racist laws around loitering, being you're in a place that people don't want you.

So there's gang loitering laws.

This law, Unfortunately, perhaps from the work group's perspective, it's probably not going to be found unconstitutionally vague.

It's very specific.

It is.

It's a person is guilty of drug traffic loitering if he or she remains in a public place and intentionally solicits, induces, entices, or procures another to engage in unlawful conduct contrary to the uniform controlled substance access of the RCW.

How this generally plays out, because I think that is important, is generally police officers are looking for drug transactions.

And when a person is caught, all the drugs are gone, all the money is gone.

Now that's if you're assuming that it was a correct apprehension and that that officer, what they saw, was in fact what was intended.

And I don't mean this to be a hit on the Seattle Police Department.

They really do train up on this.

But I think intent and impact is also very important, and the work group really showed that.

And so looking at what is the impact of this law, and I think that needs to be looked at a lot closer.

There's major racial disproportionality in drug traffic loitering, both from the arrest and the amount of people, persons of color, spending time in custody that are never charged, as well as those that are charged.

So the work group is really asking that council take a look back at this ordinance and really consider repealing it.

Like I said in 1992, the community raised up and said we're concerned about this.

And so back in 92, the ordinance itself, which I had never seen in an ordinance, actually said that for the first two years after the ordinance, The mayor and SPD were supposed to get together and hold meetings and hear from the community and then report to council about how things were going.

I don't actually know if that happened.

I'm not trying to say it didn't, but that was for the first two years only, so that would have ended in 1994. I think at this point the work group is really pushing council to look at this and say is this something that we still need and want for public safety or is this a remainder of the failed war on drugs that's still having a disproportionate effect on persons of color in this community.

Can you speak to prostitution loitering too and how that plays out on the street?

Absolutely.

So prostitution loitering, again, in somewhat of a similar fashion, prostitution loitering would not affect prostitution.

And so, and when I say prostitution, even being more clear, A lot of the prostitution cases that are charged are undercover officers.

There is this offer and acceptance that occurs, and that is the actual crime of prostitution.

Prostitution loitering, similar to drug traffic loitering, is that where you are lost.

It's a person is guilty of prostitution loitering if he or she remains in a public place and intentionally solicits, induces, entices, or procures another to commit prostitution.

I will say that prostitution loitering can be charged and is charged against both those soliciting the sex as well as those offering the sex.

And so it can be used in that way.

But again, with the loitering, I just want to point out, that does not affect the ability to have still on the books prostitution and sexual exploitation.

This is the kind of you just missed those two crimes.

So this is the lower level.

And that's, I think, where the work group's concern comes in about, Is this something we need still?

Or are we seeing racial disproportionality here?

And do we want to take action against a loitering law?

Council Member Baksha.

Thank you.

And thank you all so much for coming.

George and Eddie, all of you for telling your stories.

I'm really grateful.

I'm going to have to excuse myself.

But a couple of quick points.

First, the work you've done is extremely valuable.

And Lalitha, I I would like to get your contact information so I can follow up.

A couple of things that we have talked about literally years now is our landlord liaison program with the opportunity to get people into housing and the way it works, and it comes by different names, but it ties in so well to what you're talking about.

coordinating job training, opportunities to be able to, when you leave your incarcerated status, that you have a place to go.

And the way it can work with the city that I really appreciate, and we know it works because Atlanta, Georgia has now 3,000 of these units.

They were able to set up in four years with the private sector coordinating with the city and county, the city of Atlanta and the county around it.

So let's just say that I'm in jail, And when I'm leaving, that the city of Seattle would coordinate with a landlord.

And we might have, let's just say that we've got Bruce owning a 100 unit complex.

We would coordinate with them with five units.

And we would pay him for those five units.

We would have a 24-7 number for the landlord that the individual coming in would have some training along the lines of You know, pay your share of the rent on time, turn your music down, make sure that your dog's not barking.

You know, real basic stuff.

But they have a home, they've got a place to go, and it's subsidized so that they can get on their feet.

And as I say, Atlanta has 3,000 units in the private sector that they were able to orchestrate in four years.

