thank you as a trial attorney i take
delight in representing my client and my
trainee comments me to represent clients
are not causes but the story I’m about
to tell you is unique because it has
little or nothing to do with trial
advocacy I discovered that victory in
court alone is not enough to keep my
client out of jail and now this has been
my experience so what I discovered is
that just representing my clients and
just doing the normal work that I do
every day it’s not enough I discovered
that I have to do more I have to be able
to make sure that they don’t keep going
back to jail over and over again now
this was where I was four years ago
because I was dealing with his serious
problem where my client keep going back
and forth in jail and what has changed
was a change for me is that I discovered
that in modern America it is actually
better to be rich and guilty than to be
poor and innocent so what I’ve done that
I’ve changed the way I do my practice is
that all of a sudden I wake up every day
excited to go to work and what has
changed because I believe if I share a
little bit about my story it might
inspire one or two other people not to
give up hope air is what has changed
everyone here knows that Spokane weather
can be very tough especially around
Christmas time and for someone like me
that grew up in Africa tropical Africa
it is particularly brutal so it was one
of those on the 10 degree days that I
walk into a transitional shelter and he
was just all of a sudden somebody jump
at me say Francis remember me you saved
my life you got me out of jail I am so
happy I got a job and I got a house but
then I said I using drug again and I
lost everything when I look around the
faces of all the people in that room
that day I could number as many as 3 or
4 or 5 of them they are all our dueling
blankets and I know them by first name
now every one of those people I’ve been
able to win motion trial to get him out
of jail sometimes I go to trial for them
but as anything change when Mike finally
let go of my hand I saw something on the
wall of the transitional shelter it was
the list of all the homeless people that
died that year that are affiliated with
the shelter and when I got got near I
discover a particular name and virtually
everyone on that list I know because I
used to represent them but a particular
name jump at me it was a gentleman that
had told me about the problem he had
with alcohol and because he had a
complication he was suffering from
dementia called induced dementia
Korsakoff syndrome and he told me all
the problem he was going through when I
inquire about the cause of death I was
told that he died of frostbite now what
has happened then to change me from the
sad Frances to the joyful Frances you
know when you find out what my client go
to jail for it’s interesting that they
go to jail with something we never take
for granted virtually everybody in this
room a middle class you will never ever
be able to
a place where you will cited for
trespass for news and for noise
violation but my clients was charged for
taking a by Mike the last case I did for
Mike was because he took a bite of an
apple at the 7-eleven store guess what
the value of the item is 78 cents now
Mike gotta go to jail you know how much
it costs to keep Mike in jail a hundred
and twenty dollars per day now
what as Apple’s is there is interesting
because when I walk out of that
transitional shelter that day and I look
at what was going on I felt terrible I
believe my client shouldn’t have to die
such an horrible Oh bless death without
dignity in the greatest and wealthiest
nation on earth so when I eventually go
back to my office I was exactly done
over joy when I find a team that are
putting together a new court a new way
of doing criminal justice consists of
prosecutors you know strange bedfellows
prosecutors and public defenders coming
together
prosecutors coming together with public
defender probation officers coming
together to work with people and we
together we form a plan and we discover
that majority of the people that we have
suffer from severe mental luckily for us
our current police chief in Spokane was
able to help us get data and those data
were able to confirm to us that my
client was serving life sentence twenty
thirty days at a time you know one of
the things that my hero Nelson Mandela
said is that overcoming poverty is not a
gesture of charity it is an heart of
justice now
I discovered that with the help of the
data we discovered that in eventually
some of my clients were actually in a
position where they can’t change what is
going on they need help
so we discovered to move the court from
the courthouse to the library where my
clients made their day and that has make
a difference and we form a partnership
with Spokane medical aid foundation at
that time and Providence consistent care
we were able to provide services for
people while they are in court the group
of service providers were look all
located with the court at the place
where the clients lives at the place
where the client are that has made a
difference because my client don’t want
to go to the courthouse but who go to
the library so although all those data
were able to help us get into this and
to know what is going on behind the same
so what has changed another thing that
has changed we discover from the data a
disparate impact on people of color with
this low level crime and then we also
find data that shows that majority of my
clients at the Spokane County Jail once
was suffering from serious mental health
issues now all of this was going on when
we discover that something that we can
do that can make a difference might be
to try to see what we can do to connect
services together the community the
continuum of care that we were able to
provide for people has been able to make
a difference in people so we have people
that are providing housing people that
are providing health care people that
are providing all kind of services all
co-located with the court so eventually
we got to a point where we were able to
house a hoarder now 43
participant homeless people people that
have been homeless for 25 15 year 15
years they were held 143 participant
were housed within the first two years
of the program when people walk together
we can make a difference when people
collaborate together we can make a
difference now when you go through all
of this you can see that there’s one
trade in all that I’m telling you we
cannot continue to live in silos because
for so long the criminal justice system
as we insulated from the community and
as long as we don’t know what is going
on in the community people that come to
court they get what they deserve right
but it wasn’t always like that so we’ve
been able to provide all these services
through the partnership that we have and
those partnership has been able to make
a difference now let me quickly go to
the to the end of my slide to give you
an idea of what has changed since we
started this finally how these service
providers that came together were able
to discover that if we all can begin to
have a continuum of care when somebody
needs clothing when somebody needs
Allison when someone needs help we can
get get it for them now one of the
things that dr. Martin Luther King said
because the challenges we are facing
with homelessness in this nation is
great one of the things that we that dr.
