Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice

by Donnell Wyche, Senior Pastor Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor & Past President ICPJ

We had an amazing time at the Warrant Resolution event on Tuesday at the Freighthouse in Ypsilanti. After 12 months of planning, including recruiting 40 volunteers, we launched our first warrant resolution, expungement, and eviction prevention event in 14B District Court. Partnering with the County Prosecutor, the Public Defender, Legal Services of South Central Michigan (LSSCM) we offered 125 guests, in-person and on the phone, resources to help determine and resolve outstanding warrants, expungement, and eviction prevention. The event was held at the Freighthouse in Ypsilanti, MI on Tuesday, November 16, 2021. 40 residents started the expungement process and the completed paperwork was filed on their behalf. 85 residents received legal advice from either the Public Defender or LSSCM to resolve outstanding matters before the Court. Several residents met directly with the County Prosecutor about outstanding concerns including a resident who was assaulted by a local law enforcement agency, the Prosecutor was able to remove the arrest record because no charges were filed. All residents who requested financial support to clear bench warrants, past due court fines or fees were granted.MLive covered the event at:https://www.mlive.com/…/ypsilanti-event-will-help…

I am so grateful to so many people, including Daniel Buckley (our project manager, who made everything happen) to Desirae Simmons , Eleanore Ablan-Owen, Sudha Myers at Interfaith Council for Peace & Justice, Jon Bartholomay, Melodie Dunbar Floro, Rick Rykowski from the Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor, Delphia Simpson and her team from the Public Defender’s Office, Eli Savit – Washtenaw Prosecuting Attorney, Victoria Burton-Harris, Frances Walters from the Prosecutor’s office, and so, so many others!

Photo credits: Eli Savit – Washtenaw Prosecuting Attorney

The Warrant Resolution Project is a community-based restorative justice initiative in partnership with ICPJ seeking to create a safer community by assisting residents with information, education, and solutions to outstanding warrants before the courts in Washtenaw County.

On Tuesday, November 16th, in cooperation with the Washtenaw County 14B, which covers Ypsilanti and Ypsilanti Township, we will host a community-wide “Warrant Resolution Day” for people to clear outstanding non-compliance warrants. Plans are underway to include judges from 14A and 16th as well.

Bench warrants can be issued for many reasons (such a failure to pay parking tickets or to appear in court), but their impacts can be devastating. People with outstanding warrants can be arrested and jailed without notice, putting their employment and their families in jeopardy. Often, people are unaware that warrants have been issued against them.

Though the warrant resolution process will be conducted by court personnel, we need lots of volunteer support to make the event successful. Please complete the volunteer form via this (case sensitive) link: https://bit.ly/3Ba0Kss

Bench warrants are commonly issued for failure to attend a scheduled court appearance or to fulfill the conditions of probation, but can also be issued for failure to pay child support, for misdemeanor offenses, failure to fill out a juror questionnaire, flagging a ride from a police officer, and even unpaid library fines. In 2019, an estimated 2300 open warrants in Ann Arbor for such minor offenses as disorderly conduct and driving with a suspended license.

People fail to address outstanding warrants for a variety of reasons as well. As expressed by an article in ProPublica describing the use of warrants to collect medical debt by predatory lenders, “debtors are arrested for not responding to a court summons requested by the creditor. But for many low-income people, who are not familiar with court proceedings, lack access to transportation, child care options or time off, or move frequently and thus may not receive notifications, it’s a distinction without a difference.” Because bench warrants are often issued for failure to pay things like parking tickets, child support, and legal debt, people who are poor may fail to appear because they fear incarceration for nonpayment or because they find it difficult to take time off work without loss of pay. (Sekhon, 2018, 1004).

