Last week La Defensa’s Judicial Accountability team took a trip to NYU for the second annual State Courts Organizing Network Convening 2024 hosted by People’s Parity Project, Center for Community Alternatives, The Center on Race Inequality and The Law, and NYU School of Law. At the convening, judicial accountability organizations and advocates from around the nation gathered to share, listen, and learn from each other in our advocacy to transform state courts across the country. 

While La Defensa’s own work focuses on the judicial system through the lens of ending pretrial detention and abolition, we were joined by other organizations who do judicial accountability work in a number of ways; some through housing court, judicial elections, court observation, and even using qualitative data as a means of showcasing the biases of the court system. There were some familiar faces and partners who have helped to inform our own work around Court Watch LA, judicial elections, and judicial accountability like that of Scrutinize, Court Watch NOLA, and Buckeye Justice Forum as well as some new and exciting people and orgs who we look forward to collaborating with in the future. (Keep an eye out for that!) 

Some special highlights of new (to us) groups were that of:

• 1Hood Media:

• • • Based in Pittsburgh but a national organization, 1Hood Media focuses on educating the public on a number of issues not limited to the judiciary, understanding the functions of the court system, and knowing their rights when in front of a judge. 
    • Coined “The Slate of Eight”, 1Hood Power, ran a slate of progressive judicial elections in 2021, of which five of the eight candidates won their respective races. 

• Moving Justice Forward Slate:

• • • Created in Missoula, Montana the Moving Justice Forward slate is made up of Jennifer Streano, Eli Parker, and Jacob Coolidge, all of whom are former public defenders who now serve as judges in Missoula Municipal Court. The three candidates ran on a criminal justice reform platform with a focus on reducing recidivism and alternatives to incarceration. Each of these three judges won with more than 62% of the vote in their respective races. (Let’s keep the same energy LA County!) 

• Right to Counsel Coalition: 

• • Established in NYC in 2014, the Right to Counsel Coalition is a tenant-lord coalition to disrupt the harm and instability caused by housing court. The Right to Counsel Coalition asserts that housing is a human right (news flash people, it is!) and therefore tenants facing eviction or homelessness should have a right to an attorney as defendants do in criminal court. 
  • In 2017, New York City became the first city in the United States to pass a law guaranteeing low-income tenants the right to counsel during eviction proceedings.
  • The Right to Counsel movement has grown across the country, with LA County even establishing it’s own chapter. You can go to their website and write an email to the LA County Board of Supervisors urging them to consider making Right to Counsel the law in housing court. 

I left the convening feeling reinvigorated and relieved to see that there are other like-minded individuals all throughout the United States who refuse to accept the status quo as finite. We have a duty to reshape our courts and bring community stakeholders into the judiciary and we have a long term vision to transform our courts into points of access, not spaces that reduce an individuals’ power.  We have the power to dismantle the system and change the future. 

The majority of the convening featured panels of organizers discussing things like how to grow progressive power, who should be included in our conversations around court organizing, and finally what do we do with the power we’ve created or what does this system look like reimagined? As an abolitionist, I consider my work in judicial elections as harm reduction rather than “reform”. I know that this beast will not be defeated through diversity hires or the electing of progressive judges but through the destruction of this system and the creation of something new. 

Prisons were created not to rehabilitate individuals but to be a more “humane” alternative to the archaic practice of capital punishment. We have come full circle in this process and prisons and jails have proven to be just as violent and tortuous as capital punishment. Studies have shown that jail diversion does not increase crime but reduces recidivism, so let’s start there! Let’s prioritize alternatives to incarceration and help people meet their needs rather than punish them for the way that our society has failed them.

Humanity’s existence has long predated prisons and we have the ability to return to a world free of prison and free of a system that classifies and cages people based on their mistakes. As En Vogue once said, “Free your mind, and the rest will follow.”