Experts talk prison reform in Baltimore

The Johns Hopkins Jail Tutorial Project hosted Beyond Bars, a panel of speakers on the criminal justice system, incarceration and reentry into society, on Tuesday night in Mudd Hall.

Jail Tutorial is a student organization that provides academic support for the  GED and other subjects for inmates at the Baltimore City Detention Center.

Tuesday’s panel featured Renard Brooks, the reentry program coordinator of the Baltimore Mayor’s Office of Human Services; Dimonte Brown, the executive director of Out for Justice; Douglas Colbert, a current University of Maryland law professor and former chair of the Maryland State Bar Section on Correctional Reform; Stephen Sfekas,  associate judge of the Baltimore City Circuit Court 8th Judicial Circuit; and Sarah David, the assistant state’s attorney for Baltimore City.

Jail Tutorial Co-Presidents Haziq Siddiqi and Lucinda Chiu, who are both juniors, moderated the discussion.

Chiu opened the panel by asking each speaker to share how he or she initially became interested in criminal justice. Sfekas explained that when he first became a judge, he inherited 3,000 probationers from his predecessor and learned criminal law through sentencing.

Colbert discussed his experience with pre-trial justice as a lawyer, which he found to be problematic for low-income clients.

“I could never understand why money decides who is free and who remains incarcerated,” Colbert said.

David, who obtained her bachelor’s degree from Hopkins, previously worked in the NYPD counter-terrorism department and attended the University of Maryland Law School. She began volunteering at a prison in Maryland teaching college courses to incarcerated individuals and now serves as a prosecutor.

Brown was arrested in 2008 after being pulled over by a police officer for a taillight and then arrested because her car smelled of marijuana. As a result, she was unable to continue coaching lacrosse and volunteering in the Baltimore school system. She is now an activist for criminal justice reform.

Brooks, who obtained his master’s degree from Hopkins, previously worked for the Department of Health and Mental Hygiene as well as the Department of Public Safety. He was first exposed to the criminal justice system while working for an all-women’s prison.

“When you have to work in prison, you’re a prisoner, too,” Brooks said. “You just get to go home and sleep every night.”

After a round of introductory remarks, Siddiqi shifted the conversation to exploring the biggest issues facing Baltimore’s criminal justice system.

According to Sfekas, the biggest problems are the high-volume courts and limited resources.

“We have plea bargains that make a lot less sense than you might think because basically we are no longer doing justice, we are moving the docket,” Sfekas said.

David concurred with Sfekas, noting that people are often incentivized to plead guilty without realizing the damaging effects of doing so.

“What’s unknown to people, and something that we need to work on advising people [about], are the collateral consequences,” David said. “The types of things that people can lose by having a criminal record are extensive.”

Colbert stated that disparities in income between defendants creates two separate systems of justice: one for the wealthy and one for the poor.

The panelists also discussed the decriminalization of drugs. Most panelists agreed that rehabilitation is more effective than imprisonment and that certain drugs, such as marijuana, will probably be legalized in the future.

Sfekas made a clear distinction between marijuana and other drugs such as heroin, cocaine, oxycontin and methamphetamine, stating that the latter are especially damaging. Brown said that all non-violent drug offenders should be set free and mandatory minimum sentencing should be abolished.

Siddiqi concluded the discussion by posing a question as to how universities and students can promote reform in the criminal justice system.

Brown stated that students can make a difference.

“When you all are in a position to hire people, hire us... hire someone with a record,” Brown said. “We don’t need legislation or policies. We just need you to say, ‘You can work here.’ We need real people to use their privilege to do real things.”

Brooks encouraged students to promote research for reentry programs and to study criminal justice. David stressed the importance of community engagement in Baltimore for Hopkins students. Colbert said that students at elite schools such as Hopkins should use their voices to demand change and reform.

During a question and answer session with the audience, one individual asked the panelists for their thoughts on for-profit prisons.

In response, Brooks condemned for-profit prisons.

“For-profit prisons are the new plantations,” Brooks said. “They are the modern-day form of slavery.”

Another student asked how the panelists work within a flawed criminal justice system while still trying to fix it.

Colbert had a positive outlook on the situation.

“In a flawed system, there is a great deal of opportunity to make a difference, to change the system,” Colbert said. “While you’re working on individual cases, you’re also looking at systemic change.”

David stressed the need for people to realize they are not confined by their professions.

“Too many people feel defined by their job. I am not limited by my job in my free time in the types of agencies and organizations I volunteer for and support,” David said.

Siddiqi explained that the Jail Tutorial Project decided to host the Beyond Bars panel in order to foster on-campus discussions about the criminal justice system.

“It’s a really exciting time to be at Johns Hopkins. There’s a push on a University-wide level to begin having really needed conversations on criminal justice,” Siddiqi said. “Earlier this semester there was the Foreign Affairs Symposium Panel on Policing in Baltimore, there’s also the IDEA Lab Ten by Twenty Challenge. Chiu hopes students learned more about their role in the community and were inspired by the panel.

“A big part of being part of the Johns Hopkins Jail Tutorial Project is that we get off campus and we go to the actual prisons and jails in the community and we get to know individuals,” Chiu said. “The purpose [of this panel] was not only to raise awareness, but to spark action.”