Greater Cleveland Congregations (GCC) is “a non-partisan coalition of faith communities and partner organizations in Cuyahoga County working together to build power for social justice.” As part of its mission to improve the quality of life for everyone in the region, the organization meets with County Prosecutor Tim McGinty in an effort to insure the county’s criminal justice system doesn’t needlessly (and disproportionately) punish the poor, and persons of color. Indeed, a worthwhile cause.
Recent demands made of McGinty were for prosecutors to stop charging low-level, non-violent offences as felonies; increase alternative sentencing; expand the drug court; and eliminate the disparity between suburban and city of Cleveland juvenile intake and diversion … again, all very worthwhile — and perhaps doable — goals. As I’ve written before, our nation’s criminal justice system is broken in ways that defy belief, and repairing it will take a Herculean effort both locally and nationally.
However, all of the above-mentioned demands — which are prescriptive rather than preventative — only serve as attempts to close the door after the horse has fled the barn. Certainly making such changes will create a fairer criminal justice system, but a fairer system of meting out punishment and adjudicating cases doesn’t go to the heart of the problem — the goal of GCC (and everyone else of good conscience) should be to devise and support programs that prevent young people from falling into the maw of the criminal justice system in the first place.
While petitioning Prosecutor McGinty to be a bit more lenient — to make it a kinder and gentler criminal justice system — might seem like a noble effort, in the real world all it will mean (in the vast majority of cases) is that some young dude will think, “Man, I sure played them suckers into giving me a break on this one,” as they go right back out and do the same dumb shit all over again that got them in judicial hot water in the first place.
Know this: Few, if any, defendants — the majority of them being largely ill-raised and under-educated — learn from their mistakes the first time around … absent the criminal justice system taking a bite out of their ass. They’ll take judicial kindness for weakness virtually every time. Prosecutors can pass out breaks like lollipops, but in the end — absent some other kind of intervention — the result will be the same: an eventual ride out to the Ohio Department of Rehabilitation and Correction’s Lorain County intake facility to begin stepping off a number.
As we say in the ‘hood: These young dudes just “don’t believe fat meat is greasy.”
But what if these faith leaders shifted gears … what if they quit picking the low-hanging fruit of demanding meetings with the county prosecutor … and actually began devoting their efforts — their time, energy and attention — towards preventing these young people from getting involved with the criminal justice system in the first place? In other words, how about engaging in some substantive, meaningful, hard work? Talk indeed is cheap.
Start with those juveniles that have been failed to the greatest extent … and everyone already knows who and where they are. I’ll give you a hint: just go to the corner of Quincy and 93rd Street and just look up at the magnificent edifice to societal failure we’ve erected.
We also have a good inkling of where the youth housed there are most likely going: These are tomorrow’s dope dealers, gangbangers, muggers, sex offenders and, yes, killers … and they’re simply sitting there, waiting, vegetating … not knowing who to call out to for help, or even how. Indeed, most of these children don’t even realize they need help; for them, this proscribed, dystopian universe they inhabit has become the norm … the accepted, not the exceptional.
But there are answers. Others communities are trying different methods of fabricating a stronger social safety net … one which catches these youth before they hit rock bottom. No one has yet to come up with a panacea, but there are some strategies — all of which require political will to initiate — that just might work for some of these misguided youth.
The faith community needs to reach out to the incoming county executive no later than the first of the year and engage him in dialogue in regards to the pressing problem of wayward youth. But to do so effectively they must have already formulated potential solutions: They have to know what to ask for.
From Cool Cleveland correspondent Mansfield B. Frazier mansfieldfATgmail.com. Frazier’s From Behind The Wall: Commentary on Crime, Punishment, Race and the Underclass by a Prison Inmate is available again in hardback. Snag your copy and have it signed by the author by visiting http://NeighborhoodSolutionsInc.com.