Paul Bass Photo
Griebel in New Haven Thursday.
Challenging his Democratic opponent for urban votes on an urban issue, independent gubernatorial candidate Oz Griebel came to the New Haven Green to call for “ending mass incarceration” and expunging criminal records sooner.
Griebel unveiled a seven-point criminal justice reform plan at a press conference Thursday in front of the United Church on the Green.
His running mate, lieutenant governor candidate Monte Frank, who took the lead on the proposal, joined Griebel, as did three formerly incarcerated people who advocate reform.
“It’s the time we invest in people, not incarceration,” Frank declared.
The press conference — on an issue important to many New Haven votes — took place five days before the hotly contested Nov. 6 general election, as the latest polls suggest Griebel is drawing more votes from the Democratic candidate, Ned Lamont, than from Republican Bob Stefanowski. Based on the results of past statewide elections, Lamont needs a high turnout in cities like New Haven, where he has struggled at times to ignite enthusiasm. Lamont and his running mate, Susan Bysiewicz, were also turning their attention to cities Thursday, with busy schedules consisting of stops in Waterbury, Bridgeport and Stamford, including get-out-the-vote rallies in the latter two communities.
At their press conference, Griebel and Frank praised Gov. Dannel P. Malloy’s “Second Chance Society” laws that have slashed the inmate population enough to close four prisons and promoted reentry programs while crime has dropped. They said the state now needs to take next steps.
Those proposed steps include wiping clean most convicts’ arrest records after three (for misdemeanors) to five years (for felonies), requiring bias training for all employees, vetoing any laws that would revive the death penalty or have a “negative racial impact,” helping ex-offenders find jobs and housing, and releasing more prisoners who are ready to reenter society.
Calling In The AG
Frank: “Opportunity,” not prison.
Frank, a former president of the Connecticut Bar Association who started a committee there to deal with opioid abuse, noted that 52 percent of the opioid deaths in Connecticut in 2016 involved people who had been incarcerated. He noted that the state’s prison population has grown 334 percent since 1968, that black youth are 10 times more likely than white youth to end up behind bars, that “only seven states are worse in respect to Latinos” being incarcerated.
The Griebel-Frank plan would seek a statutory change to allow the attorney general to pursue “to investigate and prosecute civil rights violations and hate crimes.”
The state’s attorney, who is appointed, now handles all criminal matters in Connecticut courts; the attorney general, who is elected, handles only civil matters. Frank and Griebel were asked at the press conference why they would change that arrangement in this case. Why couldn’t the state’s attorney handle stepped-up enforcement of civil rights and hate crimes?
They responded that they believe the attorney general’s office has more resources to target to the task.
“it’s not just the attorney general. This is the governor’s office taking a leadership rule working with the attorney general’s office and the state’s attorney’s office … making sure we’re using all the resources of the state in a collaborative way,” Griebel said.
The three ex-offender reform advocates joining the candidates were (from left in photo) Anderson Curtis of New Haven, Guy Marks-Hamilton, and Tracie Bernardi. Bernardi, who lives in Waterbury, said she spent 23 years at the women’s prison in Niantic for her role in a gang murder she participated in when she was 19. She said she’s been working to rebuild her life in the three years since her release. She highlighted the importance of allowing citizens like her to help the next governor choose a new corrections commissioner, who she said should come from outside the current department ranks to bring a new perspective.
The Plan
Connecticut’s ACLU had asked all the gubernatorial candidates to release criminal justice plans. Stefanowski has not released one. Lamont did; read it here. Lamont’s plan includes a similar “clean slate” provision. It also calls for legalizing recreational use of marijuana, a position Griebel has taken on other occasions (with the provisos that it include a plan to identify impaired driving and that it direct state revenues to drug treatment).
ACLU criminal justice organizer Sandy Lomonico released a statement Thursday praising Griebel’s plan: “Today, Oz Griebel took a step toward embracing criminal justice reform, and we hope he and every candidate for governor will do even more to end mass incarceration. Every candidate for governor still has the opportunity to speak loudly and forcefully against mass incarceration and to propose policies to reduce imprisonment in our state.”
Following is the text of the Griebel/Frank plan:
• End mass incarceration
• Veto any legislation which is accompanied by a negative racial impact statement.
• Require all state employees to undergo implicit bias training.
• Establish a working group chaired by the Lt. Governor which will provide recommendations to the Governor. The working group will be comprised of stakeholders, including from the urban communities.
• Support “clean slate” legislation that will automatically expunge a person’s criminal record 3 years after the most recent misdemeanor conviction, and if applicable, sentence served, and/or 5 years after the most recent felony conviction, and if applicable, sentence served.
• Expand eligibility to diversionary programs so that, whenever possible, contact with the criminal justice system is avoided or limited.
• Veto legislation that will reinstate the death penalty.
• Encourage transparency and public participation in the search for commissioners.
• Submit statutory changes to enable the Attorney General to investigate and prosecute civil rights violations and hate crimes.
• Support legislation that reduces barriers to employment and housing for members of the community who were formerly incarcerated.
• Require the Division of Criminal Justice to track and work to eliminate any racial disparities and make public statistical information.
• Order the Commissioner of Corrections to review the existing prison population and create clear criteria and a plan for the supervised release of prisoners who have proven the readiness to re-enter society before the completion of their sentence, as permitted by law.