Tag: criminal justice

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Legalize it right

Nationwide, Black and white people use marijuana at similar rates. In Virginia, Black people make up about 20 percent of the population—but 52 percent of citations for marijuana possession in the last year were given to Black people, says Chelsea Higgs Wise, executive director of Marijuana Justice, a Richmond-based group fighting for the enactment of equitable legalization policies. 

This month, both houses of the Virginia legislature passed bills that will allow legal, adult-only, recreational marijuana purchase and use beginning in 2024. In the next few days, a small conference of legislators from both houses will meet to reconcile the two bills. Governor Ralph Northam is expected to sign the final version into law, making Virginia the first Southern state to legalize the drug.

Decades of racial discrimination in enforcement means marijuana legalization is a consequential criminal justice issue. And for many supporters of legalization, Virginia’s proposed bills fail to provide adequate redress for the harms caused by the decades-long war on drugs, specifically within Black and brown communities.

“As of right now, I’m terrified,” says Higgs Wise. “The bills now are really bad. I would not want them to pass as they are right now.”

In response to the proposed legislation, Marijuana Justice—joined by RISE for Youth, ACLU of Virginia, and 21 other advocacy groups—sent a letter to Northam and the General Assembly, urging them to meet specific criteria that center on racial equity.

A central  point of contention is the legalization timeline. While the state Senate bill would permit simple possession of marijuana for adults as early as July 1, 2021, the House version would not do so until 2024, when the sale of marijuana is also legal.

Many activists also do not think it’s necessary to wait until 2024 to permit the sale or possession of the drug, pointing to the marijuana-friendly states Virginia could look to for guidance. 

“It’s going to take time to establish a new agency and go through a new licensing process, but does it need to take that long? Probably not,” says Jenn Michelle Pedini, executive director of Virginia NORML. “Such a delayed implementation really only serves the illicit market.”

Pedini suggests that legal access be quickly expanded through existing medical marijuana providers, as many other states have done.

Another key criminal justice component of legalization is the expungement of marijuana-related offenses from criminal records. Both bills would automatically expunge misdemeanors and allow those convicted of felonies to petition for expungement. Certain expungements may also require people to pay off court fees.

Automatic expungement of misdemeanors is crucial, but not a conclusive step. “Prior to 2020, anything over half an ounce was a felony,” explains Higgs Wise. “The people who have been most impacted by these unfair laws are the people with the felonies,” which impact career, housing, and education opportunities.

For those currently incarcerated, the new laws aren’t a get-out-of-jail-free card. People who are currently in jail or prison for marijuana-related offenses would be resentenced, but it remains unclear which offenses would be eligible for reevaluation, and when the resentencing process would begin.

The legislation would also make it illegal to have marijuana inside a vehicle, even if it’s not being used. Activists fear this will only worsen traffic stops—a huge driver of marijuana cases.

“Last year, we fought really hard and got the odor of marijuana to no longer be a reason to search or seize in your car,” says Higgs Wise. “In order to continue to criminalize us in the car, now all a cop has to do is say they see a green leafy substance in your car anywhere, and they have a reason to search.”

If a container of marijuana that’s been opened is found inside the car, the driver could be charged with driving under the influence.

Meanwhile, minors caught with marijuana would continue to face harsh penalties under the proposed laws, including fines, drug tests, probation, school expulsion, and the denial of a driver’s license. 

Such punitive measures have proven to have a disproportionate impact on Black youth. While Black and white youth are arrested at similar rates, Black youth are significantly more likely to be incarcerated instead of put into diversion programs.

“There’s actually data that shows us that there’s no increase in youth use because of marijuana legalization,” says Higgs Wise. “Why in the world create more penalties for young people, when we know which young people are going to be the most impacted?”

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In brief

Photo of Heather Heyer Way
Heather Heyer Way is an example of an existing honorary street. PC: Staff photo

Sign of the times

After months of debate over Charlottesville’s honorary street name policies, City Council unanimously approved two requests last week recommended by the Historic Resources Committee: Black History Pathway and Byers-Snookie Way.