We can't build 3,000 units at the rate we're going, but if we can enter into contract, And what I'd love to be able to do, and I don't know if this is going to take legislation, I keep hearing different opinions on it, is to be able to say if we're saving money because we don't have to put people in jail, some of that money ought to be able to be returned to the city that we can put into programs like this.

My real objective is to make sure that we're not arresting people for loitering on the streets.

Let's find a place for them to be, that they're comfortable, have the services that they need, and get the job training they need, so that they actually can live their lives.

All of the things that you're talking about are so important to us.

Council Member Herbold, thank you for having this special meeting.

I know that Council President Harold, you've been a champion of this as well.

Count me in.

I am very interested in seeing what we can do in 2019. It's my action year.

I am committed to making sure that things get done and not are just works in progress.

So I'm going to call you probably, it'll be tomorrow morning.

and see what we can do, and I appreciate that very much.

I can get on my high horse for a long time on this topic, so thank you all for coming, very much.

Thanks for joining us.

I know that some folks have to leave, and that's totally fine.

I did check, though.

We continue to have the room, so if we want to keep going through it, that'd be great.

Thank you.

OK.

So we briefly talked about the city attorney's office recommendations in terms of expanding diversion opportunities, looking for alternatives.

And the work group does want the city attorney's office to exercise prosecutorial discretion to decline cases disproportionately impacting poor people and instead develop more effective solutions.

From counsel's perspective, the work group is asking that counsel support the city attorney's office in making that decision to make that prosecutorial discretion.

Additionally, we are asking that council support our recommendation to the Seattle Police Department that has two primary bases.

One is that they're When we met with SPD, it was unclear, well, it was clear that there wasn't real guidelines around when to arrest on misdemeanors.

There's a vast discretion given to the officers for misdemeanor arrest, and so we are asking that there be guidelines around arrest and least use of arrest.

for the reasons that Lalitha highlighted.

Additionally, we are asking that council support Seattle Police Department in using the ethnicity section in police department reports.

One of the reasons that we have the difficulty collecting the Latinx data is because that's not being used.

And that is something that Seattle Police Department is able to use.

There's race and ethnicity and the ability to enter both on every police department report.

It is limited to Hispanic or non-Hispanic, but that alone would capture the Latinx community.

That would be a great thing to work on.

I think SPD has developed some good policies when it comes to bias crimes for making those sorts of indications, both in the format of the form is done in such a way that you can't advance to the next category unless you answer those questions.

And the city auditor has given some specific instruction to the wording of the category.

So it seems like we could sort of replicate that practice that's currently being used for bias crimes for ethnicity as well.

And I would really like to talk with you more about you're asking for the council's support in some decisions that the city attorney is empowered to make and also some requests of the police department would just like to talk with you more about what form that support could come in.

Absolutely.

I wanted to add to that that we passed a bias-free policing law to target the issue of racial profiling and who stopped.

And part of that requirement in that legislation, in that ordinance, is that we track the data, who stopped, what demographics are being stopped.

A challenge, I was sitting where Councilman Herbold was sitting, and I said, well, how do the police know?

Because everyone said, well, it's on your license, as an example.

It's not on your license.

And so I've looked at my race on some, I don't want to say the trouble I've gotten into, but it's amazing what comes back.

And so, and because we don't want to talk about someone's immigration status as an example, so you're, we realize the challenges, but we still want to capture that data.

And so, I think your recommendation is spot on that we still want to figure, we know race is a huge factor in all of this stuff.

So, how do we capture, we got to sort of figure that out, but we had some challenges on the on the bias-free policing ordinance and figuring it out.

So we're working on that, yeah.

Absolutely, thank you.

And before we move on, I just want to say I really enjoyed participating last weekend in the city attorney's efforts around diversion strategies, specifically the Choose 180 program.

King County's got a similar program for youth.

The city has a program for young adults.

And it was just so incredible to sit in a room with these young people.

At the end of the afternoon, 26 people had their charges dropped, and it was just really powerful.

Thank you.

Thank you, and thank you for coming, and we really appreciate it.

I mean, that is Choose 180. I don't want to give us much credit for that.

That workshop is theirs, and they do phenomenal with it.

Thank you for coming.

Really briefly, the work group feels like there's still work to be done.

