On Criminal Justice Reform – Lifelong Lakers

What would true “justice for all” look like in America? In this one-hour webinar, Aurora mayor Richard Irvin and defense attorney Jarrett Adams (BA Criminal Justice, ’12) will discuss their work to address inequities in the justice system. Licensed attorney and Roosevelt lecturer Natasha Robinson will moderate the conversation on community policing, accountability and crucial system-wide reforms.

Panelists:

Jarrett M. Adams Esq., Criminal Defense Attorney

Richard C. Irvin Esq., Mayor of Aurora

Moderator: Natasha Robinson Esq., Lecturer in Government, Law and Justice

BIOS:

Jarrett M. Adams Esq. (BA Criminal Justice, ’12) specializes in criminal defense and civil rights cases, practicing in both state and federal courts. Adams was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault at age 17 and sentenced to 28 years in a maximum security prison. After serving nearly 10 years and filing multiple appeals, Adams was exonerated with the assistance of the Wisconsin Innocence Project. Adams used the injustice he endured as inspiration to become an advocate for the underserved and often uncounted. He recently authored Justice for Sale, a story about his life.

Born and raised in the city he now leads, Mayor Richard C. Irvin (BBA ’95) made history when he was elected mayor of Aurora, Illinois in 2017. He is the first African American to hold the position in Aurora’s 180-year history. With the new themes of “There’s Something Happening Here” and “Aurora is Open for Business,” he has spearheaded new levels of energy, enthusiasm, engagement and economic development in the City of Aurora.

Moderator Natasha L. Robinson Esq. is a professor at Roosevelt University. She teaches courses relating to criminal justice and is a faculty member of the Government, Law and Justice Department. Prior to coming to Roosevelt, Professor Robinson was a teacher at Chicago Public Schools, teaching law courses to high school students enrolled in the honors program. Professor Robinson has been a licensed criminal defense attorney for 20 years, having served for twelve-and-a-half years as an assistant public defender of Cook County, specializing in the representation of indigent clients charged with felony crimes.

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Mablene Krueger: University Schaumburg campus. It is a pleasure to welcome you today and give some brief introductions.

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Mablene Krueger: And a very special welcome to our Roosevelt university president Aleem Alexa day who is with us this afternoon.

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Mablene Krueger: We are so pleased that you’ve joined us today for a very important discussion on criminal justice reform.

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Mablene Krueger: Recent events have proven that we urgently need to reimagine public safety in order to serve and protect all Americans.

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Mablene Krueger: And we’ve been asking ourselves and each other. What does true justice for all look like and how do we get there.

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Mablene Krueger: We are honored to have Aurora Mayor Richard urban and defense attorney Jared Adams joining us today to discuss

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Mablene Krueger: Their work to address inequities in the justice system. We’re looking forward to hearing their thoughts on community policing accountability and crew crucial system wide reforms.

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Mablene Krueger: Before I share more about our guests. I want to make sure that our audience is aware that we do have dedicated time at the end of the webinar for questions.

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Mablene Krueger: So we encourage you to use the Q AMP a feature throughout the hour to ask your questions and we will address as many as we can in our time.

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Mablene Krueger: Together. Now on to the introductions Mayor Richard urban who is born and raised in the city. He now leads made history when he was elected mayor of Aurora, Illinois in 2017

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Mablene Krueger: He is the first African American to hold the position in Aurora is 180 year history.

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Mablene Krueger: With a new theme. So there’s something happening here and Aurora is open for business. He has spearheaded new levels of energy in the city and attorney by profession mirror urban is a former assistant state’s attorney for the Cook County state’s attorney’s office.

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Mablene Krueger: And former prosecutor for King County state’s attorney’s office where he also served as program, founder and community based prosecutor for the successful Weed and Seed program in Aurora.

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Mablene Krueger: And he is also a Robert Morris University alum Jared Adams is an attorney who specializes in criminal defense and civil rights cases practicing in both state and federal courts.

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Mablene Krueger: Adams was wrongfully convicted of sexual assault. At age 17 and sentenced to 28 years in a maximum security prison.

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Mablene Krueger: After serving nearly 10 years and filing multiple appeals Jared was exonerated with the assistance of the Wisconsin Innocence Project

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Mablene Krueger: He used the injustice. He endured as inspiration to become an advocate for the underserved and often uncounted Jared is a Roosevelt alumni.

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Mablene Krueger: completing his bachelor’s and criminal justice in 2012 and now I’d like to introduce our moderator Natasha Robinson Natasha is a professor at Roosevelt University.

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Mablene Krueger: She teaches courses relating to criminal justice and as a faculty member of the government Law and Justice Department

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Mablene Krueger: Professor Robinson has been a licensed criminal defense attorney for 20 years having served for 12 and a half years as an assistant Public Defender of Cook County.

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Mablene Krueger: Specializing in the representation representation of indigent clients charged with felony crimes. Please join me in welcoming our panel today and Natasha, I’ll turn the mic over to you to start our discussion.

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Natasha Robinson: Thank you so much, Maybelline for this opportunity. Thank you to Roosevelt, the community to our president, President Elect Alexa day

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Natasha Robinson: We are just so so so thankful and happy for you all to be here, and especially to our esteemed panel mayor Irving and attorney Adams and so even though it feels very official right now we’re going to kind of, you know, relax and have a conversation

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Natasha Robinson: And the conversation is just going to be the beginning of many hopefully that will sprout.

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Natasha Robinson: From conversation to action. Alright, so thank you so much for being here. We’re going to get into our questions and just by way of

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Natasha Robinson: Protocol. If you have questions, and this is for the audience. If you have questions, please put your questions in the chat so that we can come back to them and answer them as we will make sure every question has been answered.

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Natasha Robinson: All right, so, gentlemen. I’m going to ask you all some some questions that will start the conversation.

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Natasha Robinson: As a collective and then there may be some questions, which you may want to address individually. Alright.

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Natasha Robinson: So the first question is to get us started.

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Natasha Robinson: Could you share a little bit about your background and what led to your current career.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Go right ahead, bro.

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Jarrett Adams: Oh, you want me to go. Okay, go.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Go right ahead. Go right ahead.

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Jarrett Adams: On it to you, but

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Jarrett Adams: I, I thank you guys for giving me the opportunity to speak and also to be on on you know this panel with the mayor.

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Jarrett Adams: And I’ll follow you know your run. And so from afar. I was proud of him. Even prouder now at the history that you’ve made out of necessity of a war. So I wanted to make sure that I acknowledge you for that.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Thank you.

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Jarrett Adams: You know, look, my story isn’t when I would have signed up for mother.

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Jarrett Adams: Pretty much a single mother South Side of Chicago. I don’t have the story of of being in the streets in turn my life around I’m fascinated by those stories. I grew up in communities.

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Jarrett Adams: With people who have those stories but I pretty much stayed out the way as a child and you know that’s even more scarier.

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Jarrett Adams: Because it seems like I’m despite me not having a record and getting into any trouble. But that’s not how I was treated when I gotten face in the face of the judicial system.

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Jarrett Adams: And so having gone through that I took a detail you know diary, so to speak about the inequities in justices that took place along my journey through the criminal justice system and in going through what I went through.