Black History Pathway, located on Fourth Street NW between West Main Street and Preston Avenue, pays homage to the city’s rich Black history. It will cut through a former Black neighborhood known as The Hill, which was razed—alongside Vinegar Hill—during urban renewal in the 1960s.

Meanwhile, Byers-Snookie Way, located on 10th Street NW between Preston and Henry avenues, will honor Black community leaders, William “Billy” Byers and Elizabeth “Mrs. Snookie” Harrison. After becoming Charlottesville’s first Black aquatics director in the 1980s, Byers helped create the school division’s swim program, teaching many low-income Black children how to swim. Harrison worked alongside Byers and managed the Washington Park pool for decades.

Out of the dozen proposals sent to the HRC last fall, the committee also recommended that council approve street names honoring Black activist Gregory Swanson, enslaved laborer Henry Martin, and Charlottes­ville’s sister city Via Poggio a Caiano, Italy. 

The committee turned down requests for Tony Bennett Way (and Drive), largely due to the UVA men’s basketball coach’s “previous substantial national and community recognition.”

However, council decided to hold off on approving additional proposals until March. The HRC is also still ironing out the details of the honorary street names policy.

The committee recommends waiving the application fee, substituting the application’s essay section with simple short questions, allowing applicants to choose between a temporary or permanent street marker, requiring two to three letters of support per nomination, and providing historical context on honorary street signs and a website. 

To better handle future honorary street name proposals, the committee advises City Council to create a special naming commission that includes members from related committees.

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Quote of the week

“We’ve come to a strong compromise that reimagines our criminal justice system…to provide a clean slate for Virginians who have paid their debt to society.”

—Virginia House Majority Leader Charniele Herring (D-Alexandria) on the passing of legislation automatically sealing the criminal records of people convicted of certain misdemeanors

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In brief

City offers rent relief 

The City of Charlottesville has distributed $181,000 in rent relief funds in recent weeks, according to City Councilor Michael Payne. The program, initiated to combat the effects of the pandemic, was put together in a short period of time and has already helped 467 local households. 

Credit where it’s due 

Charlottesville Commonwealth’s Attorney Joe Platania has confirmed that Mayor Nikuyah Walker is not under criminal investigation for her use of city credit cards. Speculation about a possible investigation arose in recent weeks after acting City Attorney Lisa Robertson sent a memo to City Council reminding the mayor that “Even a small unauthorized purchase can have serious legal consequences.” However, Platania wrote in a February 22 letter that he has long been “extremely concerned about the lack of consistency and clarity surrounding the city’s credit card policy,” and that he won’t prosecute any cases of potential violations until the policy is rewritten. The credit card policy is just another thing on the already long to-do list of new City Manager Chip Boyles.

Joe Platania PC: Supplied photo

Picture this

Earlier this month, the Virginia House of Delegates voted 99-0 to make the “dissemination of unsolicited obscene images of self to another” a misdemeanor—in other words, they made it illegal to send dick pics without consent. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Well, not to the Virginia Senate, where eight male senators in a 14-person subcommittee killed the legislation, citing constitutional and enforcement concerns. 

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In brief

Tuesday afternoon's data showed an unprecented spike of COVID cases in the UVA community.

Going viral

On February 12, UVA confirmed that a case of the extra-contagious B.1.1.7 British coronavirus had been found in the university community. (Though the British variant of the disease is more infectious than previous strains, it isn’t any more dangerous once the subject has been infected.) “These are concerning developments, but we believe we are capable of managing them as an institution and as individual members of this community,” the administration wrote in a community-wide email on Friday.

On Tuesday afternoon, the school experienced a dramatic new spike in COVID cases, with 121 cases reported in a single day. Previously, the highest single-day total was 59 new cases detected on September 17.

As of Tuesday afternoon, the school reports 364 active cases among students and another 12 active cases among faculty, staff, and contract workers.

