Focusing On What Works With Juvenile Justice

Dear friends,

As of last week, I’ve been your District Attorney for just over a month – a period of time that has seen this community tested and tried in ways that were literally unthinkable during the campaign.

Yet I have seen firsthand this community’s resilience, its hope, and its care for each other. I want to thank you for the many messages of support and prayerful consideration that I have received. As we move forward, please continue to pray for our partners in law enforcement and victims of violent crime everywhere.

New Hires. Last week, I was very happy to announce that Gerald Skahan and Haden Lawyer have joined our staff. Please join me in welcoming them to the District Attorney’s office.More hires will be announced soon, and we are still hiring – please spread the word.

Working Session On Youth Crime. The elections of both Juvenile Court Judge Tarik Sugarmon and myself clearly indicated that the community is ready for a different approach to juvenile justice. To that end , the two of us recently co-sponsored a Work Session on Youth Crimes. We met experts from here in Shelby County and around the country to discuss various proven prevention and intervention strategies.

We know that the most important thing we can do is reduce the likelihood of any child’s first involvement with the justice system. The data is very clear that any arrest, conviction, and detention makes it vastly more likely that a child will reoffend.

There are a few specific things we’re going to begin working on right away:

• Enhance restorative justice. This practice is about centering victims and making our community whole after crime has been committed. It has reduced repeat offender rates in Nashville and other areas. Properly used, it can reduce recidivism in a humane and cost-efficient way.

• Ask our partners in the state government to fund the kind prevention and intervention strategies that we know will work. This includes everything from ensuring that kids in juvenile custody get a real education to more employment opportunities for children to more robust counseling and therapy services for children and their families, especially after release from incarceration.

• Utilize the right kind of blended sentencing. Simply put, this policy would allow some juvenile offenders to avoid transfer into adult prisons so that they can remain closer to their families. Again, this is about making structural investments that reduce the likelihood of reoffending.

All of the ideas we’ve mentioned here can be done well, or they can be done poorly. We intend to do them well, which means they will take time and they will take sustained investment. They will also take accountability, which is what we now ask of the community – help us make sure we get this work right and help us make sure that we have the resources we need to do what families in Shelby County need us to do.

Working Groups Formed. Improving juvenile justice is one of the topics that will be discussed during the next phase of my transition process. I’ve asked my team to broaden the dialogue about understanding what we need to do and can do with regard to improving racial equity, post-conviction justice, restorative justice, and juvenile justice. Members of the team will be leading Working Groups over the next few months to develop these ideas and come back to me with clear recommendations from the community. Please visit stevemulroyforda.com/join-us if you want to get involved in one of these groups.

An important part of my job is communicating with the public as much as I can about what your District Attorney’s office is doing to keep you safe and ensure equal justice for all. Recently, I had the chance to be interviewed on the Just City for their podcast, The Permanent Record, as well as appear on WKNO-TV’s program, Behind The Headlines. I hope you’ll check them out.

Stay safe and thank you for your support,

Steve Mulroy

District Attorney