1
00:00:00,984 --> 00:00:03,251
This is my favorite protest shirt.

2
00:00:03,897 --> 00:00:06,103
It says, "Protect your people."

3
00:00:06,127 --> 00:00:09,047
We made it in the basement
of our community center.

4
00:00:09,420 --> 00:00:11,744
I've worn it at rallies,

5
00:00:11,768 --> 00:00:14,800
at protests and marches,

6
00:00:14,824 --> 00:00:16,641
at candlelight vigils

7
00:00:16,665 --> 00:00:19,919
with families who have lost loved ones
to police violence.

8
00:00:20,674 --> 00:00:24,388
I've seen how this ethic
of community organizing

9
00:00:24,412 --> 00:00:27,308
has been able to change
arresting practices,

10
00:00:27,332 --> 00:00:30,434
hold individual officers accountable

11
00:00:30,458 --> 00:00:33,815
and allow families
to feel strong and supported

12
00:00:33,839 --> 00:00:36,008
in the darkest moments of their lives.

13
00:00:37,022 --> 00:00:39,712
But when a family would come to our center

14
00:00:39,736 --> 00:00:43,871
and say, "My loved one
got arrested, what can we do?"

15
00:00:43,895 --> 00:00:45,911
we didn't know how to translate

16
00:00:45,935 --> 00:00:49,593
the power of community organizing
that we saw on the streets

17
00:00:49,617 --> 00:00:50,767
into the courts.

18
00:00:51,652 --> 00:00:53,324
We figured we're not lawyers,

19
00:00:53,348 --> 00:00:56,281
and so that's not our arena
to make change.

20
00:00:57,017 --> 00:01:00,184
And so despite our belief
in collective action,

21
00:01:00,208 --> 00:01:03,200
we would allow people that we cared about

22
00:01:03,224 --> 00:01:05,247
to go to court alone.

23
00:01:06,335 --> 00:01:10,470
Nine out of ten times --
and this is true nationally --

24
00:01:10,494 --> 00:01:12,410
they couldn't afford their own attorney,

25
00:01:12,434 --> 00:01:16,307
and so they'd have a public defender,
who is doing heroic work,

26
00:01:16,331 --> 00:01:19,126
but was often under-resourced

27
00:01:19,150 --> 00:01:21,879
and stretched bare with too many cases.

28
00:01:21,903 --> 00:01:25,831
They would face prosecutors
aiming for high conviction rates,

29
00:01:25,855 --> 00:01:28,228
mandatory minimum sentences

30
00:01:28,252 --> 00:01:32,124
and racial bias baked
into every stage of the process.

31
00:01:34,100 --> 00:01:36,171
And so, facing those odds,

32
00:01:36,195 --> 00:01:39,417
stripped away from the power of community,

33
00:01:39,441 --> 00:01:41,957
unsure how to navigate the courts,

34
00:01:41,981 --> 00:01:45,779
over 90 percent of people that face
a criminal charge in this country

35
00:01:45,803 --> 00:01:47,269
will take a plea deal.

36
00:01:48,096 --> 00:01:51,517
Meaning, they'll never have
their fabled day in court

37
00:01:51,541 --> 00:01:54,874
that we talk about
in television shows and in movies.

38
00:01:55,807 --> 00:02:01,752
And this is the untold part of the story
of mass incarceration in America --

39
00:02:01,776 --> 00:02:04,924
how we became
the largest jailer in the world.

40
00:02:05,623 --> 00:02:09,305
Over two million people
currently incarcerated in this country.

41
00:02:09,726 --> 00:02:11,321
And projections that say

42
00:02:11,345 --> 00:02:15,362
one out of three black men
will see the inside of a prison cell

43
00:02:15,386 --> 00:02:18,545
at some point in their life
on this trajectory.

44
00:02:20,546 --> 00:02:22,079
But we have a solution.

45
00:02:22,928 --> 00:02:25,984
We decided to be irreverent to this idea

46
00:02:26,008 --> 00:02:29,102
that only lawyers can impact the courts.

47
00:02:29,587 --> 00:02:31,990
And to penetrate the judicial system

48
00:02:32,014 --> 00:02:37,497
with the power, intellect and ingenuity
of community organizing.

49
00:02:38,569 --> 00:02:41,503
We call the approach
"participatory defense."