King said was that a long arc of moral
universe tends to be long but it
eventually will come out the side of
justice you know we need a court that is
not run on the back of the poor based on
fines and fees paid by the poor but that
God is only gonna happen if we all step
up and begin to challenge the status quo
find out so I want to hold you as I ran
up that you look into your community
what is going on what can we do and they
get that get it data on how many people
are homeless in your city challenge why
are we not doing something about it
what can we do about it and if you have
a community code in your neighborhood I
heard you to visit them find out what is
going on find out how you can help
volunteer if you can’t volunteer please
go in there and please when you are
there thank them for me because the
volunteers make the difference now it’s
not me it takes a community of people
coming together a judge willing to
dispense justice using community input
prosecutor that we need to move away
from the mindset that the judge bail
they are measures of success by how many
conviction the gates landlord we need to
willing to rent to people with criminal
history people that are willing
employers of labor that are willing to
overlook criminal record in order to
employ people and give people a chance
we need to give people a chance thank
you I want you to join
[Applause]
you
delight in representing my client and my
trainee comments me to represent clients
are not causes but the story I’m about
to tell you is unique because it has
little or nothing to do with trial
advocacy I discovered that victory in
court alone is not enough to keep my
client out of jail and now this has been
my experience so what I discovered is
that just representing my clients and
just doing the normal work that I do
every day it’s not enough I discovered
that I have to do more I have to be able
to make sure that they don’t keep going
back to jail over and over again now
this was where I was four years ago
because I was dealing with his serious
problem where my client keep going back
and forth in jail and what has changed
was a change for me is that I discovered
that in modern America it is actually
better to be rich and guilty than to be
poor and innocent so what I’ve done that
I’ve changed the way I do my practice is
that all of a sudden I wake up every day
excited to go to work and what has
changed because I believe if I share a
little bit about my story it might
inspire one or two other people not to
give up hope air is what has changed
everyone here knows that Spokane weather
can be very tough especially around
Christmas time and for someone like me
that grew up in Africa tropical Africa
it is particularly brutal so it was one
of those on the 10 degree days that I
walk into a transitional shelter and he
was just all of a sudden somebody jump
at me say Francis remember me you saved
my life you got me out of jail I am so
happy I got a job and I got a house but
then I said I using drug again and I
lost everything when I look around the
faces of all the people in that room
that day I could number as many as 3 or
4 or 5 of them they are all our dueling
blankets and I know them by first name
now every one of those people I’ve been
able to win motion trial to get him out
of jail sometimes I go to trial for them
but as anything change when Mike finally
let go of my hand I saw something on the
wall of the transitional shelter it was
the list of all the homeless people that
died that year that are affiliated with
the shelter and when I got got near I
discover a particular name and virtually
everyone on that list I know because I
used to represent them but a particular
name jump at me it was a gentleman that
had told me about the problem he had
with alcohol and because he had a
complication he was suffering from
dementia called induced dementia
Korsakoff syndrome and he told me all
the problem he was going through when I
inquire about the cause of death I was
told that he died of frostbite now what
has happened then to change me from the
sad Frances to the joyful Frances you
know when you find out what my client go
to jail for it’s interesting that they
go to jail with something we never take
for granted virtually everybody in this
room a middle class you will never ever
be able to
a place where you will cited for
trespass for news and for noise
violation but my clients was charged for
taking a by Mike the last case I did for
Mike was because he took a bite of an
apple at the 7-eleven store guess what
the value of the item is 78 cents now
Mike gotta go to jail you know how much
it costs to keep Mike in jail a hundred
and twenty dollars per day now
what as Apple’s is there is interesting
because when I walk out of that
transitional shelter that day and I look
at what was going on I felt terrible I
believe my client shouldn’t have to die
such an horrible Oh bless death without
dignity in the greatest and wealthiest
nation on earth so when I eventually go
back to my office I was exactly done
over joy when I find a team that are
putting together a new court a new way