In the fall, cases hit their highest point in the semester about a week after classes began. An even more drastic early-semester spike seems to be taking place this spring: Spring semester classes began February 1, and February 9 saw a record number of new cases.

The school has decided that in-person classes will continue, though all social gatherings are banned for the time being. Mandatory saliva testing for all students continues.

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Quote of the week

“The new administration has been night and day. For one, just to know that the administration is committed to vaccinating our population.”

—Governor Ralph Northam, on how Biden taking office has affected Virginia vaccine policy

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In brief

Take my statue… please!

The huge statue of Sacagawea, Lewis, and Clark at the intersection of Ridge and McIntire has been a thorn in Charlottesville’s side ever since descendants of Sacagawea came to town in 2019 and called the statue “the worst we have ever seen.” The city hoped to remove the statue during planned renovations to West Main in the next few years, but the local government is now looking for other options. Last week, the city posted a call searching for “any suitable organization or person who would be willing to safely remove, relocate, and take ownership” of the racist bronze eyesore. If no one comes forward, we hear it might be posted on Craigslist.

Hill family demands footage release 

A group of UVA students and community members gathered outside the Rotunda last week to mark the one-month anniversary of the death of Xzavier Hill, a local 18-year-old who was shot and killed by a Virginia State Police trooper in January. The state police are investigating the incident but have not released body camera footage thus far. The Hill family says the footage, if released, will confirm Xzavier’s blamelessness in the incident.

Progressives coalesce 

City Councilor Michael Payne, who introduced Bernie Sanders at a presidential campaign rally in Richmond last February, has now endorsed a progressive candidate for Virginia governor: Jennifer Carroll Foy. Thus far, Carroll Foy’s fundraising has reflected her position as one of the left-most candidates in the race. Thirty-six percent of donations to her campaign come from donors who contributed to progressive Tom Perriello’s 2017 run, by far the highest share of any 2021 candidate, according to the Virginia Public Access Project.

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Long time coming

Anti-death penalty protestors hold signs in front of a building
For decades, activists around the state and country have been fighting to abolish the death penalty in Virginia. PC: Supplied photo

For decades, activists around the state and country have been fighting to abolish the death penalty in Virginia. In 2019, the issue rose to the forefront when Democrats won control of the Virginia General Assembly.

On Friday, the House of Delegates voted 57-41 to end the death penalty, with three Republicans joining all the Dems in support of the monumental legislation. Two days before, the state senate approved a similar abolition bill with a 21-17 party-line vote.

While certain details still need to be ironed out, Governor Ralph Northam has promised to sign the final bill into law this summer, which will make Virginia the first Southern state to ban capital punishment. Since the U.S. Supreme Court reinstated the death penalty in 1976, Virginia has executed 113 people, the second most of any state (after Texas’ 569).

Michael Stone, executive director of Virginians for Alternatives to the Death Penalty, says the group is “extremely pleased” with the new legislation. “Not only will it abolish the death penalty, but it will change the sentences of the two men still on death row from death to life in prison without parole.”

During a heated debate, Democratic legislators emphasized how abolishing the death penalty is a racial justice issue. Almost half of the people Virginia has executed have been Black, although only 20 percent of the state’s population is Black. And since 1973, more than half of the 167 people on death row who’ve been exonerated across the country have been Black.

For me, revenge, a death for a death, was not ever going to be what justice looks like.

Linell Patterson, family member of murder victims

For VADP member Linell Patterson, this end to the decades-long battle is a healing moment. 

After her father and stepmother were brutally murdered by her adopted brother, Michael Bourgeois, and his friend, Landon May, in Pennsylvania in 2001, the prosecuting attorney sought the death penalty against May, even though Patterson and her sister begged him not to.

“For me, revenge, a death for a death, was not ever going to be what justice looks like,” says Patterson, who now lives in Harrisonburg. “It’s really uplifting to think that Virginia is moving away from a system that has failed so many demographics.” 