50
00:02:42,286 --> 00:02:45,167
It's a methodology
for families and communities

51
00:02:45,191 --> 00:02:47,483
whose loved ones are facing charges,

52
00:02:47,507 --> 00:02:50,310
and how they could impact
the outcome of those cases

53
00:02:50,334 --> 00:02:53,732
and transform the landscape
of power in the courts.

54
00:02:54,859 --> 00:02:56,025
How it works is,

55
00:02:56,049 --> 00:02:58,779
families whose loved ones
are facing criminal charges

56
00:02:58,803 --> 00:03:00,938
will come to a weekly meeting,

57
00:03:00,962 --> 00:03:02,760
and it's half support group,

58
00:03:02,784 --> 00:03:04,917
half strategic planning session.

59
00:03:05,823 --> 00:03:07,669
And they'll build a community

60
00:03:07,693 --> 00:03:11,933
out of what otherwise would be
an isolating and lonely experience.

61
00:03:12,755 --> 00:03:15,065
And they'll sit in a circle,

62
00:03:15,089 --> 00:03:17,747
and write the names
of their loved ones on a board,

63
00:03:17,771 --> 00:03:19,620
who they're there to support.

64
00:03:19,644 --> 00:03:20,854
And collectively,

65
00:03:20,878 --> 00:03:25,014
the group will find out ways
to tangibly and tactfully

66
00:03:25,038 --> 00:03:27,032
impact the outcome of that case.

67
00:03:27,569 --> 00:03:31,490
They'll review police reports
to find out inconsistencies;

68
00:03:31,514 --> 00:03:33,671
they'll find areas that require

69
00:03:33,695 --> 00:03:36,213
more investigation
by the defense attorney;

70
00:03:36,237 --> 00:03:38,156
and they'll go to court with each other,

71
00:03:38,180 --> 00:03:40,164
for the emotional support

72
00:03:40,188 --> 00:03:44,569
but also so that the judge knows
that the person standing before them

73
00:03:44,593 --> 00:03:46,286
is part of a larger community

74
00:03:46,310 --> 00:03:49,189
that is invested in their
well-being and success.

75
00:03:50,538 --> 00:03:52,506
And the results have been remarkable.

76
00:03:53,506 --> 00:03:56,498
We've seen charges get dismissed,

77
00:03:56,522 --> 00:03:59,347
sentences significantly reduced,

78
00:03:59,371 --> 00:04:01,242
acquittals won at trial

79
00:04:02,561 --> 00:04:05,828
and, sometimes, it has been
literally lifesaving.

80
00:04:06,450 --> 00:04:08,784
Like in the case of Ramon Vasquez.

81
00:04:09,235 --> 00:04:14,760
Father of two, family man, truck driver

82
00:04:14,784 --> 00:04:18,031
and someone who was wrongfully charged
with a gang-related murder

83
00:04:18,055 --> 00:04:19,848
he was totally innocent of,

84
00:04:19,872 --> 00:04:21,939
but was facing a life sentence.

85
00:04:23,172 --> 00:04:25,363
Ramon's family came to those meetings

86
00:04:25,387 --> 00:04:28,275
shortly after his arrest
and his detention,

87
00:04:28,299 --> 00:04:29,966
and they worked the model.

88
00:04:30,268 --> 00:04:31,784
And through their hard work,

89
00:04:31,808 --> 00:04:34,379
they found major
contradictions in the case,

90
00:04:35,121 --> 00:04:37,653
gaping holes in the investigation.

91
00:04:37,677 --> 00:04:42,280
And were able to disprove
dangerous assumptions by the detectives.

92
00:04:42,836 --> 00:04:46,665
Like that the red hat that they found
when they raided his home

93
00:04:46,689 --> 00:04:50,102
somehow affiliated him
to a gang lifestyle.

94
00:04:51,149 --> 00:04:53,998
Through their photos and their records,

95
00:04:54,022 --> 00:04:58,639
they were able to prove that the red hat
was from his son's Little League team

96
00:04:58,663 --> 00:05:00,908
that Ramon coached on the weekends.

