Criminal Justice is on the news and in our hearts. There is so much happening, with the killing of Tyre Nichols and other deaths in police custody, some of them racially-motivated. In our jails and detention centers, there is a continuing death toll. How can oversight boards have sufficient power to effect changes? There is also a need to address the record-breaking pace of gun violence in 2023, whether it is via mass shootings or less-noticed incidents of people being killed by gunshot wounds every day in our country.
It is so important that we have an effective Criminal Justice Committee, with members from throughout the county. We need those voices–from San Diego, Oceanside, Chula Vista, Escondido, Carlsbad, El Cajon, and countywide. The Sheriff serves the county as a whole, which is why we have been concentrating recently on that department. But there are police departments all over the county whose actions we should be aware of. That is why I encourage more members to join our committee. There is so much that needs to be done, and could be done if there were more of us. We also want to make sure that the law enforcement officers who are doing good work are not forgotten. It is too easy to have a few bad officers cause people to condemn them all.
Our committee is becoming more and more informed. Recently we had the executive director from the San Diego County Citizens’ Law Enforcement Review Board (CLERB) speak to us on the conditions in the jails; Andrea St. Julian from San Diegans for Justice shared the results and recommendations of the Audit Committee on our jails; and the San Diego County Medical Examiner explained how his office works and the difference between a coroner and a medical examiner. (See the footnote marked * below if you would like to know!). In February we will be listening to the Inspector General of LA County, who will be helping us understand when and why a county might need an Inspector General. We are becoming more informed on the ways that our county criminal justice system works, so that we know what changes are right for us to support.
As part of our committee's work, we are also addressing the issue of police in schools. We know that some communities who have abruptly removed the police from their schools have had some problematic consequences. We want to avoid that. Our research suggests that gradually implementing less punitive solutions can have positive results, especially with young people. This is one reason that we have asked local Leagues around the state to include juvenile justice in their program planning, and to emphasize it when they send in their recommendations to the LWVC. That is one of the reasons we hope that many of you will “Zoom” into the LWVSD event on February 9 at 5:30pm to hear from experts on "Restorative Justice in Education” (see article above).
The LWV San Diego is also planning a future event on gun violence, possibly in April. Ideas and speakers are still in the planning stage. Your input is welcome. Please contact me, Jeanne Brown, Chair, SD Criminal Justice Committee at jhisten.brown@gmail.com.
Our city, county, state and nation have criminal justice reform on their radar, with a lot of legislation being proposed as a result. Our committee is now doing research on bills that have passed (so that we can see how they are being implemented locally), along with bills that have not passed (and learning why). We will be sharing that information in our committee meetings and hopefully to the membership at large in the future.
* FOOTNOTE: A coroner is a non-medical person charged with determining the medico-legal cause and manner of death. In a number of California counties, the coroner is also the sheriff. There are a handful of counties in California that use an independent coroner, and five counties use a medical examiner (ME). A medical examiner is a doctor of medicine, specifically trained to investigate deaths and to make a determination of the cause and manner of death. An ME is independent and does not work for law enforcement. Each county in California could choose to use an ME instead of a coroner. San Diego County has an ME.