of doing criminal justice consists of
prosecutors you know strange bedfellows
prosecutors and public defenders coming
together
prosecutors coming together with public
defender probation officers coming
together to work with people and we
together we form a plan and we discover
that majority of the people that we have
suffer from severe mental luckily for us
our current police chief in Spokane was
able to help us get data and those data
were able to confirm to us that my
client was serving life sentence twenty
thirty days at a time you know one of
the things that my hero Nelson Mandela
said is that overcoming poverty is not a
gesture of charity it is an heart of
justice now
I discovered that with the help of the
data we discovered that in eventually
some of my clients were actually in a
position where they can’t change what is
going on they need help
so we discovered to move the court from
the courthouse to the library where my
clients made their day and that has make
a difference and we form a partnership
with Spokane medical aid foundation at
that time and Providence consistent care
we were able to provide services for
people while they are in court the group
of service providers were look all
located with the court at the place
where the clients lives at the place
where the client are that has made a
difference because my client don’t want
to go to the courthouse but who go to
the library so although all those data
were able to help us get into this and
to know what is going on behind the same
so what has changed another thing that
has changed we discover from the data a
disparate impact on people of color with
this low level crime and then we also
find data that shows that majority of my
clients at the Spokane County Jail once
was suffering from serious mental health
issues now all of this was going on when
we discover that something that we can
do that can make a difference might be
to try to see what we can do to connect
services together the community the
continuum of care that we were able to
provide for people has been able to make
a difference in people so we have people
that are providing housing people that
are providing health care people that
are providing all kind of services all
co-located with the court so eventually
we got to a point where we were able to
house a hoarder now 43
participant homeless people people that
have been homeless for 25 15 year 15
years they were held 143 participant
were housed within the first two years
of the program when people walk together
we can make a difference when people
collaborate together we can make a
difference now when you go through all
of this you can see that there’s one
trade in all that I’m telling you we
cannot continue to live in silos because
for so long the criminal justice system
as we insulated from the community and
as long as we don’t know what is going
on in the community people that come to
court they get what they deserve right
but it wasn’t always like that so we’ve
been able to provide all these services
through the partnership that we have and
those partnership has been able to make
a difference now let me quickly go to
the to the end of my slide to give you
an idea of what has changed since we
started this finally how these service
providers that came together were able
to discover that if we all can begin to
have a continuum of care when somebody
needs clothing when somebody needs
Allison when someone needs help we can
get get it for them now one of the
things that dr. Martin Luther King said
because the challenges we are facing
with homelessness in this nation is
great one of the things that we that dr.
King said was that a long arc of moral
universe tends to be long but it
eventually will come out the side of
justice you know we need a court that is
not run on the back of the poor based on
fines and fees paid by the poor but that
God is only gonna happen if we all step
up and begin to challenge the status quo
find out so I want to hold you as I ran
up that you look into your community
what is going on what can we do and they
get that get it data on how many people
are homeless in your city challenge why
are we not doing something about it
what can we do about it and if you have
a community code in your neighborhood I
heard you to visit them find out what is
going on find out how you can help
volunteer if you can’t volunteer please
go in there and please when you are
there thank them for me because the
volunteers make the difference now it’s
not me it takes a community of people
coming together a judge willing to
dispense justice using community input
prosecutor that we need to move away
from the mindset that the judge bail
they are measures of success by how many
conviction the gates landlord we need to
willing to rent to people with criminal
history people that are willing
employers of labor that are willing to
overlook criminal record in order to
employ people and give people a chance
we need to give people a chance thank
you I want you to join
[Applause]
you
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