97
00:05:02,107 --> 00:05:04,243
And they produced independent information

98
00:05:04,267 --> 00:05:07,109
that proved that Ramon
was on the other side of town

99
00:05:07,133 --> 00:05:09,482
at the time of the alleged incident,

100
00:05:09,506 --> 00:05:10,903
through their phone records

101
00:05:10,927 --> 00:05:13,490
and receipts from the stores
that they attended.

102
00:05:14,593 --> 00:05:18,236
After seven long months
of hard work from the family,

103
00:05:18,260 --> 00:05:21,291
Ramon staying strong inside jail,

104
00:05:21,315 --> 00:05:24,249
they were able
to get the charge dismissed.

105
00:05:25,053 --> 00:05:26,712
And they brought Ramon home

106
00:05:26,736 --> 00:05:29,855
to live the life that he should
have been living all along.

107
00:05:30,260 --> 00:05:31,633
And with each new case,

108
00:05:31,657 --> 00:05:36,101
the families identified new ways
to flex the knowledge of the community

109
00:05:36,125 --> 00:05:38,458
to have impact on the court system.

110
00:05:39,506 --> 00:05:42,323
We would go to a lot
of sentencing hearings.

111
00:05:42,347 --> 00:05:44,694
And when we would leave
the sentencing hearing,

112
00:05:44,718 --> 00:05:46,617
on the walk back to the parking lot

113
00:05:46,641 --> 00:05:49,974
after someone's loved one
just got sent to prison,

114
00:05:49,998 --> 00:05:52,633
the most common refrain we would hear

115
00:05:52,657 --> 00:05:55,783
wasn't so much, "I hate that judge,"

116
00:05:55,807 --> 00:05:58,259
or "I wish we had a new lawyer."

117
00:05:59,268 --> 00:06:01,387
What they would say was,

118
00:06:01,411 --> 00:06:04,077
"I wish they knew him like we know him."

119
00:06:05,188 --> 00:06:07,934
And so we developed tools and vehicles

120
00:06:07,958 --> 00:06:10,958
for families to tell the fuller story
of their loved one

121
00:06:10,982 --> 00:06:13,883
so they would be understood
as more than just a case file.

122
00:06:14,360 --> 00:06:17,606
They started making what we call
social biography packets,

123
00:06:17,630 --> 00:06:22,177
which is families making a compilation
of photos and certificates and letters

124
00:06:22,201 --> 00:06:25,930
that show past challenges
and hardships and accomplishments,

125
00:06:25,954 --> 00:06:28,554
and future prospects and opportunities.

126
00:06:29,025 --> 00:06:33,382
And the social biography [packets]
were working so well in the courts,

127
00:06:33,406 --> 00:06:36,725
that we evolved it
into social biography videos.

128
00:06:36,749 --> 00:06:39,066
Ten-minute mini documentaries,

129
00:06:39,090 --> 00:06:41,790
which were interviews
of people in their homes,

130
00:06:41,814 --> 00:06:44,233
and at their churches
and at their workplace,

131
00:06:44,257 --> 00:06:47,490
explaining who the person was
in the backdrop of their lives.

132
00:06:48,578 --> 00:06:53,689
And it was a way for us to dissolve
the walls of the court temporarily.

133
00:06:54,221 --> 00:06:56,419
And through the power of video,

134
00:06:56,443 --> 00:07:00,834
bring the judge out of the court
and into the community,

135
00:07:00,858 --> 00:07:05,088
so that they would be able to understand
the fuller context of someone's life

136
00:07:05,112 --> 00:07:07,667
that they're deciding the fate of.

137
00:07:09,046 --> 00:07:13,156
One of the first social biography projects
that came out of our camp

138
00:07:13,180 --> 00:07:14,330
was by Carnell.

139
00:07:14,665 --> 00:07:15,958
He had come to the meetings

140
00:07:15,982 --> 00:07:18,561
because he had pled
to a low-level drug charge.

141
00:07:18,585 --> 00:07:20,403
And after years of sobriety,

142
00:07:20,427 --> 00:07:23,156
got arrested for this one
drug possession charge.

143
00:07:23,180 --> 00:07:25,506
But he was facing a five-year
prison sentence

144
00:07:25,530 --> 00:07:28,363
because of the sentencing
schemes in California.

145
00:07:28,974 --> 00:07:31,180
We knew him primarily as a dad.