We've spent two years together and much of that first year was developing a shared analysis and shared understanding of Seattle's criminal legal system and all to be able to communicate together and work together.

But a lot of the meat of the work that we feel like is important, we have not gotten to yet.

And so the work group did express interest in figuring out a way to move forward.

I think that the folks who have lived experience, value being able to sit at a table like this and to speak to elected officials in this way.

I think there's also a fear that this will sit on a shelf somewhere.

And so how can we, one, give space for folks who are most impacted to inform policies that impact their lives, especially around criminal legal system reform?

So how do we give access to folks who need to be leading that work and the workgroup And their strategy seven was thinking of through a next phase of this work group led by folks who are living with criminal history.

Another part of the work group was to inventory the fines and fees that Seattle Municipal Court levies against people in the city.

And that work was completed by Seattle Municipal Court in August of 2017. And so we provided that at the last briefing.

And we really appreciate Seattle Municipal Court in doing that heavy lift, which is a lot of data and analysis they did.

The next part of that work is reviewing how these fines and fees impact folks who are reentering or who are living with criminal history.

And we have contracted with Dr. Alexis Harris from the University of Washington to do that work for us.

And again, we really appreciate Seattle Municipal Court and that partnership in providing the data to Dr. Harris and her team, because without Seattle Municipal Court's contribution and support in that data exchange, this part of the Ranchu workgroup's task would not get done.

So we hope to get that report in the spring of 2019 and it will have other recommendations regarding fines and fees and how they impact folks living with criminal history.

Great, I'm really eager to get that information.

That's exciting and I'm glad that Dr. Harris is working on it.

And thank you, Council, for providing resources to contract with Dr. Harris to complete that report.

Council President Harrell led on that.

And I think you have a few words that you want to say.

Yeah, a few words, just a few.

I want to keep it sort of a dialogue and just some reactions.

First of all, thanks, everyone, for sharing their personal stories.

It's always inspiring to hear.

I wanted to respond to a few points I heard throughout the dialogue.

And I want to make three points.

One is, I think, Mr. Howard was presented with a question about what a curriculum may look like and what the teachings are.

And I've personally experienced some curriculum.

I want to share with you that at one point it was called increasing human effectiveness.

And it's called many things.

Actually, Pete Carroll of our Seahawks actually teaches a lot of his players this whole concept of who you see in the mirror.

rewriting who you see in the mirror when you look in the mirror.

And I think George talked about his culture.

And if that culture is taken from you or the culture is taught by someone else in terms of what it's supposed to be, if you see a lot of indigenous people just in cowboy movies, and they're telling you that's your culture, which has nothing to do with your culture, that affects your self-image.

And so I think there's some really good, what's the, is it curricula?

What's the plural of curricula?

The curricula out there that we really, for me in this re-entry work, that's what it's all about.

People look at someone like me and say, well, this guy, he's got it made, you know, he wears those suits and everything, but they have no idea that the image that I had of myself as a child and who influenced that image to where I could be sitting at the table as a council member.

So I think an investment would really be looking at whether it's assisting the indigenous community with their sort of self-identity, if you will, for young men, young women, old men, old women, just that investment, or other groups and individuals.

I think they're spot on as an investment strategy.

I think where, and I don't even know if this is a disagreement or something I heard, I am all for people who have experienced incarceration leading it.

I heard that theme and I heard people liking that.

In my experience in working with a lot of groups trying to coach them to high performance, one of the first questions I ask is, well, who's not at the table?

Who has hiring capacity?

Who knows how to bake a sweet potato pie?

Because I like sweet potato pies.

I don't know how to cook them.

Who can help us raise money?

Who has experience in logistics?

Because there might be jobs there.

And so one of the elements, I think, that might be missing, well, not necessarily in the work group, but one of the areas of work that I'd like to see is in Seattle, whether it's high tech or logistics or transportation or the entertainment business, are making sure that we have a bridge between the re-entrants and those groups out there.

And in all due respect to you who are 31, 32, 33, 34, that someone 60 talking to someone that's 34, that I want seasoned folks as well to make sure that we can bring those resources in.

Because I don't think you could just give a re-entrant a job and a house and say, now, good luck to you.