In 2017, when Virginia executed William Mora, who murdered Montgomery County Sheriff’s Corporal Eric Sutphin in Blacksburg in 2006, Sutphin’s daughter, Rachel, also did not feel any solace—just more pain. 

“Having this bill passed, finally I think something good is coming,” says Sutphin, who has become an outspoken voice against the death penalty since her father’s murder.

As someone who has represented many people charged with capital offenses, attorney Matthew Engle says he is filled with a range of emotions.

“It’s an enormous relief to see that [the penalty] is no longer going to be a concern,” he says. “But I also feel sad about some of the cases I worked on over the years of people who were executed…It really was a waste of human life.”  

Once the bill is signed into law, all four advocates hope to see other Southern states follow Virginia’s lead, and join the 22 other states (plus Washington, D.C.) that have abolished the death penalty.

Patterson ultimately hopes that abolition will lead to a greater investment in support systems for crime victims and their families, like therapy and restitution, as well as in programs and services that prevent violence.

“There’s a lot of opportunity at this point to redistribute all of that money that was being poured into the system,” she says. “It’s exciting to think about what it actually means to restrengthen individuals, families, and communities after trauma.”

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In brief

Marijuana nugget against a white background
PC: Getty images

Joint resolution

Let’s start by putting it bluntly: On Friday, Virginia’s legislature voted to legalize marijuana, becoming the first state in the South to do so. 

Some details of the bill still need to be hashed out, however. Retail sales of legal marijuana to Virginians 21 and up won’t begin until 2024, and the new legislation doesn’t mean we can all go out and become budding gardeners in our backyards. The sale of the drug will be regulated by a new state agency, similar to the Alcoholic Beverage Control, and retail licenses will be passed out sparingly. 

The state hopes to keep marijuana sales centralized to maximize tax revenue—studies have suggested that $300 million per year in weed taxes could roll into the commonwealth’s pocket after legalization.

Jenn Michelle Pedini, director of legalization advocacy group Virginia NORML, praised the “historic vote,” but emphasized that the process isn’t done yet. “There still remains much work to be done by NORML and others to ensure that Virginia gets it right and implements legislation that is expeditious and just,” said Pedini in a press release.

Im-plaque-able activists 

Last Friday, protestors held a meeting in Court Square, demanding a new marker honoring the enslaved people bought and sold there.
PC: Staff phto

Debate continues over how to properly memorialize the location where enslaved people were bought and sold in Court Square. Last year, local activist Richard Allan illicitly removed a metal plaque from the spot, saying the marker was an insufficient tribute to the atrocities committed there. Now, Allan is leading a group of citizens calling for a more prominent memorial.

The city’s Historic Resources Committee has promised to work on the project, saying that more progress hasn’t been made because COVID has stalled important outreach to the descendants of those who were sold at the spot. Allan and his coalition are eager to see progress made, however, and last Friday the group took matters into their own hands, holding a meeting to announce that each Wednesday they’ll gather at the spot with a portable, eye-level marker to reflect and remember. 

“There’s a stain in this corner, caused by our city’s failure to honor the 20,000 people—[whose] spirits are here with us—these enslaved workers who built Albemarle and Charlottesville,” said Allan. “We believe that silence about racism can be the same as violence about racism.”

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Quote of the week

“A year ago, legalizing marijuana and abolishing the death
penalty were far-fetched. But Black Lives Matter protests moved the needle, so we just did both.”

—Delegate Ibraheem Samirah (D-Loudoun) on new laws coming out of the Virginia General Assembly 

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In brief

Likely lieutenants 

Yet another candidate has announced a 2021 run for lieutenant governor of Virginia, with Fairfax County NAACP leader Sean Perryman becoming the 13th person to declare they’re seeking the office next year. Why’s the job so popular this year? What does the lieutenant governor even do? Not to sound cynical, but one thing the lieutenant governor often does is hold higher office later on. Five of the last nine LGs to leave office have later become governor, and three of those nine have gone on to serve in the U.S. Congress.