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Jarrett Adams: I don’t have a story of an act of violence that I saw that is my biggest memory of going to prison.

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Jarrett Adams: My biggest memory that is still estimated memory today are the wrinkles increases of anguish that a lot of my mother’s forehead, as she blamed herself for not being able to afford to give me an attorney.

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Jarrett Adams: So it was that after getting my conviction reversed and meeting a lot of other gentlemen who were the victims of not

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Jarrett Adams: Not what they’ve done. But in a lot of times the victim of the circumstances of their upbringing, their communities. Their lack of resources. So when I got out.

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Jarrett Adams: I didn’t simply want there to be a period where God only intended a comma to be. It wasn’t supposed to be Jared Adams wrongfully convicted, then it was supposed to be when I’m working on right now, which is trying to find a way

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Jarrett Adams: To, to make sure that my testimony is share to inspire others to do the same. It’s not going to be one case that fixes this thing. It’s not going to be one mayor, it is going to be everyone

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Jarrett Adams: That is that is living in the United States right now to try to work together to set aside our differences to make this place, a place in which we want to leave it.

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Jarrett Adams: For our descendants and loved ones. And so in doing that, I had to go to school. I knew I wasn’t going to be able to get this done without educating myself. I had the experience, but I had to go to school.

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Jarrett Adams: I chose Roosevelt because I love the history of rows of them. I love how it was founded and how African Americans found Roosevelt as a as a school of refuse that would

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Jarrett Adams: would accept them. I love that embodiment. So I enrolled in Roosevelt and I worked full time as an investigator at the Federal Public Defender’s office.

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Jarrett Adams: while going to school in Roseville my office was about two or three blocks away from Roosevelt in my office was 55 s Monroe, so I was able to get to work 530 in the morning.

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Jarrett Adams: do my homework go out in the field serve subpoenas look for witnesses, get off of work at 530 do my homework and make it to class at 630 and get out of Roosevelt 930

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Jarrett Adams: I did this, my entire time, because that is just how how important it was for me to get to where I am today.

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Jarrett Adams: Having gone through that graduating to law school. I am mentioning all of these accomplishments, not to impress anyone

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Jarrett Adams: But to impress upon folks who are here then importance of grabbing hold of your drink and never ever let go. And that’s why I’m here today. And that’s my background store. Wow.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Great store brother great store.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, and I’ve got

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Somewhat similar similar store tea and commit starting off and you know just took a little bit different path, as you know, during

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Just, just throughout my lifetime. I also, I was raised in low income housing in the city of Aurora. Aurora Housing Authority single mother. They raised my brother and I.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, we had different fathers. His father was in and out of prison. My father was on drugs.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And you know just growing up in that environment. You know, you deal with whatever young, young men deal with in that environment, you know, gangs and drugs.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And as I was coming up. That’s when gang started happening kicked off real strong in the city of Aurora.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And, you know, because of the neighborhood I lived in, you know, I was in a gang. Just because everybody else in the neighborhood was in a gang, you know, war, the colors were the hats tilted to the side, you know, because I thought it was cool, you know, until when I turned

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Mayor Richard Irvin: 15 years old and a friend of mine that I grew up with the time we were five years old, you know, and when you grow up in a neighborhood. Like, that seems like everybody’s your family.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, when he shot and killed a boy, you know, and went to prison, you know, as an adult.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And from that point on, it just woke me up and I realized just being involved in gangs. There was nothing good to come of it at all.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: So at that point, I just, I pretty much divorce myself from the community that I grew up in and you know I

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Wasn’t very good in high school. Matter of fact, my average grade was a C minus I remember having to to beg my Spanish teacher for a D instead of an F, just so I can graduate with my classmates.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And he gave me a you know a d minus which evidently was enough for me to graduate.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And after I graduated high school, I remember asking my mom who at the time worked at the factory, which is most of the folks in my family. Did I was the first one in my family to graduate from

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Mayor Richard Irvin: My immediate family graduate from high school, I said, Mom, what next, and she said, Well, get a job, that’s what we do. And I said, You know, I felt like I didn’t know what it was I wanted to do and direction. I wanted to follow.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: But I knew that I felt that it should be something more. Not that you know getting a job in a factory was a bad thing. That’s how she you know took care of me and my brother.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, but that’s how my grandfather, you know, took care of our whole family was the, the male figure in my life.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: But I just felt like I should do something more. So I joined the military. I joined the army and spent most of my time in Germany, but while I was in the army. I got

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Mayor Richard Irvin: I got deployed to Saudi Arabia during the goal for and while being there in this you know almost third world country seeing people the same color skin is I had

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Struggling living in huts no bigger than, you know, large you know refrigerator boxes.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, I thought to myself, I want to do something to make sure this in equity and unfairness didn’t happen. I don’t want to do it here because there’s not where I’m from.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: But what I see here. And what I see in my community. Growing up in low income housing. I just want to work.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: To do whatever I need to do to make sure to to create fairness and equity create an equal playing field for for didn’t know how I was going to do it. But that’s, that was my goal. I said, If I make it back alive from them.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: For more, and there were a circumstance where I didn’t think I was gonna make it back alive. I said, I made it back alive. I’m going to commit my life to doing better and doing more

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Mayor Richard Irvin: So I got back, I got military I use my GI bill and college fund, which was the whole reason I went to the military, you know, to afford to go to college, one day.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And I found Robert Morris College, later to become Robert Morris University. And while there. I

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Mayor Richard Irvin: I, I realized that I was a lot smarter than I was told my whole life. You know, I was a lot, you know, if I committed myself and just paid attention and and forced myself to do more that you know I could Excel.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, I went to Robert Morris and I remember the first test I ever took an African American woman, her name was miss him. She was my communications teacher. I got to be plus on it.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: She said to me, you know, Richard. You know, I think you are very smart, intelligent young man, which I’d never people have never told me now. They said,

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Because I talked a lot. I should be a lawyer, but it was when when people said that it was almost like a fairy tale like you should be an astronaut or something like that.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, so I never took it seriously. But, you know, Richard. All you make good points. You should be lower because I’d be arguing with adults. My grandma and folks. Anyway, this, this, this.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: This a teacher and his professor says, you know, you got to be plus. That’s good. But I think you can get an A.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: So on your next test. I want you to study a little harder. I want you to work a little harder. You know, I want you to focus a little more. And I want you to get an A.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: So I got an A on that next test because she asked me to when she believed in me and then

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Mayor Richard Irvin: It felt good. So I got a in the test at the next test and the next test and I got straight A’s all throughout my my Associate Program and I began to believe in myself because somebody believed in me.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And, you know, at that point, I, I decided I wanted to go on and get a four year degree Robert Morris UNIVERSITY STARTED, you know,

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Mayor Richard Irvin: A four year program I stayed there. So I left for a while. I came back, came back with the idea that I’m gonna be a lawyer, everybody look at me like I was crazy because nobody graduated from

