Geneviéve Jones-Wright Launches Speaker Series Focused On Criminal Justice Reform

Speaker 1: 00:00 After I run for San Diego County district attorneys, you don't have, you have Jones right, is embarking on a new project this week. The organization she founded called motivation and action will launch a criminal justice reform speaker series called Transformational Tuesdays. The first topic we'll explore the role of sheriffs in our criminal justice system. She spoke with midday edition cohost Jade Hindman. Here's that interview Speaker 2: 00:24 [inaudible] thanks so much for joining us. Thank you so much for having me jade. So first, what inspired you to launch this speaker series on criminal justice reform? Well, as you just noted, I ran for district attorney and so a very big passion of mine is criminal justice reform and I wanted to provide the opportunity and space for community members to come together to talk about the issues, to engage with experts in their respective fields, to engage with forward thinking, people who may be everyday people working but have been impacted or who are making policies or who are uncovering things in the criminal justice system. And I felt that this series would be the perfect way to do that. And the first topic discussed at Transformational Tuesdays will be sheriffs. What role do they play in the criminal justice system and how do you think that role should be reformed? Speaker 2: 01:19 So the sheriffs in San Diego County have a very big role. They transport prisoners and pretrial detainees. The sheriff is in charge of all of our county jails and the sheriff's staff, our courtrooms as bailiffs. The role of the sheriff can differ across counties across the nation. But in San Diego particularly, we've seen a lot of issues within our county jails with suicides that were successful. Also ones that were simply attempted. We see a lot of issues surrounding the inmates in our county jails dealing with mental health and how they're not being provided with good mental health services. And yet the jails under the watch of the sheriff provides the most mental health treatment in the county. And so I really want it to focus on the role of the sheriff and how we can rethink the role of the sheriff, how the sheriff's could do the job better, more humane, and with more compassion. Speaker 2: 02:20 And you work as a public defender. Is that where your insight on this comes from? I actually left the public defender's office three weeks ago. I am the legal director for Panna, which is the partnership for the advancement of new Americans. And being a public defender is still so much a part of my identity. I was with the San Diego public defenders for 13 years. Before that I was with the Riverside public defender's office. And so I will always have a PD heart and it is with that heart and with that insight that I'm able to go beneath the surface and to have relationships with people and to ask these questions and to go inside of the jails and look and see what's happening. And so that is a very big part of why I have this perspective and how I obtain this perspective. Working in that capacity. Speaker 2: 03:07 Did you hear these personal stories of abuses in jails? Is that where, where this comes from and how prevalent is it? It is actually very prevalent and we have to understand that a lot of people are scared to come forward with complaints. So they may never file a formal complaint because they are complaining against the people who are charged with watching them, keeping them and they're quote unquote safety. And so when you complain about abuses that are exact upon you by the person who has the authority over your very life, you are not very prone to come forward. But I have had clients who have written me, I have had folks who were not my clients who heard about me, especially during the race. I got a lot of mail from people who are incarcerated right here in San Diego talking to me about abuses and asking me for help. Speaker 2: 04:01 And it really is a very, very sad situation. And unfortunately I don't think that the light has been shined enough. One this issue, we have inmates who are just not believed. We have some inmates who folks believe are just the lowest of the low and so they get whatever they have coming to them and we cannot continue to have that sort of thought process. Have you spoken to the sheriff's department about any of the reforms you'd like to see? I try to be communicative and to talk and discuss issues with people like Sheriff Gore. There are some things unfortunately that some things you just have to move on because it's already been discussed and diplomacy isn't going to work and sometimes the community just has to rise up after they've been educated and enlightened. You know, criminal justice is, it's a broad, it's really broad. Uh, because it tackles an entire system. Speaker 2: 04:53 Which areas do you think require immediate reform? We have to talk about innocent people who are still incarcerated. We have to talk about folks who have done the requisite amount of time that a case was worth but are still behind bars. So we need to talk about d incarceration and we also have to talk about the policies that are still with us today that continue this machine of mass incarceration. And so that is a big thing in and of itself. But I really do think that we have to take small bites at it and it comes in the form of policymaking legislation and been people who are in those positions that we'll make the right decisions. In what ways do you see transformational Tuesdays Helping San Diego? What the community can look forward to, and what my goal is, is that community members will come out of the transformational Tuesday series no matter what event they attend, enlightened, inspired, and empowered and very educated in that they will go out and be Speaker 1: 05:58 more civically involved. No, a little more talk to their neighbors about the issues that we talked about and through these conversations that entire streets and neighborhoods, districts, cities, counties will be transformed. That is the goal. I've been speaking with Genevia Jones, right? Founder of motivation in action. Genovia. Thanks so much. Thank you. And you speaking to midday edition cohost Jade Hindman, we reached out to the San Diego County sheriff's department for a response to the call for reform. They sent a statement which reads in part quote, our goal is to provide a safe and healthy environment for those within our jail facilities. In addition to providing services with dignity and respect, we are constantly evaluating and improving medical and mental health services to fit the needs of our population. That was the sheriff's statement Speaker 3: 06:50 [inaudible].