Running it back

UVA project manager Brian Pinkston announced this week that he’s once again running for a seat on City Council. Pinkston, who also holds a doctorate in philosophy from UVA, finished fourth in a five-way Democratic Primary in 2019. Two council seats will be available this fall. Longtime school board member Juandiego Wade has thrown his hat in the ring, and Mayor Nikuyah Walker will seek re-election. Councilor Heather Hill hasn’t announced her plans yet. 

UVA project manager Brian Pinkston
Brian Pinkston PC: Supplied photo

Funny money

Mayor Nikuyah Walker is being investigated by the city for unauthorized spending, the mayor revealed in a Facebook live stream over the weekend. In her broadcast, Walker admitted to distributing gift cards to community members. “Speakers come and speak, typically about how to infuse equity in the conversation, and I pay them,” she said. In a February 3 memo to City Council, Acting City Attorney Lisa Robertson wrote that “Even a small unauthorized purchase can have serious legal consequences.” The commonwealth’s attorney’s office did not confirm or deny the existence of an investigation. We’ll keep you posted as the story develops.  

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‘They were trying to kill me’

LaQuinn Gilmore claims a group of Charlottesville police officers racially profiled and brutally assaulted him. PC: Eze Amos

LaQuinn Gilmore felt sick to his stomach. He had not eaten enough before taking the antibiotics his doctor had prescribed him for a hand infection, and knew he needed to throw up.

While driving down Monticello Avenue on the night of January 11, Gilmore pulled over, got out of his car, and leaned over next to the vehicle. He soon saw a car pull up beside him, and a man asked him if he was all right.

“I’m thinking it’s just a concerned citizen or something, and I’m like ‘Yeah, I’m all right man. I just took some antibiotics,’” says Gilmore, a local musician. After he started dry heaving, the man repeated his question, “and I’m like hold up—this can’t be no concerned citizen.”

When Gilmore again said that he was fine, the man ordered him to get back into his car and stepped out of his own vehicle. Through the brightness of the headlights, Gilmore finally realized the man was a Charlottesville police officer.

The officer, who is white, approached Gilmore and asked to see identification. Gilmore, who felt he was being racially profiled, pulled out his phone and started recording. From there, Gilmore says the incident escalated into a violent altercation that left him with serious injuries.

A brief Facebook livestream shows Gilmore say “stop walking behind me” and “I haven’t done anything.” He accuses the officer of harassing him and claims that he knows his rights, while the officer continues to follow him down the sidewalk.

In the video, the officer orders Gilmore to calm down and put his phone away, and tries to snatch or knock down the device. When Gilmore refuses, the officer handcuffs him and the livestream stops.

While he was being pursued and detained by the officer, Gilmore says that four or five more police cars arrived on the scene. 

“The way I see that they were set up, I thought they were going to shoot me,” he says. 

After body slamming Gilmore to the ground, six to nine officers “jumped all over his body,” he says. Gilmore was already wearing a splint on his injured hand.

“The pressure they were putting on my body, I could feel stuff cracking,” he adds. “They were trying to kill me.” They also searched his entire body and pockets, Gil­more claims. 

After seeing Gilmore’s livestream, his friend Morris Rush, who lives nearby, drove to help him, arriving shortly after the officers yanked Gilmore up off the ground. 

“When I first got there, they were standing. There were several officers around [Gilmore], I would say four to five,” says Rush. 

According to both men, the white officer who first confronted Gilmore then brought him across the street to speak with the shift commander, who had arrived on the scene. 

“[Gilmore] was still in handcuffs and upset about what had happened,” says Rush.“I asked [the officers] was he under arrest, and they said no. I asked them why was he still in handcuffs then, so they took them off of him.”

Gilmore says the shift commander then asked him about what happened. The commander apologized multiple times, but claimed that the officer who initially confronted him was a “good officer.”

“I could tell by the officer’s body language that he was very frustrated,” says Rush. “He knew he had done something wrong.”