I think there's that whole curriculum we talked about earlier.

I've actually have some people here invited, monitoring this discussion, that have the experience.

Some of them, for example, some of these companies have looked at vets, returning vets.

And when a vet comes back in and they're faced with a lot of trauma, They're faced with a lot of reentry issues.

And some companies have looked at their social responsibility goals and said, we want to invest and double down on those returning vets.

My argument is this is the same kind of trauma, if you will, and the need for reentry that many companies can embrace.

And I believe they can embrace Native Americans, indigenous folks, as well, if they realize it's part of their corporate responsibility that this was not their land.

This was their land.

And so I think that we have to get those people at the table as well, not just people who've experienced incarceration.

For me, it's all about gathering the resources and I don't know if that was part of your conversation.

I was looking at your core strategies trying to figure out where that fits in because this year I'm gonna put a lot of energy into that.

I've already had many discussions when I met with Chris Polos at the Washington State Reentry Council.

I talked about the same thing on state.

Who are these employers who I could tap into that understand what reentry is about and are willing to align their social responsibility of what we're trying to do.

So I'd like to see that as part of the strategy, and I just didn't hear that punch that I wanted.

I love the stories, but I didn't hear that linkage that I want to see.

And the last piece is...

The regional approach that I would love to see both the county and the state, there's some exciting things happening in some other cities, by the way, and I think many of you know that.

Many of you are piped into networks I don't even have.

And I'm just trying to see again where we can, the city, we're the biggest city in the state, but where we can pull together the other resources from the other groups and still look at some regional solutions as well.

particularly when a lot of the people that are convicted, they didn't even live in Seattle.

They might have gotten here one way or the other.

And so I think that I don't want to have to wait on an approval from a city council president in Pasco to tell me how we're going to do these investments, but I certainly want some ideas from across the region as well.

So those are just my three sort of overarching comments after reading the report.

And I just want to go back to, real quickly, Strategy 3, because I think Strategy 3 did talk.

We kind of went over it quickly, because we were, I think, realizing that we were behind our clock.

But one of the things I think I heard Erica say is that, OED has been doing some of the work in this area, but one of the things that they've identified is that we need to clean up our own house with making sure that the city is offering employment opportunities to folks who were previously incarcerated.

And in doing so, we're going to be able to do a better job at holding private employers accountable for their social responsibility.

as well, and so I'm really excited about that.

We also didn't even talk about the priority hire idea, which I think is just a fantastic idea.

I was out at Pioneer Human Industries, and I don't think Hillary's here, but I was out there last week, and it just hit me.

I mean, they're providing work opportunities for folks.

We ought to be plugging those people into city projects as well and identifying that as another pipeline for pre-apprenticeship.

Yeah, so there's an FAS person on the work group.

And Hillary couldn't be here today.

And then there's also Chris Larson that works for the Urban League and does all that work.

So we could definitely do a follow up with those folks, because they know a lot more about that work than I do personally.

I had a question for a work group that I want a clarity on.

And I forgot I got a little long winded and forgot even my question.

At the beginning, I heard a few folks say that we really, of the seven strategies, a couple I thought were the highest priority, I thought.

was it one and two, which were those that were identified as, it was one and two, so it wasn't that, was I hearing that correctly?

It was one and two, and then also strategy.

So one and two, because we wanted to focus on the funding opportunity that you've allocated for this work group, and then also strategy six about decriminalization and diversion.

Those are things that you could take now without any, doesn't need a particular funding investment to do that work, which actually Marcos will, we're kind of summing up if that's okay.

Next steps.

Sure, just to briefly, underscore the action steps that council can take.

As Jenna outlined, the drug traffic loitering and prostitution loitering laws that can be repealed, the funding strategies which include indigenous healing strategies and navigation.

Also, when allocating 2019 reentry funding, convene the reentry workgroup by the end of the first quarter to develop an investment strategy, and then also using workgroup principles, which we discussed earlier, to leverage a new council position, which we understand has been created to champion the remaining reentry recommendations.