As a result, warrants represent significant threats to the economic and social stability of Washtenaw County residents, and particularly those who come from historically marginalized and over-policed communities. The typical amount of a bench warrant in Washtenaw County is $50, but for those at the margins, the costs can be much higher. Having an outstanding warrant makes a person vulnerable to arrest at any time and hesitant to interact with any “official” entity that might require identification, not only the police, but also schools, government agencies, and hospitals. Non-compliance warrants that surface during traffic stops (which already disproportionately target people of color and people in poor neighborhoods) can lead to vehicle searches, additional arrests and additional criminal charges, which in turn create yet another set of non-compliance warrants and arrests. Poor people are disproportionately affected by warrants because marginal employment provides too little income to pay a legal debt or flexibility to take time off for court appearances. Failure to appear and inability to pay also make them more likely to be incarcerated and to lose their jobs (Gaston and Brunson, 2020, 108; Sekhon, 2018, 1003). An outstanding warrant also results in loss of federal welfare benefits, and because the warrant system is linked to Social Security Administration, benefits cease immediately when a warrant is reported to the system. People with outstanding warrants are unable to renew driver’s licenses, impacting their ability to seek and retain employment. Legal debt, like criminal convictions and mass incarceration, and also like consumer debt, is a driver of inequality in American society (Harris, Evans & Beckett, 2010, 1762).

How can I help?
There are three ways you can help with this effort:

You can make a donation to ICPJ and designate it for Warrant Resolution. Our participants and community members will need resources to pay fees and liens as a result of their outstanding warrants. The typical fee is between $50 – $75.

You can volunteer at our warrant resolution event on Tuesday, November 16th.

You can help us locate volunteer defense attorneys and lawyers to provide legal services to community participants.

You can contact the Reverend Donnell Wyche, senior pastor, Vineyard Church of Ann Arbor with any questions or partnership inquiries. Donnell can be reached by email at donnell.wyche@annarborvineyard.org or by phone / text at (734) 649-6173.

Background article in Politico, “How a Liberal Michigan Town Is Putting Mental Illness at the Center of Police Reform” by Lynette Clemetson about Anthony Hamilton and his contact with the criminal legal system in Washtenaw County. https://www.politico.com/…/police-reform-mental-health…

Here are four things we can do to offer support to Anthony:

1.) Send an email of encouragement to MaryAnn Sarosi at sarosia2@gmail.com. She will print the emails and deliver in person.

2.) Write County Prosecutor, Eli Savit, prosecutor@washtenaw.org, and ask for diversion instead of jail time for Anthony given his well-established mental health struggles.

3.) If you live in Ann Arbor, write your City Council Member and ask for changes in how AAPD interacts with minors, all of this could have been avoided had 17-year old Anthony been diverted to a restorative justice program instead of being arrested. Council needs to hear from the community that we want a different approach, one that is centered in restoration & wholeness, not in punishment and detainment.

4.) Watch the court proceedings on Wednesday, August 4th when Anthony appears before Judge Archie C. Brown. The docket starts at 1:30pm and his court is available via YouTube. Start here to find the link to his court: https://www.youtube.com/…/WashtenawCountyTrialCo…/videos

ICPJ is a member of Drive Michigan Forward (DMF) — a coalition made up of immigrants and allies. Our goal is to restore driver’s licenses to all and pave the way for basic dignity and security for members of our community.
More information here.

There are six important requests that we are making of you today:

1. Please join us during the #DriveMichiganForward Week of Action from May 17 – May 21st! We will be posting ready-made posts on ICPJ’s Facebook page daily. Just copy & paste to spread the word. (More details here.)
   
2. Sign the petition here to thank the #DriveSAFE bills sponsors and to urge Senator Tom Barrett, Chair of the MI Senate Transportation & Infrastructure Committee to which SB 433 & 434 have been referred, to give the bills a hearing.
   
3. Please sign up to participate in the Deep Canvassing Phone Bank THIS WEEK. (Details about how to prepare & sign up here.) This is an opportunity to do deep canvassing — talking with voters about why you support the Drive SAFE legislation, connecting with them about their views, and building toward common goals of paving the way for basic dignity & security for all.
   
4. Help ICPJ get the word out: ICPJ is hosting a #DriveSAFE Brown Bag, Wednesday, May 26th, 12pm. Registration Required here. This will be a brief zoom meeting – to provide all the information you need to know about this campaign.
   
5. Introduce this issue and your views to others in your network who live outside of Washtenaw County. If you can make connections with congregations or organizations in areas where legislators are not yet supportive of #DriveSAFE, this would be really helpful. We can help you with whatever background information you might want.
   
6. Forward this information to 5 of your friends. ICPJ has a strong network of friends committed to justice. Reach out, share information, and build the momentum that we need.