Source: Brandon Dill
Just City began in 2015 when it was founded by a group of activists, attorneys, and civic leaders. The purpose of the group at the time was to create ways to level the playing field for Memphians going through and coming out of the legal system.
“There is very little concern for how big the criminal justice system has gotten,” says executive director of Just City Josh Spickler. “The criminal legal system has invaded many parts of our lives that it was never supposed to. Systems like bail-bond directly assign a person’s freedom to a dollar amount.”
One of the first programs established by Just City was their Clean Slate Fund, which works to walk people through the process of expunging their records and offering financial assistance for those that qualify for expungement. Through their work, the fee has dropped from $450 to $100, meaning that most individuals can pay on their own.
Since its inception, Just City has cleared the criminal histories of nearly 450 people. Their work has extended to the state level as well. Before Just City, the state of Tennessee had the 3rd largest state expungement fee in the nation. Today, Tennessee has no state fee for expungement, meaning that only local fees must be paid.
“One of the main problems that we see with expungement right now is that though it’s now affordable many people’s records do not qualify for expungement,” says Spickler. “That’s something that we want to tackle next.”
The largest program that Just City runs is its Community Bail Fund. Each month on average, 230 people are unable to afford to post bail under $5,000. Those referred to the Community Bail Fund have their bond paid for by Just City. When the defendant attends all set court dates, the refunded bail money is recycled back into the fund and the cycle restarts.
“The difference in the paths of justice is directly tied to money,” explains Spickler. “If you can’t bail out of jail, you get held in jail for 3 – 4 weeks, then you’ll usually meet with your lawyer for the first time on the same day as your trial, which means you don’t necessarily have time to prepare a solid defense. That same public defender might have 10+ cases, meaning that they aren’t able to devote their full time to you. The system isn’t fair.”
While the Community Bail Fund combats the direct effects of being arrested, it also tackles the problems that come after being incarcerated. People who qualify and are released via the Community Bail Fund can get home to their families and prepare for their trials. It also allows people to continue working and providing for their families.
“We all firmly believe that no one should be kept in jail due to a dollar amount,” says Spickler. “We established the Community Bail Fund to deconstruct the system of putting a price on a person’s freedom. The fund allows them to see their families, prepare for their case, and keep their jobs. It keeps their lives from being destroyed.”
COVID-19 has delayed the introduction of new programs, but Just City continues to fight for the rights of the incarcerated. They have accelerated the speed and volume of their Community Bail Fund, expanding from helping around 15 people a month to nearly 30.
Just City also filed a lawsuit through the ACLU of Tennessee, arguing that there are certain inmates, around 400, that cannot be kept safe due to being medically compromised. Though Shelby County has denied that there has been a confirmed death due to COVID-19, within the past month, three inmates have died due to stated “pre-existing conditions,” causing their families to hire attorneys to look into the deaths. Two of the men had bail at less than $5,000.
Spickler says a goal that he really believes could happen in the next two years would be the abolishment of money bail, though he would like to see more. “We could remove bail from those with misdemeanors that are not flight risks and then scale up to felonies. The ultimate problem, though, is that the system that we have in place is not restorative. It’s written into the law, and the framework is there, but the execution isn’t. Right now people are being punished because they are poor, and that’s a problem. We have to shift the mindset away from it being an individual fault for failing to it being a community’s fault for failing if we want to make real change.’