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Mayor Richard Irvin: The four year program yet and I was already talking about not only graduating from the four year program, but going on to higher education. So I was the first person.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And Robert Morris history to go on to higher education after bachelors program so similar to you, I come to Robert Morris.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: During the day at night. I’d go study for the bar Barbary the L set to to prepare to take this test to eventually become a lawyer, so I’d go to school during the day.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Elsa Elsa prep during the night, and on the weekends I work a part time job. You know, so I was constantly focused on on being better

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Mayor Richard Irvin: So it came to the point where I took the outset I you took my offset with my GPA and

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know my military background applied to only three law schools northern

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Illinois University Southern University and you will die because it was only three state schools that had law schools and I had to go to a state school to get the GI Bill

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Mayor Richard Irvin: In college, fun, so I got accepted in northern I went to Northern passed on my three years and

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Mayor Richard Irvin: passed the bar exam on the first try, which, you know, oftentimes you hear folks don’t do especially background where I came from.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Became a prosecutor in Cook County work there for about a year and decided, you know, it was like being the military.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: There was a, you know, thousand prosecutors spread out, you know, and I didn’t really know everybody or know anybody that wouldn’t where I was from. So I

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Went to a smaller county Kane County, which was the Aurora, which is where my city was work my way up within two years became a felony Prosecutor.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And I won’t lie to you. It was difficult for me when I first became a prosecutor, because every day in court. I would see someone

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Mayor Richard Irvin: That I that I grew up with, I would prosecute someone or their children that I grew up with every single day. I’d say someone that was hard and I was going to quit.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: This wasn’t it didn’t feel right, but a white man told me white defense attorney says if you don’t stay here and ensure

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Equity ensure fairness and you because your background and and where you’re from and and you knowing these folks and their background and where they’re from. You’re the only one that will understand the circumstances and be able to treat them fairly. So I stayed

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And did for me as a prosecutor my second two years I was the first ever community based prosecutor working out in the neighborhoods that I grew up in

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Mayor Richard Irvin: In Aurora, you know, I mean, stopping crime from prostitution.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: In our in our neighborhoods, from drug dealing, to, you know, all the way up to murder prosecute and just getting out in the community and helping people understand

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Mayor Richard Irvin: That this is where we live. This is our home. Let’s take back our community. We don’t have to accept that people are standing on the

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Street selling drugs. We don’t have to accept that there’s prostitutes. Let’s, let’s be proud of our community matter if you live in low income housing or government assisted housing. The fact is we live here. Let’s take pride in it.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And after, after doing that for a couple of years. I started my own Law Firm A block down the street from where I grew up in low income, low income housing the same exact same street. I used to play there as a kid in this parking lot.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, and after doing that for a number years as a defense attorney now defending the folks that I that I grew up with. And you know folks that look like me and talk like me.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: I decided I wanted to run for office and I became an alderman at large. I was an ultimate for 10 years and now

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Mayor Richard Irvin: I’m the first black mayor in the city of roar for in 180 years and it wasn’t no it wasn’t easy track, but it was one that’s that that was worth working, working for

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And I, and I as you do. I don’t tell the story, you know, just for me to hear it, you know, and pop my own self. I tell it to let other young people that look like me.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: That grew up in the same neighborhoods is me that I’m no different. I’m no better. I’m no smarter. I just had

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Someone believed in me. I began to believe in myself and I want to impress upon people that if you believe in yourself and and work hard, you can get to where I am. If I did it. So can you

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Simple as that. And, you know, now I’ve been mayor three and a half years coming up on reelection soon. And, you know, trying to just do the best I can to make my seat of the best city in Illinois.

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Natasha Robinson: My goodness. There’s so much to unpack in the sharing of your stories, both from you attorney Adams and Mayor Irving

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Natasha Robinson: There are some commonalities that I hear some threads that you should be included the fact that there was a intentionality of the community to support you.

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Natasha Robinson: Somebody speaking into your lives and saying, despite what others may box you in, you have the ability to go above and beyond that Jared with you.

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Natasha Robinson: In your pursuits of your undergraduate in your law degrees in the Irving with you in terms of going overseas to fight for our country and then come back in, then the career that happened from there. So I guess my question is,

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Natasha Robinson: How were you able to with with all of the background that you have and this is a question for both you for all of the backgrounds that you have for all of the challenges that you have

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Natasha Robinson: What is it that helped drive your ability to come back and get your undergraduate and your graduate degrees as adults.

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Natasha Robinson: Because we have a significant population of students at Roosevelt, who are adult learners. So how did you structure your schedules and your experiences to align in order to be able to accomplish which you have described. Yeah.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Yeah, I’ll start this one. Um, yeah. After I got the military, the whole reason I went to the military was

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Mayor Richard Irvin: One of the reasons that most important was to get money to be able to go to college and I knew

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Mayor Richard Irvin: That I should go to college. I didn’t know why no one in my family going to college and could give me the tell me the experience, but

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know about the experience, but I knew that if I wanted to be more and do more.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Be more than my circumstance. It’s be more than this. Just this little Nappy Headed boy that grew up in an era housing authority. I knew I needed to be educated

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, I was already educated somewhat when I wouldn’t the military and travel the world to Germany, Saudi Arabia, Greece, different places, but I wanted to be, you know, academically educated

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Mayor Richard Irvin: So I could compete on the same level because I recognize, you know, is we all know as as African American man. We got to work longer and harder, you know, then I’ve been our counterparts.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know that don’t have the same pigmentation and in our skin, so I knew to get a head that i i needed education and once

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Mayor Richard Irvin: These folks started believe in me in academia and I began to believe in myself. I figured sky’s the limit. There’s nothing I can’t do

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Mayor Richard Irvin: So I just started setting long term and short term goals and reaching those short term goals. All the way on my way to my long term goal was eventually to hold public office.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And here I am. I used to say, I used to say, I want to be the first black president of United States, but I got beat out a little bit so I decided, you know, just go ahead. So for the first black mayor of the city of Aurora so

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Natasha Robinson: Nothing wrong with being the second

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Mayor Richard Irvin: The second, you’re absolutely right.

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Natasha Robinson: Now more than ever.

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Natasha Robinson: Terry Adams.

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Jarrett Adams: So, I mean, similar similar to what the mayor did, um, so when I get home to use the past went in. When I was 17 I didn’t come home until I was 2627 years old.

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Jarrett Adams: And I was very angry. I was very upset. And so what my mother did she encouraged me to go and seek therapy, you know, because I needed to find a way

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Jarrett Adams: Just like a lot of young African American males in impoverished areas across the country.

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Jarrett Adams: I needed to learn how to channel my anger and frustration into the fuel that would drive me to hit my goals and now was a way for me to be able to do it. So what I did was when I first got a month after getting out.

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Jarrett Adams: I sat down and I wrote out a plan and at the end of that plan was being a lawyer, so to knowledge eyes it and to make it, you know.

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Jarrett Adams: easier for me to digest and keep going. I imagine being a lawyer at the top of a mountain. But when you look at the top. It’s pretty daunting. So I decided to look at the middle first. Right. So once I made it to the middle and look back at the top. It was that much more closer

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Jarrett Adams: For me,

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Jarrett Adams: Was getting done and getting into Roosevelt to Ellis at and all of that, when I may have mentioned l said and Barbary I my skin to start

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Nice.