146
00:07:31,204 --> 00:07:33,124
He'd bring his daughters to the meetings

147
00:07:33,148 --> 00:07:36,236
and then play with them
at the park across the street.

148
00:07:36,260 --> 00:07:38,403
And he said, "Look, I could do the time,

149
00:07:38,427 --> 00:07:41,312
but if I go in,
they're going to take my girls."

150
00:07:42,927 --> 00:07:44,664
And so we gave him a camera

151
00:07:44,688 --> 00:07:47,953
and said, "Just take pictures
of what's like being a father."

152
00:07:48,758 --> 00:07:52,916
And so he took pictures
of making breakfast for his daughters

153
00:07:52,940 --> 00:07:54,456
and taking them to school,

154
00:07:54,480 --> 00:07:57,226
taking them to after-school programs
and doing homework.

155
00:07:57,863 --> 00:07:59,950
And it became this photo essay

156
00:07:59,974 --> 00:08:03,386
that he turned in to his lawyer
who used it at the sentencing hearing.

157
00:08:04,077 --> 00:08:08,275
And that judge, who originally indicated
a five-year prison sentence,

158
00:08:08,299 --> 00:08:10,766
understood Carnell in a whole new way.

159
00:08:11,466 --> 00:08:14,839
And he converted
that five-year prison sentence

160
00:08:14,863 --> 00:08:18,052
into a six-month outpatient program,

161
00:08:18,076 --> 00:08:20,639
so that Carnell could be
with his daughters.

162
00:08:20,663 --> 00:08:22,774
His girls would have
a father in their life.

163
00:08:22,798 --> 00:08:26,481
And Carnell could get the treatment
that he was actually seeking.

164
00:08:27,688 --> 00:08:31,101
We have one ceremony of sorts

165
00:08:31,125 --> 00:08:33,561
that we use in participatory defense.

166
00:08:33,585 --> 00:08:36,570
And I told you earlier
that when families come to the meetings,

167
00:08:36,594 --> 00:08:39,133
they write the names
of their loved ones on the board.

168
00:08:39,157 --> 00:08:41,943
Those are names that we all
get to know, week in, week out,

169
00:08:41,967 --> 00:08:43,633
through the stories of the family,

170
00:08:43,657 --> 00:08:46,895
and we're rooting for
and praying for and hoping for.

171
00:08:47,466 --> 00:08:48,998
And when we win a case,

172
00:08:49,022 --> 00:08:52,958
when we get a sentence reduced,
or a charge dropped,

173
00:08:52,982 --> 00:08:55,022
or we win an acquittal,

174
00:08:55,046 --> 00:08:57,545
that person, who's been
a name on the board,

175
00:08:57,569 --> 00:08:58,969
comes to the meeting.

176
00:08:59,776 --> 00:09:02,117
And when their name comes up,

177
00:09:02,141 --> 00:09:03,974
they're given an eraser,

178
00:09:03,998 --> 00:09:06,268
and they walk over to the board

179
00:09:06,292 --> 00:09:08,025
and they erase their name.

180
00:09:08,799 --> 00:09:12,523
And it sounds simple,
but it is a spiritual experience.

181
00:09:13,420 --> 00:09:16,713
And people are applauding,
and they're crying.

182
00:09:17,277 --> 00:09:19,903
And for the families
that are just starting that journey

183
00:09:19,927 --> 00:09:22,172
and are sitting in the back of the room,

184
00:09:22,196 --> 00:09:24,387
for them to know
that there's a finish line,

185
00:09:24,411 --> 00:09:27,974
that one day, they too might be able
to bring their loved one home,

186
00:09:27,998 --> 00:09:30,283
that they could erase the name,

187
00:09:30,307 --> 00:09:32,363
is profoundly inspiring.

188
00:09:34,466 --> 00:09:36,950
We're training organizations
all over the country now

189
00:09:36,974 --> 00:09:38,722
in participatory defense.

190
00:09:38,746 --> 00:09:41,681
And we have a national
network of over 20 cities.

191
00:09:42,032 --> 00:09:44,619
And it's a church in Pennsylvania,

192
00:09:44,643 --> 00:09:47,888
it's a parents' association in Tennessee,

193
00:09:47,912 --> 00:09:50,134
it's a youth center in Los Angeles.

