Harvspot: Urge Officials To Support Faith In Action Goals

When representatives of the 25 local Faith in Action congregations presented their 2018 action goals before the City Council and the Board of Supervisors recently, they were heartened by the positive responses they received. But it will still take a lot of prayer, patience and perseverance--accompanied by your emails, letters and other contacts to the local officials listed below--to assure concrete action on those goals, as follows:

1. Eliminate the financial burden of the $1 per day fee currently paid by family members of inmates at our local jail and the $3 charged for local inmates transferred to Middle River Regional Jail. This is one of numerous high priority concerns expressed by family members of inmates that needs to be addressed. Some talking points:

- The income generated by this fee represents less than .07% (7/100th of one percent) of the jail's $10.05 million budget.

- Innocent family members should be able to put money on their loved ones' accounts for phone calls and for commissary items without it having to first go toward this keep fee.

- While not all commissary items are necessities, many items would not be considered "luxuries" by most of us (an extra pair of socks or underwear, ketchup or mayo packs for dry hamburgers, breakfast coffee, energy bars for inmates doing rigorous daily workouts, etc.).

- For MRRJ inmate families, the $3 daily fee represents 4% of an annual $25,000 income. And often one of the family's wage earners may be the one incarcerated.

See http://harvyoder.blogspot.com/2018/04/why-jail-keep-fees-should-be-eliminated.html

2. Engage in a careful and open selection process for the hiring of a well qualified Community Justice Planner. This person would evaluate all criminal justice programs and practices, make strategic recommendations for the best allocation of resources, and coordinate the legally mandated biennial update to the Community Criminal Justice Board’s Community Corrections Plan. Some talking points:

--Harrisonburg, Rockingham County and JMU have recently invested $3 million in a software system to collect data about, among other things, the local criminal justice system. The Planner can use this data to created proactive strategies to reduce incarceration rates.

- The $40,000 required for the County to pay for its half of the projected annual salary and benefits for such a person, for example, would be only around .0001% of its annual budget (the City would pay the other half).

- The experience of other localities with an effective planner shows that there can be significant savings in incarceration and other expenditures that far outweigh the costs, including having someone who can apply for grant monies available for criminal justice reform.

- To fail to utilize best practices in the field can result in a local system that is wasteful of limited tax dollars.

3. Establish protocols for all juvenile justice cases to be screened for a restorative justice process. We will support transparent and community based steps in implementing restorative justice alternatives for adults and juveniles alike. Some talking points:

- Restorative Justice is already proving to be an effective alternative as utilized by the Harrisonburg City Schools, James Madison University, EMU, and increasingly by the Harrisonburg Police Department and other entities.

- RJ gives priority attention to the needs of the victim of a wrong, and of how the wrongdoer can truly make things right rather than simply receive punishment without a means of actually making restitution.

- Incarcerating juveniles should be seen as a very last resort, in that being detained with other juvenile offenders tends to be a breeding place for more criminal thinking and behavior.

Please do your part by sending letters and emails to your local public officials showing your support of the above goals:

City Council members

Richard Baugh rbaugh@hooverpenrod.com

342 S. Main Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22801

Ted Byrd tedbyrd@harrisonburgva.gov

238 Campbell Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22801

George Hirschmann george.hirschman@harrisonburgva.gov

409 S. Main Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22801

Christopher Jones cjoneshburg@gmail.com

409 S. Main Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22801

Mayor Deanna Reed deannareed32@gmail.com

231 Broad Street, Harrisonburg, VA 22802