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Jarrett Adams: So do not miss that part.

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Jarrett Adams: So I

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Jarrett Adams: You know, I saw, and I kept writing it down and also for me. My motivation was right in front of me when I was incarcerated unjustly.

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Jarrett Adams: That 10 years wasn’t just taken from me.

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Jarrett Adams: I went from cookouts and fish Ross to coming home. I’m taking people to dialysis treatment. I’m visiting aunts and uncles in old folks homes.

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Jarrett Adams: So I felt like I was on a clock to get this degree to show them that the 10 years that they put in me and invested in me was not for nothing. So I’ll say this to the population of folks that aren’t here. Now that is almost 100 here’s what I’ll say, I want you to look

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Jarrett Adams: Straight forward and see your goal, whatever that is on the side of a berry on the opposite side.

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Jarrett Adams: And this isn’t just the goal. You can’t live without this thing. Okay. So if that’s the case, you are going to find a way around, over, under, or right through those barriers to get to what you cannot live without.

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Jarrett Adams: And that’s exactly how I treated where I wanted to be. I got through past. I graduated from South Suburban College.

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Jarrett Adams: And went into Roosevelt graduated from there. But it wasn’t over. I still had it to make my way to law school, I received the Chicago bar foundation scholarship. I wrote out the application for the bar scholarship

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Jarrett Adams: Downtown and Roosevelt lets you know like you can look right across the water and all that type of stuff.

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Jarrett Adams: I picked the most serene spot that will put me in the best position to be as calm as possible and the focus on what it was that I was trying to do.

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Jarrett Adams: I apply for the Chicago bar foundation scholarship, I received a scholarship. I went to Loyola idea to three years, all while working. And so when I’m telling you is that

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Jarrett Adams: The brain and the psychology is no different than any other muscle, you have to work it out in order for it to become stronger. So I kept working my brain out to see what it was that I wanted so that I wasn’t going to ever let it go. And I decided that

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Jarrett Adams: My if mine turnout.

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Jarrett Adams: Didn’t match my turn up. I was going to be tuned out

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Jarrett Adams: That’s why I decided to focus. And you know what, I was right, the clubs and going away. They just got done. Now I can afford to go to. So that’s really how I set my mindset and going to hit my goals. Okay.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And maybe this particular file, it was that’s. Exactly. That’s exactly what I did. I didn’t look at as the mountain. I was set these long term goals.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: The mayor and every day I’d look at that. I’m going to be the mayor of Aurora one day I’m going to be the and I told myself that every single day. All the while,

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Making short term goals, getting closer to that. To that end goal. So I mean exactly, that’s exactly the way you got to look at it if you want to achieve anything

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You just got to set that long term goal and and just keep chipping away at it, but always believe that you can get there. And the more you chip. Add the closer it gets you’re there and you’re hey, here I am.

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Natasha Robinson: Yeah, so, so you both raised important points about the determining of the goals and then deciding, not just the destination, but the not just that destination outcome, but the way to get there. The methodology.

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Natasha Robinson: And so I’m sure I’m going in a huge

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Natasha Robinson: Presumption of thinking that your goal setting was not in a vacuum, because there is still a reality in which you live moving you function. So my next question is, as it relates to what you do now.

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Natasha Robinson: Before I get into the specifics of what you do now. Can we frame the discussion to talk about what does social justice look like in means for you.

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Natasha Robinson: If you had to define social justice. What does that look like what does it feel like I know attorney Adams, you know that in Roosevelt’s mission and vision statement. It is specifically attuned to social justice. So how would you define it or how would you have, you know,

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Natasha Robinson: It when you see it, or when you don’t see it.

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Jarrett Adams: Yeah, um, I mean, to me, social justice true social justice is colorless and valueless. And what I mean by that is, everyone should be treated equally.

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Jarrett Adams: And I know it’s difficult to to to do that in terms of criminal justice because. Every case is different. But in terms of of the treatment of individuals. It shouldn’t be divided by color and by pocket book or by religion. And that’s true, in my opinion, social justice is equality.

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Natasha Robinson: Okay, thank you so much. Mayor every

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, I agree, social justice, an equal playing field with everybody has the same opportunity, you know, as others, whether it be

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Mayor Richard Irvin: To be lawyers like me and brother Adams, or whether it’s being treated fairly, as defendants when you walk into a courtroom, regardless of the color of your skin.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Your economics what neighborhood you grew up grew up in everybody gets the same opportunity equal playing field. Now, does it exist.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Absolutely not. It may not exist for years all as long as folks like us keep working toward it. That’s all I can say, you know, maybe one day we’ll reach that goal in our, in our lifetimes.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: But, you know, as we see happening around the country right now. You know, our brothers and sisters with the same color skin or after marriage or not treated the same. You know, as that why defense attorney told me

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Mayor Richard Irvin: All those years ago. You know, close to 20 years ago that if I didn’t stay here at the state’s attorney’s office and ensure you know equal fairness.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, equal treatment to those that came through those doors that look like me that they would never get it from you know my white counterparts.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: So I did as much as I could. While I was there. But, you know, they’re very few black prosecutors, you know, they’re more so black defense public defenders, but even not even not as much as there should be.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Given the numbers of the, you know,

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, the black folks that walked in the doors of the courthouses but if when that day comes, where there’s an equal playing field. Everybody’s treated equally and fairly, regardless of the circumstance that will be social justice.

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Jarrett Adams: And isn’t it. And if I get time with the mayor said, Listen, I

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Jarrett Adams: Can be difficult to be, you know, a prosecutor and watch so many people rotating in and out like that. That looks that looks like us, because essentially you can help, but the help is is more like spooning water out of the ocean. Right.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Yes, yes, yes.

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Jarrett Adams: Men systematic problem. And so I want people to understand that that wouldn’t when we’re having a conversation about equality and why why it has to be equal representation. It’s because we all have unconscious biases. Right.

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Jarrett Adams: And so a judge who looks like me and may earn could say, You know what, I can see how this kid.

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Jarrett Adams: Went down the wrong track hanging with the wrong group of friends, but I’m not. Don’t give him a 50 years in prison in effectively blow out as candle before it even as the opportunity to be lit.

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Jarrett Adams: And I’ll give you another example on there was a STANFORD SWIMMER case, a few years ago where where a guy a kid was guilty of sexually assaulting a student who was passed out on the side of the college campus garbage can.

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Jarrett Adams: The judge in that case gave this kid. I’m time in the county jail and his exact words were, he doesn’t look like a kid that can survive and incarceration.

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Jarrett Adams: So for us to be able to say something like that, you have to understand that he meant every word that he saying in that if we don’t have equality. I bet you can look and find AND HE’S NEVER SAID THAT TO AN AFRICAN AMERICAN KID.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Right.

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Jarrett Adams: And so those are the things that we’re talking about and why there has to be equal representation in equal voices and not just in a courtroom, but in the legislation that finds his way being litigated in the courtroom, that becomes president

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Of the day that judge can look at look at a black kid and say that same thing to a young black kid that you don’t look like you’d be able to survive in the prison system. Therefore, I’m gonna give you time certain probation. On that day, we can

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Mayor Richard Irvin: We can say there is equal justice.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And I know but that day is not here. And I don’t think if the if the, if it was flipped that kid that judge would not have said the same thing to a young black man.

