LOCAL NEWS ASK A VENDOR Q Did the shutdown/shelterin-place period affect your life in any way? A BRIAN AUGUSTINE The shutdown made me realize how much I enjoy my job. Going from 300 or 400 smiling faces a day to just mine was hard on my psyche. Shopping was not too hard, but missing my “King Soopers family,” hurt a lot. RAELENE JOHNSON I have to stay home because I have COPD. I haven’t been able to work much because I’m scared of getting the coronavirus. I’m grateful that I live on 25 acres of land. That has helped me not to be so lonely. I get to take my dogs on long walks. Life is getting better for me because my daughter, grandson, and son have moved to Colorado. I don’t feel so lonely anymore! (I’m a very social person.) JERRY ROSEN The shutdown did affect me in some ways. Public transportation wasn’t too efficient. The bus started quite late. [Because the April and May issues of the paper were not printed,] I sold older issues, and even though they were old issues, I did quite well. NATHANIAL TROTTER Not going to work was a big change; however, I worked on my art a lot. I bought more food that I would not have gotten otherwise. I bought a water purifier, as well. RODNEY WOOLFOLK Yes, I spent it at home. I picked up a little of this or that at stores. RACHEL SULZBACH My husband lost his job. Now we stay in motels. TEMPORARY SAFE OUTDOOR SPACE DELAYED, DDPHE ANNOUNCES BY ROBERT DAVIS HOMELESS PEOPLE IN DENVER will have to wait until at least September before the city’s temporary safe outdoor space will open, Department of Public Health & Environment (DDPHE) announced. The Denver Coliseum is no longer being considered as a location following a contentious public comment session before Denver City Council, where neighborhood residents voiced concerns about encampments taking over their streets and parks, and about the overall health and safety of their potential homeless neighbors. During the meeting, Councilwoman Debora Ortega shared a statement from the Globeville Elyria-Swansea neighborhood against the use of the Coliseum as an outdoor space. “We oppose placing the outdoor tent city in our neighborhood because once again, the community was excluded from the decision-making process,” the statement said. The neighborhood is also grappling with noise pollution from the I-70 expansion project and is home to an EPA Brownfield. DDPHE says they hope to open at least three sites initially, with about 60 people allowed in each site. 9News reported that other locations being considered include Riverside Baptist Church, Landry’s Aquarium, and the Coors Field parking lot. Meanwhile, the city continues its practice of sweeping homeless camps. Two major camps—Lincoln Street and Morey Middle School—were dispersed on consecutive days. Despite protests and intervention from community members and some elected officials, several other camps were swept throughout August. In late July, Denver School Board member Tay Anderson was struck in the head by a police officer during one of the protests. He was later hospitalized for a concussion. ■ STUDY FINDS DENVER MUNICIPAL COURT OVERWHELMED WITH HOMELESS CASES, PUNISHES BLACK PEOPLE MORE SEVERELY BY ROBERT DAVIS A STUDY CONDUCTED by Denver’s Office of the Municipal Public Defender (OMPD) found the city’s municipal court system is overwhelmed with homeless cases and imposes stricter sentences on Black people compared to non-Black individuals who commit the same crime. Alice Norman, the city’s chief public defender, and attorney Nathaniel Baca, presented the findings to the Denver City Council during a Safety, Education & Homelessness Committee meeting. OMPD’s team oversaw more than 10,000 cases from 2018 WHAT DO YOU WANT TO ASK? We would like to engage more Denver VOICE vendors and readers. If you have a question or issue you would like vendors to discuss, please email community@denvervoice.org. 4 DENVER VOICE September 2020 to 2019, but was only able to dig deep into 65 percent of the cases because the remaining were still active. Their goal was to better understand the population living in Denver’s jails to determine how the city’s court system can better serve them. Three notable conclusions stood out in the report. First, a majority of cases the court hears involve people experiencing homelessness. Second, the court’s procedural requirements potentially deprive people of their Sixth Amendment rights.* Further, according to the report, Black people are overrepresented in the overall population of those arrested. Homeless people primarily enter Denver’s municipal court system in three ways: park violations, trespassing, or being drunk in public. In all, 38 percent of cases heard by the court involve people experiencing homelessness. “What these people are experiencing is essentially a revolving door, where they are let out and wind up coming back a few weeks or months later on another trespassing case. Meanwhile, their situation is slowly deteriorating,” Baca said Inside, the court’s operational procedures are misaligned with the needs of the people it serves and potentially strip individuals of their Sixth Amendment rights. The study found that 57 percent of arrestees either don’t or can’t pay Denver’s $25 fee to apply for public defender representation within the 21-day requirement and subsequently risk their right to a jury trial. Cases sent to a judge are dismissed more than 69 percent of the time, while only two percent go to trial. Compared to the statewide system, the city’s probation department doesn’t provide much support for those released on probation, either. Almost half of those released end up incarcerated, compared to the statewide rate of 35 percent. One factor driving Denver’s recidivism rate is that the city struggles to get people to appear for court dates. Sixty-eight percent of people miss their court date, and more than 1,200 of the sampled cases had active warrants for arrest. These factors contributed to OMPD’s conclusion that Black people are treated differently by Denver’s municipal court system, which results in higher incarceration rates than non-Black individuals convicted of the same crimes. During the meeting, councilmembers audibly gasped when OMPD presented the fact that Black people make up nearly 30 percent of the municipal jail population and 28 percent of the state’s homeless population while accounting for just under 10 percent of the state’s population. Black people who face charges of interference or resisting arrest are sentenced to jail in 75 percent of cases. Non-Black individuals receive jail sentences 43 percent of the time. Norman recommended several solutions, including reconsidering what role police play, how they should be funded, and finding ways to keep homeless people out of the court system. “How are the police supposed to be enforcers, mediators, therapists, social workers, case managers, and mental health experts, all in one?” she asked. Norman also mentioned how OMPD could be used to stop the revolving door for Denver’s homeless and connect them with services such as mental health counseling, empowerment, or to the Department of Human Services. Both solutions could reduce recidivism and improve outcomes for homeless people in the court system. According to the American Bar Association, homeless individuals can receive credit for time served by participating in program activities such as AA/NA meetings, training programs, or by seeking employment and counseling. “We want to be the front door to procedural justice,” Norman said. “The people who need these services are homeless, indigent, or mentally-challenged, and they are already in our office.” ■ *The Sixth Amendment guarantees the rights of criminal defendants, including the right to a public trial without unnecessary delay, the right to a lawyer, the right to an impartial jury, and the right to know who the defendant’s accusers are, and the nature of the charges and evidence against the defendant.
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