“The pressure they were putting on my body, I could feel stuff cracking. They were trying to kill me.

LaQuinn Gilmore, local musician

The shift commander then let Gilmore leave. He was never arrested or charged.

“I’m glad I came down there, because I don’t know what could have happened,” adds Rush. 

Following the incident, Rush drove Gilmore to his house.

By the next morning, Gilmore could barely walk. He went to the emergency room, where he was diagnosed with a closed head injury, a concussion, contusions on his legs, acute bilateral lower back pain, and acute post-traumatic headaches. 

Because he does not have the money to pay for rehab, Gilmore plans to do it on his own from home. He’s also had to delay a planned new album release.

Since the alleged assault, Gilmore has filed an internal affairs complaint with the Charlottesville Police Department. The department has 45 days to complete its investigation and announce its findings. If the complaint is found unfounded, exonerated, or not resolved, it can then be investigated by the Police Civilian Review Board.

According to police spokesman Tyler Hawn, the department cannot comment on Gilmore’s allegations at this time, and cannot comment on whether or not it plans to release body camera footage of the incident.

With the assistance of his lawyer, outspoken local criminal justice reform advocate Jeffrey Fogel, Gilmore plans to sue the department. He’s also started an organization called Capture Cops, encouraging people to record police activity.

Gilmore has set up a GoFundMe to help support himself and his family over the next few months.

“It still bothers [Gilmore] a lot physically and mentally. He’s still having problems with his back. He’s in and out of the hospital, taking a lot of medication,” says Rush of the aftermath. “He’s making it through, but it still bothers him.”

Correction 2/4/21 – An original version of this story said the department did not plan to release body camera footage, when in fact at publication time it had not determined whether or not it would release body camera footage.

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In brief: No pipeline, Xzavier Hill, and more

Many wonder if President Biden will intervene in western Virginia’s Mountain Valley Pipeline. PC: Mountain Valley Watch

Will the prez put away
the pipelines?

Joe Biden hit the ground running during his first few days on the job, including passing an executive order that has energy tycoons sweating over projects in Virginia. Last week, the new president canceled the Keystone XL pipeline, a controversial oil pipeline that would have carried fossil fuel from Canada into the U.S. That’s left industry insiders wondering if Biden will directly intervene in other pending pipelines—including the Mountain Valley Pipeline in western Virginia. 

The MVP, a natural gas pipeline that has been under construction since 2018, has been tied up in legal limbo for years. It’s now facing a sixth lawsuit over important Federal Energy Regulatory Commission permits for stream crossings, reports the Roanoke Times.

Whether or not Biden intervenes directly, new appointments at regulatory agencies could serve to slow the project. The new Biden-appointed head of FERC is a commissioner named Richard Glick, who has voted against multiple of MVP proposals in the past. In September, after the commission voted to approve a permit for the pipeline, Glick wrote a dissent, stating that “the Commission once again refuses to consider the consequences its actions have for climate change.”

Justice for Xzavier

The demands for justice for 18-year-old Xzavier Hill continue. 

On Friday, family and friends held a memorial service in Henrico County for the Charlottesville teen who was killed by state police earlier this month. Afterward, around 100 protesters rallied in
the funeral home parking lot, and peacefully marched to the Goochland Commonwealth’s Attorney’s Office, calling
for the release of the dash cam footage of the shooting. 

While police claim that Hill, who is Black, led them on a high-speed
chase and displayed a gun, his family says the footage proves their son was not carrying a weapon and was innocent.

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Quote of the week

“It’ll always be remembered as a day of shame, and there has to be accountability for it.”

—Senator Tim Kaine, explaining to MSNBC why he and other senators filed an ethics complaint against U.S. Senators Josh Hawley and Ted Cruz

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In brief

Housing help

The Charlottesville Redevelopment and Housing Authority is providing housing vouchers to 40 households in need that have a disabled family member between the age of 18 and 61. The households must currently be experiencing homelessness, or be in a rapid re-housing or permanent supportive housing program. Applications open January 29, and end February 26.

