The Young, Gifted and Black Coalition has consistently met at neighborhood meetings, committee hearings and with the public to advocate for reforms to reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system.
The group says they will continue advocating the city in the coming weeks. On Tuesday, March 10, they will attend the Public Protection & Judiciary Committee meeting, which will discuss funding proposals for the county jail. Thursday, March 12, University of Wisconsin professor Karma Chávez will host a community debate with Dane County Sheriff Dave Mahoney, Young, Gifted and Black Coalition, MOSES: Madison Organizing in Strength, Equality, and Solitarity Jail Taskforce and the No Dane County Jail Working Group.
The coalition published an open letter to Madison Police Department in January, calling for reforms to policing and incarceration practices they say disproportionately target people of color.
Young, Gifted and Black Coalition targets MPD; seeks self-governance
Demands included halting the construction of new jail facilities and reducing the number of beds in the existing Dane County jail. Coalition leaders have also spoken before the Equal Opportunities Commission and MPD community forums.
Coalition members point to the disproportionate number of black residents incarcerated in the Dane County jail.
“If there was no structural racism, the jails and the arrest rates should be proportional to the demographics of the population,” the letter said. “In a jail of 800, without structural racism and a demographic of five percent black population, there should be closer to 40 black people, rather than the 400 black people currently incarcerated.”
The group’s primary objective is to open up a dialogue between MPD and community members, coalition organizer Brandi Grayson said.
“[The dialogue is about] what we can do differently in the neighborhood, how we can empower people to be more accountable in their own neighborhoods and what the police can do to help people self-determine versus coming across as an enemy,” Grayson said.
However, there has not been much dialogue so far, Grayson said.
Police Chief Koval responded to the letter in a January blog post.
“Based on the diversity and the strength of character personified in our workforce, the training which is second to none and ever-striving for best practices, coupled with checks-and-balances that serve to bring rogue cops or practices to the light of day, I will not buy into the naive supposition that our community’s disparity issues are largely owing to a pervasive pattern of systemic racism by MPD,” Koval said in his blog.
Koval included an outline of legislative changes necessary to address racial disparities in the county’s criminal justice system.
Dane County Supervisor Leland Pan considered the concerns articulated by members of the community, including the Young, Gifted and Black Coalition.
“For me, what’s most poignant is the fact that the biggest predictor for if you’re going to end up in jail is if you’ve been to jail before,” Pan said. “It’s not a program to help stop crime in the long term, so it’s not making us safer, it’s not helping people with the issues they’re dealing with and it’s not reducing crime overall.”
Pan said he supports County Executive Joe Parisi’s proposed initiatives to reduce racial disparities in the criminal justice system. The proposal includes monitoring traffic stops for racial profiling by police.