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Natasha Robinson: And the thing is, is that the quality evacuating

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Natasha Robinson: The quality goes even further back to the judge, because at this point if the judge is saying anything that that means that either. There has been a plea of guilty or finding of guilty.

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Natasha Robinson: So to go all the way back to maybe on the street where it said police officer who is a gatekeeper to be able to decide, you know what, I have a relationship or an investment in this person. Let me see how I can you know try and navigate

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Natasha Robinson: The stoppage if you will of him coming into the system. And then if the police officer can’t do it then like maybe Irving, you were a prosecutor, you know, you have an A.

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Natasha Robinson: A, a lot of discretion, if you will, to be able to sign, not only who to charge, but, you know, but what to charge and what to recommend

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Natasha Robinson: And then attorney Adams, you have the discretion as the attorney to be able to say okay well wow a client may be able to decide whether or not to go

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Natasha Robinson: To trial or or or things of that nature. You have the ability to be able to construct their defense in such a way as you are their vocal

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Natasha Robinson: A presentation, if you will. So it’s just so much discretion. There is a question that is in the chat that talks about discretion. It is from Vanessa.

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Natasha Robinson: A reality. I hope I’m saying your name right. Um, this question is for the mayor as a prosecutor. How were you able to ensure fairness fairness in quotes in the cases that you prosecuted.

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Natasha Robinson: Were you able to use your own discretion to either dismiss cases or offer defendants diversion programs, instead of jail or

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Natasha Robinson: Okay, okay, this a long question.

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Natasha Robinson: Or were you stuck prosecuting

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Natasha Robinson: as many cases as possible because that is what your supervisors would expect.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Well, I will tell you this, my supervisors did expect that we had a

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Mayor Richard Irvin: That we prosecute as many cases as possible. And we tried as many cases you know as possible and dad guilty convictions, however.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: We did have discretion and I used it often. Matter of fact, I remember times where, you know, a police would maybe violate somebody’s constitutional rights.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And I would see it and say, Look, I’m not even gonna bother taking this case to hearing

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, because we would lose because you clearly violated that that guy’s constitution, why even why and why should I even argue that, you know, and there were times where

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Mayor Richard Irvin: I won’t lie prosecutor people that I know and I said, Look, man, I we grew up in the same numbers used to play together you know as teenagers you spend nine

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Over each others house I you know I know your people, so maybe I’m not gonna give you 10 years in prison. Maybe I’ll give you probation and drug because you got a drug problem, you know, some type of drug counseling.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And there were times when we had, we had a diversion or what we call it a second chance program where I tried to put as many young people especially many young black people in these

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Second Chance programs as possible. I remember when I left the state’s attorney’s office.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And I became a defense attorney in that very first week I represented a young, young African American man.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: young black kid. He’s only Katie’s 19 years old. But, you know, old enough where he can go to prison for a whole long time based on his age.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Not based on his mentality and, you know, based on knowing what’s right and wrong because he’s still a kid but you know you know back then 17 years was

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Was the age where you can go to, you know, go to prison, depending on the crime you committed in even younger you know if it was a class X felony.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: But that kid committed residential burglary, which we all as lawyers know requires you you know to go to prison.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And they just broken them out some still some video games from his friend and these these prosecutors wanted this guy, this kid to go to prison. I remember I cried.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know having to deal with that case, looking at this young boy and seeing that is like that he had ruined his life because you’re stupid young kid.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, and these prosecutors weren’t willing to allow him prosecutors that I’d worked with for years. Wouldn’t willing to allow

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Mayor Richard Irvin: To give this kid a break. And, you know, and I just thought back to man, if I was there, I would definitely have given this kid, given this kid.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: A BREAK. And these are the stories that we hear all the time you know our young people out there just doing stupid things. And I got a son that’s 18 years old and I worry about him as well.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know that he could do some stupid ended up in a circumstance where you know he’s in front of somebody that won’t treat him with social equality.

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Natasha Robinson: Yeah. And then, and for the audience. The three of us know before residential burglary in the state of Illinois. That is a class one felony which carries a possible sentence of four to 15 years in prison. Unless you may qualify for a

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Natasha Robinson: Drug treatment.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Plan.

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Natasha Robinson: Right task, which means now you have to admit that you have a drug problem which may have other consequences, not just in the courtroom, but outside of the courtroom as well. So that is one of the perspectives that Mayor Irving is referring to, um, but I’m sorry, go ahead.

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Jarrett Adams: And it’s it’s not it’s it’s okay we the criminal justice system is one thing, but then there’s this it seems that after it gets ahold of you. It never let you go to top of the wall. Right. And so if you think about that you disenfranchising folks.

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Natasha Robinson: You know,

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Jarrett Adams: Explain to me how a committed any felony should take away your fundamental rights of being an American, which is what Bodie

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Natasha Robinson: If only. Yeah, so if

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Jarrett Adams: If that’s the punishment, then that’s like into putting people on a boat and shipping them.

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Jarrett Adams: Out of America because they don’t have the fundamental right to vote, who’s in office. So there are things that have been slid in from years and years ago.

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Jarrett Adams: And it’s just taking so much to unearth them because they’re having a disproportionate effect against the folks who are closest to the problem. The furthest away from the resources to implement the solutions.

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Natasha Robinson: So then my question. As we move into criminal justice and criminal justice reform attorney Adams. Can you talk about your I would argue a dual perspective.

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Natasha Robinson: Of having gone through the criminal

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Natasha Robinson: Justice system falsely accused and now being a participant within it. As a criminal defense and civil rights attorney. Can you talk about those two perspectives.

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Jarrett Adams: Yeah, I mean, it’s so because I went through it. I know the totality and impact that it has on a family right

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Jarrett Adams: So within my practice I make it a part of my practice to take that time to explain to the family about what’s going on because in my opinion.

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Jarrett Adams: The family is the innocent victim in this thing, right, whether a person did commit a crime or or not.

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Jarrett Adams: Um, it’s just family who’s all going to take that trip with the phone calls with the visits with raising, you know, kids are folks who are incarcerated.

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Jarrett Adams: It’s the family when a person is is released on parole or probation or conviction overturned, who has to deal with making sure that that person gets back on their feet.

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Jarrett Adams: It’s the family in these communities who don’t have the resources to provide reintegration skills. I am a unicorn.

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Jarrett Adams: I’m not supposed to be where I am at all because of how the system is designed and set up, which is a reason why I am

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Jarrett Adams: So strong to advocate about the impact that it’s having because I get it, I get it from that side from this side. If people who are football fans. I’ll say this, my experience would be in in their

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Jarrett Adams: litigating to get my way out and now litigating to get other folks out. I can see the field like Patrick Mahoney

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Jarrett Adams: Out clear, I can see it.

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Jarrett Adams: I wouldn’t say it.

