In partnership with Chatham government and nonprofit leaders, the Racial Justice Task Force of the 18th Judicial District hosted a virtual community conversation last Friday on racial justice and “the work to still be done” in Chatham’s criminal justice system.
The event took place over the Zoom video conference platform from 10 to 11:30 a.m. and had a peak attendance of 170 people. During the event, eight different speakers spoke about racial justice from their perspectives and individual expertise.
David Delaney, the task force member who organized the virtual meeting, said the group was really pleased with how the event went. Founded in 2015, the Racial Justice Task Force works to understand how racial minorities are disproportionately represented in the criminal and juvenile justice system.
“In the course of our discussion since last year, we have been talking about how to find a way to reach a broad segment of the Chatham County community,” Delaney said. “We very much thought that the discussion, our goals of facilitating conversation and getting lots of voices into discussion was absolutely met.”
Task force co-chairmen James Williams and Jim Woodall were slated as opening speakers for the event. Woodall, who was named a member of Gov. Roy Cooper’s task force on racial equity in criminal justice last Thursday, was unable to attend because of a meeting with the governor’s newly formed group.
N.C. Rep. Rep. Robert Reives II, Chatham Sheriff Mike Roberson and Hispanic Liaison founder Ilana Dubester were among a group of speakers who spoke about racial justice from their perspectives.
“If you want to see how law enforcement should operate, look here,” Reives said of Chatham during his remarks.
Roberson spoke about diversity statistics within the department, noting the department was “way ahead” of many other places but still has lot of work to do to fully represent the community.
“We are certainly not perfect, but I will tell you that we aim to learn and we know yesterday’s ways are not OK for today,” Roberson said.
Karen Howard, the chairperson of the Chatham County Board of Commissioners and one of the scheduled speakers at the event, said she had a strong commitment to using her role as a commissioner to listen to experts regarding ways to better support Chatham’s communities of color.
“Everything that I do and say is going to be framed by the context that I’m also the mother of five Black sons,” Howard said. “It can’t be that my sons are safe because we have the sheriff that we have at this moment. It has to be that we have collectively changed policy, changed thinking, changed expectations.”
Howard noted the significance of the majority of speakers being people of color and also said future policy and spending decisions must be guided with the context that all people are either “beneficiaries or victims of the current system.”
“I recognize that all of us at this table — everyone who has readily joined in this conversation — is already doing really good work,” she said. “But I also want to constantly remind us that the work has not been done well yet. There’s a lot that has to be done better.”
Other speakers included Stephanie Terry, Chatham Organizing for Racial Equity (C.O.R.E.); Mary Nettles, president, NAACP Chatham Community Branch in Pittsboro; Janeallen Wilson, director of training, N.C. Victim Assistance Network; and Del Turner, a member of the Chatham County Board of Education.
Following the remarks by speakers, facilitators invited Chatham residents to join the discussion over Zoom’s chat feature. Before ending the meeting, Delaney said he would “comb” through the chat to be sure to include community discussion in the task force’s future conversations.
“I appreciate this forum to have some beginnings of discussion, but I want to be clear that this is only the beginning of the discussion,” said Allen Baddour, the Superior Court Justice for Orange and Chatham Counties.
He added that he’d like to see much more opportunity for community discussion in the future.
“While we are doing some good things, there are plenty of other things that we can and should be doing, and I hope we can put that into a formalized process that builds on what the community is looking for,” he said.
Delaney said the task force will meet before the end of July and thoroughly discuss some of the ideas raised during the Zoom event. He said they are continually looking for ways both to continue community conversations and join in the work other groups are already doing.
“While I appreciate this moment, it is unsettling that we are just now having this discussion in a significant way. There is nothing new — we have known the data, we have known the best practices that are not being implemented and we have known where improvements could be made for a long time,” Williams said to close the event. “We must do better, we must be better.”
You can view the full recording of this event at: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFFUVuRYwXc
Reporter Hannah McClellan can be reached at hannah@chathamnr.com.