A new, state-wide task force is holding virtual listening sessions across the state to hear from community partners, criminal justice advocates, and members of law enforcement about issues and ideas for criminal justice reform in their communities.

On Friday, the task force held a listening session for the Triangle area.

Established by Governor Roy Cooper in June, Attorney General Josh Stein and North Carolina Supreme Court Justice Anita Earls are leading the Task Force for Racial Equity in Criminal Justice – which consists of twenty-four members from a wide range of backgrounds.

Stein said it’s not only the task forces job to identify good ideas for addressing racial inequities in the criminal justice system, but to also successfully implement them.

“So Governor Cooper created this task force asking Justice Earls, me and the members of the task force to wrestle and advance the discussion,” Stein said. “The words chiseled on the face of the Supreme Court are ‘equal justice under law’ – and we don’t have that right now.”

The task force’s work will focus on addressing existing policies and procedures that disproportionately affect communities of color and developing solutions to combat them. The final list of recommendations will be submitted on or before December 1 of this year.

In their previous listening sessions, three recommendations have already been set in stone. These recommendations include a policy that demands officers hold each other accountable in any case of excessive use of force, for there to be a specific use of force policy that at minimum prohibits neck holds and for the North Carolina Supreme Court to require an assessment of a defendant’s ability to pay prior to charging any fines and fees – therefore not making poverty a crime.

These task force listening sessions allow everyone from pastors, judges, mayors, attorneys and advocates in the community to speak and share their ideas on how the state can push for racial equality and add to the list of recommendations.

In this past listening session, Dawn Blagrove, the Executive Director of Emancipate NC, was one of the speakers. Based out of Durham, Emancipate NC’s goal is to support North Carolina’s people as they free themselves from mass incarceration and structural racism.

Blagrove said her number one recommendation is that we do a significant divestment from law enforcement and instead further invest in the community.

“I think statistically what we know is that law enforcement does not reduce crime, that police officers spend a vast majority of their time working on things that have nothing to do with law enforcement or crime prevention,” Blagrove said.

She suggests that we use those funds from law enforcement to invest in programs with employees who are better equipped to address mental health issues and the social needs of the community.

“We need to think very critically about what we are asking law enforcement to do and what they are capable of doing,” Blagrove said.

Stein made the point that the United States is the only industrialized country in the world that doesn’t have a healthcare system available to all its citizens – so when people have mental health crises or substance abuse issues, these problems fall upon law enforcement.

“We spend hundreds of hours training law enforcement to be peace officers, but then we’re also asking them to be mental health counselors and drug counselors and social workers,” Stein said.

Durham County Sheriff Clarence Birkhead’s response to these points was that his department is pushing to recruit deputies that are reflective of all members of the community – and that transparency, engagement and accountability starts at the top – with the agencies’ leaders.

“Far too long chiefs of police all across the country have not held officers accountable for their criminal activity,” Birkhead said. “George Floyd was not the first and he will not be the last – but we have to hold these officers accountable for when they break the law.”

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