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Jarrett Adams: Say,

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Natasha Robinson: Oh,

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Mayor Richard Irvin: If I know let me let me, let me just follow up with him. You know I say that all the time. And I’m not supposed I’m not supposed to be here if you look at my background, I came up my family.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: It, it appears that I’m not supposed to be in this position, but I am. And since I am it’s my responsibility to reach back and help out as many young folks as I can, you know, do that same door I walk through. So that, that’s my goal to reach back and give people a hand up.

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Natasha Robinson: So mayor Irving in talking about your

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Natasha Robinson: commitment to social justice and reaching back and and helping others.

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Natasha Robinson: You have a program which I you know won’t get into the details because I promised I would not

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Natasha Robinson: Have

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Natasha Robinson: A program that you started in Aurora called the change reform initiative.

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Natasha Robinson: Yes, and changes the acronym for Community helping a words and assess know necessary growth and

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Natasha Robinson: Power. All right, and so

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Natasha Robinson: This program that you have initiated is is in four different stages, what specifically necessitated your decision as mayor to propose a review of existing practices within your city, as well as an overhaul, in some respects, of how things have been in how they need to become

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Well, you know, with

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Mayor Richard Irvin: What happened with George Floyd and in Minneapolis and the ripple effect, you know, around this country Aurora was not left out of that, you know,

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Mayor Richard Irvin: A week before we had introduced this change initiative, which is something that, you know, we had to make a decision and come up on pretty quickly. We before that we had

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Riots right here in the city of a war. You know, I’ve been mayor three and a half years and I’ve worked hard to do, economic development and rebuild our city, you know, are you an old city hundred 80 years old.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, so we got some old bones and own different structure, you know, old buildings that have been sitting in the empty. Many of them for you know 70 6070 years

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, and my job was to redevelop this and we’ve been doing that, we turn in some of these old buildings into, you know, new construct new construction apartments.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And, you know, just whatever we can new business new businesses and I saw with the riots from what’s happening around the country.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: destroy our downtown, you know, in a matter of minutes what it took us years to build, you know, and as I sat there in the police situation room, which is our

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Mayor Richard Irvin: EEOC emergency operation center and I saw the drones when overhead is, you know, things on fire, police cars on fire my

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know my downtown just on fire and people run around destroying things, you know, I was conflicted. In one sense, I’m the mayor.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And I’m saying this can happen in my city, and I you know I don’t you know I refuse to accept that this is happening on the other hand, I recognize that unless there’s some type of disruption.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know in in what we want here in our country things won’t change just to simply knock on somebody’s door and say, you know, I want equity and fairness.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, without disruption without anything behind it. It just doesn’t work. I mean, we’ve been doing that for years since the 60s, you know, and the only reason, Dr. King. And the main reason, Dr. King and those guys.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And those a freedom fighters. Back then, you know, got a lot of the things that they asked for us because news media star televised and we started getting TV and folks around the

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Mayor Richard Irvin: around the country and around the world was seeing, you know the the dogs getting you put on on black folks and water hoses and getting beat you know and all doing this, you know, not fighting back.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Since those since those days, you know, and the lack of leadership in our black community that we need

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Mayor Richard Irvin: I think we thought, we’ve fallen off, you know, now when we ask for things, you know, we don’t necessarily get what we need. When we asked for fairness, we asked for equity.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know it hasn’t been given to us. But now, since you know there’s disruption and you know we’ve gotten gotten more people involved in

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Mayor Richard Irvin: In our struggle in our fight that we’ve been dealing with for decades now people are starting to listen. So in one hand, I’m like, this can’t happen in my city, the other hand, I’m like, I recognize

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Mayor Richard Irvin: The disruption that needs to happen for real change to occur. So what can I do as mayor, to ensure that we have the change necessary.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: As well and calm people’s anger and frustration about the lack of progress that we made, you know, for so many decades since the since the 60s.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And we came up with a change initiative, which is community HELPING THE ROARS necessary growth and empowerment and that doesn’t necessarily mean

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Mayor Richard Irvin: That everything we’re doing now is wrong. I’ve been mayor for last three and a half years I was an old woman for 10 years before that.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: We have put a lot of policies in place to try to ensure equity and fairness, but there’s so much more we can do

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And that’s what the change initiative is about is taking that taking it to the next level right now. The first phase is looking at, you know, our police’s use of force.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Making sure that you know that we don’t

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, employee chokehold or any type of you know holds or you’re not the type of force that would take someone’s life. We look for every way we possibly can mean crime is going to happen. We’re large city over 200,000 people

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Things happen, but we want to make sure when it does happen, we treat you know the folks that we

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Mayor Richard Irvin: That are alleged to have committed these crimes with equity and fairness and allow them their day in court not you know at some funeral home somewhere, wondering whether or not they actually committed that crime, you know. So we started this looking at

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Mayor Richard Irvin: The force used as well as the police training and this is just the first phase where we’re focusing on the police only because

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, the police are the main subject of everything going on throughout the country. But we want to take it in our second and third phase any phrase after that to involve the whole city government and the whole city and even regionally.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And talk about what we need to do to ensure equity fairness and social justice.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: So our change initiative, you know, brought people off the streets rioting and into you know rooms.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: To talk to each other about what we need to do to work together to make a difference in our community for all of us.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, and we’ve got black, white, Latino Indian Asian people participating in this making sure that we’ve got equity for for African Americans, as well as everybody else in our community, but we all know

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And everybody in this room knows that that the, that was the focus now is African American because we haven’t been given that that same that same opportunity for fairness and equity, you know, for decades for hundreds of years.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And now I think we’re all taking looking at

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Taking a look at

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Natasha Robinson: Because the thing is is as you both have articulated is that you can have equity and fairness, which is one goal that we’re trying to reach, but it also turns on access as well.

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Natasha Robinson: Exactly. I can be the existence of equity and fairness, but we don’t have the access to for people to even get it the net presents to be a further barrier.

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Natasha Robinson: With the transition into our questions and answers from those who are watching, I’m going to ask them as best I can and then we’ll close a little bit before one so mayor Irving, we don’t have

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Time is flying brother.

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Natasha Robinson: I feel like I’m in church. We don’t have a question. We have a comment.

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Natasha Robinson: From Dr. Cole said Hawaii. She says congratulations on becoming the first black mayor of roar. She believed in you becoming an attorney and she’s sending you goodwill and blessings. She was your former Robert Morris classmate.

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Natasha Robinson: Oh, wow.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And so a bear.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: That out. All right.

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Natasha Robinson: You have a question from Ted. This is directed to a tourney Adams and this I think that this is a long lasting, not just question but a discussion.

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Natasha Robinson: He is speaking from his perspective as a white male Roosevelt alum his question. What can I, as a white male Roosevelt alum do to help promote criminal justice reform. Yeah.

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Jarrett Adams: I mean you gotta have a discussion on that. That’s where, that’s where it starts at is to have that discuss. We love major urban

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Jarrett Adams: I’m Natasha not we can have the conversation amongst us and how it affects our community.

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Jarrett Adams: Um, that’s only going to help so much. If you look at the great movements in our country.

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Jarrett Adams: They weren’t done just by the people. It was affected. It was the people who call it didn’t affect this whale. And so you got to understand that that in this situation.

