WEBVTT

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This is my favorite protest shirt.

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It says, "Protect your people."

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We made it in the basement
of our community center.

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I've worn it at rallies,

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at protests and marches,

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at candlelight vigils

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with families who have lost loved ones
to police violence.

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I've seen how this ethic
of community organizing

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has been able to change
arresting practices,

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hold individual officers accountable

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and allow families
to feel strong and supported

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in the darkest moments of their lives.

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But when a family would come to our center

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and say, "My loved one
got arrested, what can we do?"

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we didn't know how to translate

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the power of community organizing
that we saw on the streets

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into the courts.

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We figured we're not lawyers,

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and so that's not our arena
to make change.

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And so despite our belief
in collective action,

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we would allow people that we cared about

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to go to court alone.

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Nine out of ten times --
and this is true nationally --

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they couldn't afford their own attorney,

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and so they'd have a public defender,
who is doing heroic work,

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but was often under-resourced

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and stretched bare with too many cases.

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They would face prosecutors
aiming for high conviction rates,

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mandatory minimum sentences

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and racial bias baked
into every stage of the process.

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And so, facing those odds,

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stripped away from the power of community,

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unsure how to navigate the courts,

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over 90 percent of people that face
a criminal charge in this country

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will take a plea deal.

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Meaning, they'll never have
their fabled day in court

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that we talk about
in television shows and in movies.

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And this is the untold part of the story
of mass incarceration in America --

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how we became
the largest jailer in the world.

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Over two million people
currently incarcerated in this country.

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And projections that say

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one out of three black men
will see the inside of a prison cell

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at some point in their life
on this trajectory.

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But we have a solution.

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We decided to be irreverent to this idea

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that only lawyers can impact the courts.

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And to penetrate the judicial system

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with the power, intellect and ingenuity
of community organizing.

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We call the approach
"participatory defense."

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It's a methodology
for families and communities

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whose loved ones are facing charges,

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and how they could impact
the outcome of those cases

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and transform the landscape
of power in the courts.

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How it works is,

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families whose loved ones
are facing criminal charges

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will come to a weekly meeting,

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and it's half support group,

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half strategic planning session.

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And they'll build a community

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out of what otherwise would be
an isolating and lonely experience.

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And they'll sit in a circle,

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and write the names
of their loved ones on a board,

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who they're there to support.

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And collectively,

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the group will find out ways
to tangibly and tactfully

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impact the outcome of that case.

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They'll review police reports
to find out inconsistencies;

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they'll find areas that require

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more investigation
by the defense attorney;

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and they'll go to court with each other,

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for the emotional support

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but also so that the judge knows
that the person standing before them

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is part of a larger community

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that is invested in their
well-being and success.

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And the results have been remarkable.

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We've seen charges get dismissed,

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sentences significantly reduced,

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acquittals won at trial

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and, sometimes, it has been
literally lifesaving.

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Like in the case of Ramon Vasquez.

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Father of two, family man, truck driver

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and someone who was wrongfully charged
with a gang-related murder

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he was totally innocent of,

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but was facing a life sentence.

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Ramon's family came to those meetings

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shortly after his arrest
and his detention,

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and they worked the model.

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And through their hard work,

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they found major
contradictions in the case,

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gaping holes in the investigation.

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And were able to disprove
dangerous assumptions by the detectives.

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Like that the red hat that they found
when they raided his home

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somehow affiliated him
to a gang lifestyle.

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Through their photos and their records,

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they were able to prove that the red hat
was from his son's Little League team

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that Ramon coached on the weekends.

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And they produced independent information

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that proved that Ramon
was on the other side of town

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at the time of the alleged incident,

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through their phone records

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and receipts from the stores
that they attended.

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After seven long months
of hard work from the family,

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Ramon staying strong inside jail,

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they were able
to get the charge dismissed.

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And they brought Ramon home

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to live the life that he should
have been living all along.

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And with each new case,

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the families identified new ways
to flex the knowledge of the community

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to have impact on the court system.

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We would go to a lot
of sentencing hearings.

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And when we would leave
the sentencing hearing,

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on the walk back to the parking lot

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after someone's loved one
just got sent to prison,

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the most common refrain we would hear

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wasn't so much, "I hate that judge,"

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or "I wish we had a new lawyer."

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What they would say was,

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"I wish they knew him like we know him."

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And so we developed tools and vehicles

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for families to tell the fuller story
of their loved one

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so they would be understood
as more than just a case file.

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They started making what we call
social biography packets,

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which is families making a compilation
of photos and certificates and letters

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that show past challenges
and hardships and accomplishments,

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and future prospects and opportunities.