194
00:09:50,614 --> 00:09:53,970
And the latest city that we just added
to the national network

195
00:09:53,994 --> 00:09:56,146
to grow and deepen this practice

196
00:09:56,170 --> 00:09:57,495
is Philadelphia.

197
00:09:58,066 --> 00:10:02,211
They literally just started their first
weekly participatory defense meeting

198
00:10:02,235 --> 00:10:03,385
last week.

199
00:10:04,465 --> 00:10:09,116
And the person that we brought
from California to Philadelphia

200
00:10:09,140 --> 00:10:13,315
to share their testimony,
to inspire them to know what's possible,

201
00:10:13,339 --> 00:10:14,656
was Ramon Vasquez,

202
00:10:15,673 --> 00:10:19,426
who went from sitting in a jail
in Santa Clara County, California,

203
00:10:19,450 --> 00:10:21,680
to inspiring a community
about what's possible

204
00:10:21,704 --> 00:10:25,609
through the perseverance of community
across the country.

205
00:10:27,145 --> 00:10:32,343
And with all the hubs, we still use
one metric that we invented.

206
00:10:32,676 --> 00:10:33,891
It's called time saved.

207
00:10:33,915 --> 00:10:36,855
It's a saying that we actually
still say at weekly meetings.

208
00:10:36,879 --> 00:10:40,561
And what we say when a family
comes in a meeting for the first time is:

209
00:10:40,585 --> 00:10:42,887
if you do nothing,

210
00:10:42,911 --> 00:10:46,121
the system is designed to give
your loved one time served.

211
00:10:46,681 --> 00:10:51,093
That's the language the system uses
to quantify time of incarceration.

212
00:10:52,070 --> 00:10:55,807
But if you engage, if you participate,

213
00:10:55,831 --> 00:10:59,058
you can turn time served into time saved.

214
00:11:00,061 --> 00:11:03,449
That's them home with you,
living the life they should be living.

215
00:11:04,166 --> 00:11:08,018
So, Carnell, for example,
would represent five years of time saved.

216
00:11:09,277 --> 00:11:12,038
So when we totaled our time saved numbers

217
00:11:12,062 --> 00:11:14,561
from all the different
participatory defense hubs,

218
00:11:14,585 --> 00:11:17,434
through the work
in the meetings and at court

219
00:11:17,458 --> 00:11:20,118
and making social biography
videos and packets,

220
00:11:21,387 --> 00:11:26,886
we had 4,218 years of time saved
from incarceration.

221
00:11:28,601 --> 00:11:31,743
That is parents' and children's lives.

222
00:11:32,212 --> 00:11:34,942
Young people going to college
instead of prison.

223
00:11:34,966 --> 00:11:38,149
We're ending generational
cycles of suffering.

224
00:11:39,042 --> 00:11:43,434
And when you consider
in my home state of California,

225
00:11:44,430 --> 00:11:49,632
it costs 60,000 dollars to house someone
in the California prison system,

226
00:11:50,585 --> 00:11:54,247
that means that these families
are saving their states

227
00:11:55,363 --> 00:11:56,596
a ton of money.

228
00:11:56,990 --> 00:11:59,846
I'm not a mathematician,
I haven't done the numbers,

229
00:11:59,870 --> 00:12:03,207
but that is money and resources
that could be reallocated

230
00:12:03,231 --> 00:12:05,516
to mental health services,

231
00:12:05,540 --> 00:12:08,484
to drug treatment programs, to education.

232
00:12:10,016 --> 00:12:13,592
And we're now wearing this shirt in courts

233
00:12:14,593 --> 00:12:15,997
all across the country.

234
00:12:16,347 --> 00:12:18,086
And people are wearing this shirt

235
00:12:18,110 --> 00:12:22,323
because they want the immediacy
of protecting their people

236
00:12:22,347 --> 00:12:23,497
in the courtroom.

237
00:12:24,407 --> 00:12:25,952
But what we're telling them is,

238
00:12:25,976 --> 00:12:29,725
as practitioners,
they're building a new field,

239
00:12:29,749 --> 00:12:31,551
a new movement

240
00:12:31,575 --> 00:12:35,622
that is going to forever change the way
justice is understood in this country.

241
00:12:36,683 --> 00:12:37,834
Thank you.

242
00:12:37,858 --> 00:12:41,412
(Applause)