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Jarrett Adams: In terms of criminal justice reform and the numbers that we have silence is complicit you being if you’re being silent in a conversation like this you’re supporting the injustices that continue to go on in our country.

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Jarrett Adams: Absolutely you can have whatever view. You want to have in terms of crime and punishment, but you can’t ignore the fact that

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Jarrett Adams: We, right now are the greatest incarcerate are in the world. And we’re talking about 2.3 million people incarcerated.

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Jarrett Adams: In the number of the 2.3 million incarcerated is close to 750 to 100,000 black man. So we have to understand and say to ourselves,

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Jarrett Adams: That if nothing else, something is wrong with that number, right. These are the conversations that we have to have amongst all communities. I could go inside of a, of an affluent white community and have this conversation.

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Jarrett Adams: They may hear me, but they will listen to their peers that has to come from my alumni who asked that question and that that’s where you are. And don’t think that you aren’t being effective.

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Jarrett Adams: By holding someone accountable at the watercooler right because when you change opinions and you change views you change behaviors. And that’s really what we’re dealing with.

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Jarrett Adams: As a result of the years of our horrible pass and slavery. We’re dealing with the narrative right now that has survived.

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Jarrett Adams: The chains in the beatings and it’s segregation. Right now we’re dealing with the narrative that has been beaten beaten to us and like they are have been said about the pictures.

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Jarrett Adams: Of the media coverage is what started to move the civil rights movement, but before then the depiction of African Americans in general was barbaric in nature. It was it was of this all of these negative connotations came from.

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Jarrett Adams: Somewhere else not everyone has had an experience with an African American, it has come from a lot of the depiction. And so what we have to do collectively is this

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Jarrett Adams: We cannot build on a shaky foundation we have to acknowledge the past and repair it to the best of our ability. In order to start building on it. If not, what we’re doing is

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Jarrett Adams: We’re changing and putting beautiful looking for houses on a situation that we know deserve to have the floor ripped up and changing up the pipes.

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Jarrett Adams: That’s, that’s what I will say,

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Natasha Robinson: Mm hmm. So no, no window dressing just

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Natasha Robinson: Got to get to the roots.

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Natasha Robinson: Got to get to the roots. Thank you so much. I’m going back to the questions in the chat mayor Irving, you are popular because we have another shout out from a alone balsa class in 1999 Professor Tammy Thurman.

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Oh, hey.

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Natasha Robinson: I need brown agrees with you, both by saying you absolutely right, we have to build a new narrative and show who and who’s we are

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Natasha Robinson: Let’s see. I’m trying to make sure to go to all of the questions we have a question.

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Natasha Robinson: That says, Why do you believe this is for you both. Why do you believe that it is so difficult to hold prosecutors responsible

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Natasha Robinson: For breeding violations and other misconduct that lead to wrongful convictions, even when they’re systematic misconduct, like in New Orleans. So for the audience. Brady violations and both our panelists can speak to this very violations is

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Natasha Robinson: When there are a selection of jurors, if I remember correctly.

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Jarrett Adams: In terms of evidence.

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Jarrett Adams: Saying, thank you.

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Natasha Robinson: Yeah, absolutely. Yes. You know what I’m thinking about. I’m thinking about the

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Mayor Richard Irvin: The picking of people are injured.

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Jarrett Adams: Yeah.

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Natasha Robinson: Thank you. That’s Batson. Thank you. I know it started with the be. I’m like, I know I’m I’m crazy.

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Natasha Robinson: Alright, so

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Natasha Robinson: Speak to that question about Brady violations. Why is it difficult to hold prosecutor prosecutors responsible for that.

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Jarrett Adams: Mayor, but

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, as a prosecutor for a number of years. You know, I would say this, you know,

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Brady violence when you fail to give you no evidence police reports or any type of evidence, you know, in a case that is due to the defense.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And, you know, prosecutors just often times you know place play stupid, you know, and

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Up and and you know you say, Well, I didn’t realize I didn’t give this information. I didn’t realize how important it was to the case that it could have potentially absolved this this individual, you know, they have a certain immunity.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Based on prosecuted. Just like police officers, you know, so yeah.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: I think that’s a great question. You know, because I know a number of cases. Matter of fact out in this area where prosecutors.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know the years it hadn’t happened recently, but in high profile cases failed to give all the information and then somebody end up going to prison sitting on death row for 10 years you know

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Until you know DNA is run and they get the right information. Realize that police and prosecutors have been sitting on this the whole time and decided on their own, that this wasn’t valuable information for the defense, you know,

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And in those particular instance with those police and prosecutors are prosecuted and all found to be not guilty, you know, and it’s because they

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Decided they just want to play stupid. I didn’t. I had no idea. This information is out there. I didn’t know it was going to absolve this person at this particular murder. I

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, it wasn’t me that did it so it, are they, people always pass people always pass the buck. But I think, as a society, you know, the justice system. We have to hold people more responsible when things like this happen from the police and the situation.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: With George Floyd, you know, holding the more responsible hit that police officer, the onlookers and then the prosecutors.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: That you know may prosecute that case and not provide all the information to to the defense attorney. So, you know, we as society have to start looking at our justice system and saying, We’ve got to hold people responsible

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Mayor Richard Irvin: more responsible than we have in the past, which you know I think looking at the history, especially dealing with African Americans. They have not held a these police and prosecutors responsible

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Jarrett Adams: Mean the mayor is absolutely right. It’s an individual thing.

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Jarrett Adams: You can’t see a major urban doing that because why because he comes from that community like right you know so

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Jarrett Adams: In and I’m dealing with a case like that right now and you know viewers can go check it out. It’s a Waverly Virginia case where to innocent guys were convicted in I actually located the evidence that was with hail and it still barriers to getting back into court.

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Jarrett Adams: But what I, what I will say is this

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Jarrett Adams: Here’s what I’ll say about, um, it’s very concerning as a society where I can sue you civilly and get as much as information is I want to include in your grandmother’s favorite color.

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Jarrett Adams: But if I’m charged with a crime.

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Jarrett Adams: There’s a game to be had with discovery and whether or not I get it, and whether I get it the day before trial.

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Jarrett Adams: Right, that’s the problem and it needs to be fixed and it needs to be fixed fast. There’s also this

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Jarrett Adams: There’s this this this this pitting of the sides and our criminal justice system. Right. That is unhealthy for justice, you have

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Jarrett Adams: The prosecution side against the defense side and the loser oftentimes is justice because it could be a pencil popping contest or a penny pinching contest.

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Jarrett Adams: People’s competitive juices are going to flow. It’s natural human instincts. So people are gonna want to win, right. And so when you have that

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Jarrett Adams: You have people just wanting to win. You don’t have justice. You have people wanting to believe more and finality than they do about admitting that they made a mistake.

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Jarrett Adams: And so there are a couple of different things that are wrong and what I what I need. What I believe needs to happen is this

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Jarrett Adams: I believe that there needs to be a separate entity, a separate body and not a grand jury because you can indict a ham sandwich or not see Eric gardeners case over in New York for got indicted.

