Stop Targeting Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Immigrant Communities
CONTEXT
Black, Brown, Indigenous, and Immigrant communities are surveilled, arrested, detained, charged, and face criminal penalties at disproportionate rates in the United States. These current outcomes are not a recent abnormality rather they are deeply rooted in a history of white supremacist policies that have always involved disproportionate policing and punishment of these communities. Washtenaw County is no exception to this trend. Neither the Prosecutor’s Office nor the Sheriff’s Office release reliable data on racial disparities, which is extremely problematic in fostering internal and external accountability. Available data from the ACLU, however, indicates that although only 12% of county residents are Black, 59% of people booked into jail pretrial are Black. Black residents are also almost 9 times more likely to be incarcerated because they are unable to pay bail than white people relative to the population of Washtenaw County. This rate of disparity is higher than the rates of disparity in the nearby counties of Oakland, Kent, and Wayne. Nationally, immigrant communities experience additional threats at every level of interaction with police and prosecutors, such as the threat of deportation or family separation. The current Prosecutor has continued to pursue prosecutions of immigrant community members even after being made aware that deportations would result.
DEMANDS
The Prosecutor must:
Reject technology-based interventions that reinforce racism. Do not support risk assessment algorithm tools, “race-blind” prosecution, or other “color-blind” technological solutions.
Partner with an independent and external evaluator to assess all cases for racial profiling and inequity, and subsequently drop charges and repair the harm.
Gather data by race to inform racially equitable internal policies, practices and procedures.
Create a detailed plan outlining how the Prosecutor Office will achieve at least a 50% consistent reduction in charging against aggressively policed communities of color.
Provide independent language translation and interpretation in people’s preferred languages in all interactions with the Washtenaw County system that does not require a relationship with ICE or Border Patrol.
Never charge a person with the mandatory felony firearm two year flat sentence.
Actively instruct trial attorneys to not share information with deportation authorities about individuals who are present in the courts or held in jail.
Implement an office-wide policy requiring all prosecutors to recognize the risk of deportation for undocumented residents, among other collateral consequences for all in charging, plea, and sentencing decisions.
Decline to prosecute undocumented community members who do not have licenses.
The Prosecutor must advocate for:
Ending Immigration Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents making arrests at courthouses, medical facilities, and residential facilities (such as homeless shelters).
Local communities to file suits against ICE for previous and current arrests.
Government officials to accept a range of photo identification not just drivers licenses.
Ending all existing government county level contracts with ICE.
End the enhancement tool for the mandatory felony firearm two year flat sentence.