“The ideal judge would have a deep understanding of how racism has been part of our justice system”

Excerpt from Richard, a lawyer and organizer in San Jose. Summer 2021.

Interviewer: Yeah. Can you tell me the kinds of qualities that you look for in each of those offices? So, first, I guess in a DA, what types of qualities are you hoping to vote for in a DA?

Richard: So, I guess for a DA, I would want to make sure that the person understands the significant impact the criminal issues can have on noncitizens. And if the person doesn't understand that, then that's really a problem. Um, you know, and to think about other options, you know, I guess kind of the whole idea of restorative justice--thinking about, you know, having DAs in the community to help people kind of get a sense of what the system looks like and how, again, how serious immigration issues are for non-citizens, um. And somebody who, again, try to think of other kinds of options other than just, you know, locking people up and other kinds of different kinds of opportunities for people, so that they don't get funneled into the system, as a way to kind of divert people out.

Interviewer: And then what about a sheriff? What qualities do you look for in that office?

Richard: Well, I mean, we want a sheriff who has high ethical standards, who doesn't want to have tasers in the jail (haha). Yeah. Who is committed to training officers, who can understand the limits of what they can and should do so that, you know, if it's a mental health related issues, then the mental health professional should be there to handle it, not, not the sheriffs. I don't think that law enforcement really wants to do that anymore because they're just not trained to do it. And just bad outcomes happen when you know, a law enforcement officer shows up and somebody is having a mental health meltdown. Just, it's just--there just it's usually the outcome that is not going to be good.

Interviewer: […] do you have a sense of like whether they have many who are trained like this in crisis intervention?

Richard: They do have a lot of officers that are trained with a basic crisis intervention kind of training, but I don't think that's enough. I mean, that's kind of a basic level. […] So…all of the new officers in San Jose go through the basic training, and I believe they even have like a refresher course. But again, that's just kind of scratching the surface. It's kind of like you know, you get like an eight-hour training and then you've got how many other hours of training of, you know, how to shoot a gun and how to do these other things. It's just that it's not at the same level in terms of how important it is because, well, I think the officers need to be trained, but they need to be trained in a way that they need to understand that this is a situation, we need the real professional. And maybe, maybe that's where it starts. Maybe the mental health professionals needs to be first on scene.

Interviewer: That's a really great way of describing, I think, the difference in emphasis. And then what about a judge? What qualities do you look for in a judge?

Richard: Well, you know that a judge understand--I guess for me, the ideal judge would have a deep understanding of how racism has been part of our justice system over the years and that they have that as part of the way they think about things. Um, you know, obviously they need to be to be, um, objective and unbiased and all those kinds of things. But somebody who has some amount of compassion and understanding of, you know, for a person maybe who is new to the United States, who doesn't understand how it works here and how the system works, and you know, can take the time to help people understand what's happening. Because sometimes I think there is a heavy pressure that, in a lot of the criminal cases, it just, they churn out the cases because, you know, there's just so many people that have to see. Uh, you know, a judge that can--is willing to spend the time. And even in cases where, um, you know, the people don't have--don't have an attorney, for whatever reason, they don't have a lawyer and that they're willing--that the judge is willing to try to help that person at least have an understanding of what's happening. It's not an easy job, it's not an easy job.

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Related research:

Breger, Melissa L. "Making the Invisible Visible: Exploring Implicit Bias, Judicial Diversity, and the Bench Trial." U. Rich. L. Rev. 53 (2018): 1039.

Clair, Matthew, and Alix S. Winter. "How judges think about racial disparities: Situational decision‐making in the criminal justice system." Criminology 54, no. 2 (2016): 332-359.

Lopez, Ian F. Haney. "Institutional racism: Judicial conduct and a new theory of racial discrimination." Yale Law Journal (2000): 1717-1884.