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Jarrett Adams: Anthony separate body of community, people who are are deciding whether or not it goes from the police to the prosecutor’s office because it is it is you have

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Jarrett Adams: The prosecution’s office, working with the police department. There is no closer relationship, other than doctor, nurse right so it’s difficult sometimes for prosecutors to call out someone that they know they’re going to have to call back on the stand for another case down a

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Locker. Right, exactly.

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Jarrett Adams: We need to remove those difficulties, right. Don’t ask the person to be in those uncomfortable situations and create a body.

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Jarrett Adams: That is strictly designed to not see color you they should be able to see names on a paper accusations and be able to decide whether or not there’s enough evidence for it to be prosecuted.

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Jarrett Adams: And in terms of what the charges may be because if not you have that ugly D word discretion.

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Jarrett Adams: That is used by the person who can see themselves cutting breaks to the people that looks like them but not to the folks who don’t look like them. So there are some things that that I haven’t all the way flushed out. But I’ll say this.

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Jarrett Adams: I would rather try new things, then keep up. What we’re doing right now because 2.3 million people says it’s not working. It ain’t

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Natasha Robinson: Working. So I have the test first of all thank thank

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Natasha Robinson: First of all thank our panelists, but also thank you to our community to our audience who has been participating. There is one question.

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Natasha Robinson: That I would like to ask and Maybelline I would ask for just a little bit of grace to try and some of these 13 comments into a parting question.

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Natasha Robinson: There are comments that talk about what are the takeaways. What are the tangible action items that we can do now to try to effect change to try to create a criminal justice reform.

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Natasha Robinson: Is it do we start with the young people with mentoring programs do we start in higher education, do we start in government do we start with police. So what

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Natasha Robinson: To close a mayor Irving and attorney Adams, what would you suggest for lay persons, would you suggest that we do to be able to try and address, not just the problem, but to create the solution.

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Jarrett Adams: I’ll

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Close it up. Yeah, go ahead. Go ahead, brother. Go ahead.

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Jarrett Adams: I want the mayor to close out. Um, so I’ll just say this. All of the above.

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Jarrett Adams: You know, everyone in their particular area. You, you, you can’t overwhelm yourself with something as big as overhaul of a system or

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Jarrett Adams: A narrative that have been going on for hundreds of years. So what I would say is this

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Jarrett Adams: In your individual capacities and areas in which you are in, whether that be a school teacher right start to have the conversations early about the true history of our country and about

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Jarrett Adams: Policing and encouraging kids at a very early age to get involved in the law. I’m not sure if man may urban urban can share the same sentiment, but I don’t remember seeing a major urban or Jared Adams come in Moscow.

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Jarrett Adams: When I was in fifth, sixth grade and tell me I could be a lawyer. Here’s how you can do it. I could be a politician. I can do this. I didn’t see that. And so what we need to do is this.

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Jarrett Adams: Right now in the city of Chicago, and a lot of other cities, including the city of a war. If we don’t get to our babies by sixth grade is too late.

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Jarrett Adams: So we have to find a way to become better mentors and also teaching our kids the unfiltered truth.

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Jarrett Adams: About our past and education in order to make this thing better. I don’t want people to walk away thinking all doom and gloom, because let me tell you something may have Irvin myself and nitasha wouldn’t be leading this discussion if we were still 50 6070 years ago.

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Jarrett Adams: It would be difficult to do.

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Jarrett Adams: So I think we should be proud as a nation at how far we’ve come. But it’s no time now to drop the baton that was given to us by people like JOHN LEWIS who recently passed away. I thank you guys again for having me. Oh, that’s

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Natasha Robinson: Good.

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Natasha Robinson: Trouble and a good transition may earn

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Mayor Richard Irvin: It and I’ll close up and say I agree with everything you said. I think dealing with crime and the community and just social justice is a multi prong approach.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: You know, you can’t just rely on the police to have all the answers. You know, you can’t just rely on you know government to have all the answers are the community.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: All these things have to work together, you know, and as part of the Community approach and this multi prong approach to making

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Your, your neighborhood safer, you know, you have to focus on young people, I make it a point now unfortunately during coven I haven’t been able to do it. You know, is it as much as I’d like. Or at all really

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Because the schools are closed, but I make an appointment as you pointed out there when I was when I was growing up in grade school. We didn’t have

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Lawyers especially Black lawyers coming in saying you could be a black lawyer one day, or you could be the mayor one day.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Or, you know, you could be even successful and more than your circumstances. So I make it a point to go to schools where kids can see me that look just like me and say, you know,

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And I tell them, if I can do it. I’m no smarter no better I sat in the same decks. I live in the same neighborhood.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: If I can become successful. So can you and I asked him, What do you want to be. And I tell them I believe in you. You can be that. So we’ve got to focus on

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Mayor Richard Irvin: On making sure that our young people believe in themselves like I didn’t believe in myself first for so long until somebody Robert Morris believed in me. Then I began to I want to

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Believe in themselves at a very young age, third grade is the age where, you know, if we don’t get, you know, in a kid’s mind and tell them that he can believe in stuff that we start to lose them third grade.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: So we want to make sure that we get our that we get our young people excited about who they are about their future.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: About the possibility of their future. You don’t impress upon them and they could do anything that they want to do and if we if we do that as part as as part of this multi prong approach if we focus on

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Mayor Richard Irvin: On our young people in our kids and giving them opportunities. I’m telling you, we will be a better country bit better community and in the future we will be

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Natasha Robinson: Thank you so much. I’m going to turn it over to me lane, and I’m just going to wrap up by saying the woman is theologian.

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Natasha Robinson: Whose namely speaker name is Dr. Katie Geneva cannon. She said that we all are to do the work, our soul must have. And so to be able to continue this conversation just do the work that makes sense to your soul.

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Natasha Robinson: If it’s talking with a politician. If it’s talking to young people.

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Natasha Robinson: If it’s TALKING TO POLICE ARE GOING TO YOUR Alderman, or all the women meetings, whatever it is, start where you are because that platform is the most engaging and is the most influential because it involves you, so thank you so much. I’m gonna turn it over to Maybelline

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Mablene Krueger: Thank you so much. Thank you, Mayor urban just your ad was Professor room, Professor Robinson for your expertise and

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Mablene Krueger: Truly insightful discussion today and thank you to our huge audience who joined us.

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Mablene Krueger: I do want to share that Roosevelt recently started the Black Student equity fund that supports the success of black students and promotes equity in higher education attainment through scholarships

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Mablene Krueger: Programming and campus events. And if you’re interested in making a contribution, please visit the webpage that I think Christie is putting in the chat box. You can also find it on roosevelt.edu thank you again, and have a wonderful, wonderful day.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: And we’ll look beyond you guys have a great day.

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Natasha Robinson: And we have a shout out for attorney Adams, who is going to be. I think you are publishing a book justice for sale.

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Natasha Robinson: You could make sure that we support our fellow alum. I’m sure that a Chris to myself. We could put that information in the chat as well.

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Jarrett Adams: Thank you.

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Jarrett Adams: pre order now and I thank you again.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Congratulations, brother. Thank you all. Bye.

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Mablene Krueger: Bye bye.

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Mayor Richard Irvin: Bye on with you.