Richmond Justice
Exhibit Opens in Newly Restored John Marshall House Justice Gallery
The
Richmond Justice exhibit is officially open for public viewing in the newly
restored John Marshall House Justice Gallery. The exhibit will run through the month of September.
Richmond Justice started in 2016 as a year-long project produced by
Field Studio to share portraits
and stories of Richmonders whose lives have been shaped in some way by the
justice system.
The project grew from years of co-directors, Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren
making media about incarceration. The duo’s experience led them to discover
that the number of people touched by the justice system is greater than what
people tend to imagine and the stories of those affected by the justice system
are profound and must be told.
Check out our Q&A with Hannah and Lance:
Can you discuss the importance of
providing a platform for those affected by the justice system to tell their
stories?
Lance: The justice system is hard to see. If you're not inside of it—and
often, even if you are—the reasons why people are jailed or freed, prosecuted
or merely warned, tend to be shrouded in legal jargon and bureaucracy. Not
only that, the very nature of arrest and incarceration separates those charged,
and those doing the charging, from the rest of the community. And yet,
this hard-to-see system makes decisions that transform our community, one life
at a time, and often not for the better.
We believe that a sensible, fair
justice system could serve Richmond as it should. But first, we need to
understand the people in our justice system in their own words. We
couldn't find a platform that enabled Richmonders whose lives are shaped by the
justice system to share their wildly varying experiences and perspectives, and
so, we decided to create one.
What were some common experiences that
you all discovered that Richmonders face when it comes to interacting with the
justice system?
Hannah: One thing that’s easy to forget is that in many cases, families
interacting with the justice system are doing so for the first time. And
unless you’re a lawyer or an advocate, you’re thrust into a system that’s
immensely complicated and requires a steep learning curve. So it’s not
uncommon for Richmonders to feel completely lost, or worse, neglected as they
navigate hearings and trials.
We also discovered that a lot of community
members are interacting with the justice system because they struggle with a
substance use disorder. They need treatment, but due to the way that our
laws and institutions are set up, many of them end up in jail. Some get
treatment there, but treatment through jail is a counterintuitive way to address
treatment for a disease.
Which organizations are spearheading
reform efforts within Richmond’s justice system and where has progress been
made?
Hannah: This was the most heartening thing we found as part of this
project: Richmond is fortunate to have progressive people who are deeply
committed to broadening access to justice and seeking reform. The Legal
Aid Justice Center has done tremendous work on a number of fronts, especially
when it comes to juvenile justice and the school-to-prison pipeline.
There
is good work being done as part of the REAL Program at the Richmond City
Justice Center. The REAL Program works to address addictive behavior
through classes and workshops, and we’ve met graduates whose lives were
transformed because they finally learned about their addiction and what to do
about it. Some of the change is coming from the state policy level;
Governor McAuliffe signed a bill last month to reform the Virginia Board of
Corrections, strengthening their oversight of jails and tasking them with
investigating the deaths that occur with frightening frequency.
There are also
promising partnerships among foundations, nonprofits, arts groups, and legal
organizations working to address problems from multiple angles. All of
these changes are positive, but it’s hard to feel hopeful when some of the
problems are so vast: the poverty that drives people to desperate situations
and desperate decisions; the opioids and guns that are too readily available;
the laws that criminalize drug use, homelessness, and mental illness; the
corrections facilities that do little to rehabilitate. There’s an
overwhelming amount to do, but we’re grateful for the folks who are committing
their time and expertise to move Richmond in a positive direction.
Can you all describe the significance of
featuring the exhibit at the John Marshall House?
Lance: John Marshall was a child of the American Revolution, schooled and
shaped by the struggle's many strategies to secure self-government rooted
in the will of a united people. This very unity, this common sense
pursuit of common purpose—this is one key force we found often missing in the
way justice is measured in Richmond. "We're arresting the wrong
people," the Sheriff told us. "You could do 12 months in jail on a
littering charge," noted a public defender, explaining that homelessness
itself has been criminalized and locks those without shelter into a destructive
cycle of incarceration and vulnerability.
The Commonwealth's Attorney for
Richmond told us that he wouldn't want his post in "any other jurisdiction
in the state," because voters here "are at least willing to entertain
non-traditional approaches to criminal justice." But too often, he
told us, his office and other reformers haven't been enabled to bring good
ideas to scale. The result is injustice done to those convicted as well
as to the welfare and public safety of the city: "Most of the people we’ve
convicted for felonies, we will see again—not because they’re inherently bad,
as we've told ourselves, but because of the consequences of the felony in terms
of difficulties in securing stable housing, employment, and recovery. Forgotten
felons come back again and again."
John Marshall understood the need
for fairness and logic in the prosecution of law. It's impossible to know
what he would've thought of today's challenges to justice in Richmond. But his example makes clear to us that the place where we can begin to study
his legacy today is exactly the place to consider how to do justice to those in
Richmond in a way that treats them as they are—our neighbors, our fellow
Americans, sometimes our family members, and hopefully our friends.
What’s next for the Richmond Justice
project?
Lance: Through exhibits like the one we're fortunate for the chance to
launch at the John Marshall House, we hope to give more Richmonders the chance
to hear the voices that so captured us over the last year. We started
with a family-and-friends mailing list of 129 people and grew the project to an
audience of more than 20,000 by the end of 2016. We were active
in-person, too, hosting in October the only mayoral debate focused squarely on
the justice system, and then convening hundreds more at UR Downtown during the
inaugural First Fridays gallery opening this year. We pledge to keep the
site accessible indefinitely, so that an unlimited number of people may read
and learn from these stories. And we look forward to welcoming attorneys,
visitors, and supporters of all sorts to the John Marshall House in the coming
months.
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