mass incarceration – C-VILLE Weekly

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?”

Removing the mask: Series unveils racial issues within the community

By Jonathan Haynes

A little backstory: Charlottesville began as a plantation community with slavery as its foundational industry. Racial violence did not stop after Emancipation, but continued with lynchings and segregation, according to Monticello historian Niya Bates. The University of Virginia, she adds, was a big proponent of scientific racism at the turn of the 20th century. And, until last year, it had buildings named for famed eugenicists Harvey E. Jordan and Ivey Foreman Lewis.

Bates was one of the speakers at a June 22 panel, entitled Backstory Breakdown, which included Mayor Nikuyah Walker, freelance journalist Jordy Yager and student activist Zyahna Bryant. Part of the Virginia Humanities’ #UnmaskingCville series, the panel’s goal was to educate the public on racial issues affecting the Charlottesville area.

The first half of the program focused on Charlottesville’s past, and Yager traced modern wealth inequality to housing policy. He explained how, during the post World War II period, the Federal Housing Administration only offered subsidized loans for homes in neighborhoods that barred sales to black buyers—a policy known as redlining. While white Americans accumulated wealth through homeownership, which they would then pass down to their children, black Americans were effectively locked out of the housing market, which prevented them from integrating into white communities and accumulating wealth of their own.

During the evening’s second half, which focused on the future, moderators addressed the issue of Confederate statues.

Bates dismissed the notion that the statues were a source of pride in one’s heritage, explaining that they were erected in the 1920s to promulgate the Lost Cause narrative and intentionally placed in areas that intimidated black residents.

Bryant, who drafted a petition to remove the statues, expressed frustration that her tax dollars will go toward their maintenance. She said it would be cheaper to just remove them, since demolition would be a one-time expense.

Walker was outspoken on the impact mass incarceration and the war on drugs has had on the black community. “It’s about upholding a system of slavery,” she said, pointing out the racial disparities in drug arrests, despite similar rates of use. Yager concurred, noting that the language of the 13th Amendment prohibits involuntary confinement except as punishment for a crime.

This discussion continued into a Q&A, including a question about a new law Governor Ralph Northam had signed in Charlottesville the day before that requires the collection of DNA and fingerprints for two additional misdemeanors. Walker replied that Charlottesville is the locality that “fueled the law.” She cited former Charlottesville police chief Tim Longo’s “rounding up” almost 200 black men to request DNA after a victim described a serial rapist as a black male as evidence the policy is racist.

“I think it will continue to perpetuate those practices that lead to mass incarceration,” she said.