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And the social biography [packets]
were working so well in the courts,

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that we evolved it
into social biography videos.

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Ten-minute mini documentaries,

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which were interviews
of people in their homes,

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and at their churches
and at their workplace,

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explaining who the person was
in the backdrop of their lives.

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And it was a way for us to dissolve
the walls of the court temporarily.

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And through the power of video,

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bring the judge out of the court
and into the community,

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so that they would be able to understand
the fuller context of someone's life

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that they're deciding the fate of.

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One of the first social biography projects
that came out of our camp

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was by Carnell.

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He had come to the meetings

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because he had pled
to a low-level drug charge.

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And after years of sobriety,

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got arrested for this one
drug possession charge.

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But he was facing a five-year
prison sentence

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because of the sentencing
schemes in California.

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We knew him primarily as a dad.

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He'd bring his daughters to the meetings

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and then play with them
at the park across the street.

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And he said, "Look, I could do the time,

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but if I go in,
they're going to take my girls."

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And so we gave him a camera

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and said, "Just take pictures
of what's like being a father."

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And so he took pictures
of making breakfast for his daughters

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and taking them to school,

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taking them to after-school programs
and doing homework.

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And it became this photo essay

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that he turned in to his lawyer
who used it at the sentencing hearing.

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And that judge, who originally indicated
a five-year prison sentence,

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understood Carnell in a whole new way.

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And he converted
that five-year prison sentence

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into a six-month outpatient program,

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so that Carnell could be
with his daughters.

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His girls would have
a father in their life.

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And Carnell could get the treatment
that he was actually seeking.

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We have one ceremony of sorts

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that we use in participatory defense.

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And I told you earlier
that when families come to the meetings,

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they write the names
of their loved ones on the board.

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Those are names that we all
get to know, week in, week out,

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through the stories of the family,

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and we're rooting for
and praying for and hoping for.

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And when we win a case,

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when we get a sentence reduced,
or a charge dropped,

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or we win an acquittal,

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that person, who's been
a name on the board,

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comes to the meeting.

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And when their name comes up,

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they're given an eraser,

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and they walk over to the board

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and they erase their name.

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And it sounds simple,
but it is a spiritual experience.

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And people are applauding,
and they're crying.

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And for the families
that are just starting that journey

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and are sitting in the back of the room,

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for them to know
that there's a finish line,

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that one day, they too might be able
to bring their loved one home,

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that they could erase the name,

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is profoundly inspiring.

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We're training organizations
all over the country now

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in participatory defense.

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And we have a national
network of over 20 cities.

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And it's a church in Pennsylvania,

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it's a parents' association in Tennessee,

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it's a youth center in Los Angeles.

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And the latest city that we just added
to the national network

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to grow and deepen this practice

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is Philadelphia.

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They literally just started their first
weekly participatory defense meeting

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last week.

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And the person that we brought
from California to Philadelphia

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to share their testimony,
to inspire them to know what's possible,

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was Ramon Vasquez,

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who went from sitting in a jail
in Santa Clara County, California,

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to inspiring a community
about what's possible

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through the perseverance of community
across the country.

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And with all the hubs, we still use
one metric that we invented.

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It's called time saved.

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It's a saying that we actually
still say at weekly meetings.

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And what we say when a family
comes in a meeting for the first time is:

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if you do nothing,

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the system is designed to give
your loved one time served.

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That's the language the system uses
to quantify time of incarceration.

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But if you engage, if you participate,

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you can turn time served into time saved.

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That's them home with you,
living the life they should be living.

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So, Carnell, for example,
would represent five years of time saved.

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So when we totaled our time saved numbers

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from all the different
participatory defense hubs,

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through the work
in the meetings and at court

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and making social biography
videos and packets,

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we had 4,218 years of time saved
from incarceration.

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That is parents' and children's lives.

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Young people going to college
instead of prison.

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We're ending generational
cycles of suffering.

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And when you consider
in my home state of California,

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it costs 60,000 dollars to house someone
in the California prison system,

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that means that these families
are saving their states

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a ton of money.

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I'm not a mathematician,
I haven't done the numbers,

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but that is money and resources
that could be reallocated

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to mental health services,

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to drug treatment programs, to education.

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And we're now wearing this shirt in courts

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all across the country.

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And people are wearing this shirt

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because they want the immediacy
of protecting their people

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in the courtroom.

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But what we're telling them is,

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as practitioners,
they're building a new field,

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a new movement

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that is going to forever change the way
justice is understood in this country.

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Thank you.

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(Applause)