No shot

The Old Dominion is struggling with vaccine rollout. Virginia currently ranks last in the nation in percentage of doses sent to the state that have them been administered. As of this weekend, the CDC reports that Virginia has used just 42 percent of the doses it has received. Meanwhile, our neighbors to the west are among the nation’s leaders—West Virginia has administered more than 83 percent of its doses, one of the best marks in the nation. 

Food.

Local food justice nonprofit Cultivate Charlottesville, in cooperation with the city government and a host of other local charitable organizations, has launched a food insecurity text hotline. Area residents in need of food assistance can text FOOD or COMIDA to (844) 847-6518 to learn about the resources available to them in their time of need.

Bucc-ing expectations

St. Anne’s-Belfield class of 2013 graduate Aaron Stinnie has Super plans for the weekend after next—the third-year NFL pro will start at guard for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in the Super Bowl. It’ll be just the third professional start for Stinnie, who went undrafted out of JMU but was thrust into the action after Buccaneers starter Alex Cappa was hurt in this year’s wild card round. Stinnie will have a tough task keeping the Kansas City defensive front away from the legendary Tom Brady.

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YOU issue: Criminalization of poverty

The Fountain Fund lent Kevin Mellette around $2,500 to help him pay restitution. eze amos

Here’s what readers asked for:

I’d like to suggest a piece on the criminalization of poverty (which is essentially what is happening to people who are incarcerated and are low-income), and a look at what we do at the Fountain Fund, where we provide low-interest loans to the formerly incarcerated to help them get their lives back.—Erika Viccellio

C-VILLE Weekly has covered stories on this issue, such as last week’s update on the Legal Aid Justice Center’s attempt to stop the state’s practice of automatically suspending driver’s licenses because of unpaid court fines and fees. These suspensions are often unrelated to the crime itself and are made with no regard to the person’s ability to repay the costs. They perpetuate the cycle of debt, unemployment, and incarceration.

Former U.S. attorney Tim Heaphy had firsthand experience putting away lawbreakers, but was less familiar with what happened once they’d done their time. When he ran into a man he’d prosecuted, Heaphy learned how difficult it was for a felon to get his life back and how debilitating court debt was to becoming a productive citizen.

The man was “literally shackled by these fines and fees that were not connected with the crime,” says Erika Viccellio, executive director of the Fountain Fund, which Heaphy founded to help those returning from prison successfully reenter the community.

“The criminalization of poverty is a real thing,” she adds.

Heaphy launched the nonprofit Fountain Fund two years ago. He raised $500,000, and the fund made its first loan in May 2017.

Viccellio, who has worked with local nonprofits for the past 20 years, recently decided to focus on equity and justice. She says she’s learned that “mass incarceration is the new Jim Crow.”

In her two months at the fund, she says, “I’ve had so many shocking moments.” She learned that it costs $400 a month to have an ankle bracelet for home incarceration. “Are you kidding me—$400 a month?”

The Fountain Fund loaned that person money for the bracelet, and when it came off, made a second loan to help make a down payment on a car.

In the past 18 months, the fund has made 54 loans to people totaling $135,000. The average loan is $2,500 and the fund is pushing that to $3,000, says Viccellio.

“We’ve spent time with hundreds of people to get them connected with the help they need,” she says. That can be court-debt counseling, which can be daunting if it involves fines and fees from multiple courts. “Sometimes people just need help navigating.”

And the repayment rate? “One hundred percent,” says Viccellio. She admits that by bank terms, she’s had a few defaults. “If you’re talking to us helping us to understand why, we’ll work with you.” And that is a unique aspect of the program, she says, finding the right balance between accountability and working with people “when life happens.”

For many of the fund’s clients, “It’s about someone believing in” them, says Viccellio.

The Fountain Fund has caused her to imagine the difference these loans can make in people’s lives, as well as other possibilities. “What becomes possible for people without these fines and fees?”