And then I would just add that while we certainly appreciate the funding, the $250,000 that was included in the budget, that will be very helpful, but also just to acknowledge that for the tremendous amount of work that we've talked about and that needs to be done, That really is is probably inadequate and that it's really important for the city to to find additional funds in order to really Address the the needs that you've been that we've been discussing today and to really make this make this work real So I just wanted to really put that out there Ryan were you reaching?

Yeah, I'll just Marcus and everyone I the work that you've presented today and the stories you told are really powerful, as my colleagues have said.

And I really appreciate the concrete steps that we can all take.

That is something that's really helpful for us.

I appreciate the focus on how we invest that money, too.

And I also just want to acknowledge that we spend way more money on creating the system and supporting the system than we do on preventing it.

And we have to shift that.

And I know that you all have been pushing on us, and others have too.

And it's not an easy thing to do.

And yet, that's probably some of the most important work we have to do.

So thank you for highlighting that.

Thank you.

I want to thank you all for your work.

I want to pledge to you that these aren't recommendations that will sit on a shelf someplace.

We're going to put our heads together and figure out how to work with you to move these recommendations forward.

I think some of them will Thank you.

Will be challenging in that I think there's a lot of community-based work that we need to do with people who don't have these experiences or don't really know very much about the impacts of the criminal justice system.

But much like we did with Fair Chance Housing, I think with engagement with the broader community and messaging, I think we can definitely take some positive legislative steps as it relates specifically to the decriminalization pieces that you've identified.

You know, one of the things that I have a little bit of concern with, maybe concern is not the right word, questions.

is I feel a great urgency about a lot of this work, and I support this effort to create a sort of a convening of both internal and external stakeholders to do this criminal justice reform work.

I am a little worried, though, that for things that there is great urgency on, things that are perhaps pretty low-hanging fruit, easy to do, but great impact, that if we make everything go through that process, it might slow us down.

So that's just really something that I think we could use your help on in designing that process, in designing sort of the inside, outside work group to give us some guidance about the types of things that really would benefit from that sort of more coordinated approach that folks have been looking for or which things don't need to go through that, you know, what could in some instances become another barrier.

So I don't want to see that happen.

And maybe one thing that we can do in the near term, along with the resolution that I believe is going to be passed, and this might be something that is already included in the resolution, is create a work program.

And maybe things that are not on the work program are things that don't necessarily have to go through that process and can go through, you know, more of, you know, for instance, making sure that the funding that the council has allocated for reentry, we shouldn't need to wait until we convene this new group to give guidance to the executive on what sort of services we'd like to see that fund, so.

quick statement I want to make a few things one is I want to get some open feedback because when I continue to work on this I don't want someone to say well he didn't mention that at the at the table the advisory board suggestion I do like I wasn't keen on calling it an advisory board because it's sort of just suggest you're just giving advice I actually envisioned an actual board of people that actually help do the work and not just give advice.

So I thought maybe it should be a commission or something like that, number one.

But number two, I do like the idea of more than 50% of having people with direct lived experience of incarceration.

Remember the point I made earlier, and that is, I don't see, it would seem to me that a person has access to jobs.

You want that person at the table as part of this commission, if you will.

They then have connections to the many employers or educational institutions.

I'd love to see people that have ties to educational institutions and jobs caring about this issue.

Heaven forbid we get an indigenous person that have those same connections on this commission.

So I'm all for people having lived with experience of incarceration coupled with these folks that may have never set a foot in jail, but they are committed to this work.

And that's not an advisory board, that's a working board.

And so when we start looking what this looks like, that's, and I'm not saying I'm right, I'm just saying that's my personal opinion looking at this rich report when I saw this.

So email me your thoughts if that makes any sense at all, and I think it does.

Are there any other questions you all have?

No, this has been fantastic.

I appreciate council members for spending the extra time and you all for spending the extra time as well.

And I'm glad that we had the chambers and weren't going to be bounced out by some other group because this was really time well spent and really looking forward to moving forward with your recommendations.

I also want to give a shout out to Director Murray,

Mariko, really appreciate you being here as well, Director Lockhart.

It's really very valuable that we have your leadership as part of this work.

Thank you.

Sorry, were there any workgroup members that wanted to say anything?

I wasn't sure.

Okay.

With that, we're adjourned.

Thank you so much.

Yeah.