Time Saved vs. Time Served: We Resolve, a Participatory Defense Hub

This session is eligible for 1.0 Standard CLE credit and Social Work CEUs.

To receive continuing education credits, purchase the appropriate ticket and you will receive access to the password projected video online. For legal practitioners seeking CLE credit, take note of the keyword that will appear in the video. When you are done viewing the video, submit the keyword to info@mnjrc.org and you will receive the code you need to claim your CLE. 

About this session:

This session was part of the MNJRC's 2023 Re-Imagining Justice Conference. To learn more about the annual conference, please visit: https://www.mnjrc.org/re-imagining-justice-conference

We Resolve (https://weresolve-mn.com/) is a nonprofit organization that stands with, and supports, loved ones, their families, and communities as they go through the criminal legal process. We Resolve aims to mitigate the harm that the criminal justice system has on the individual, family, and the community, as they have been personally impacted by this system and have watched their loved ones and community members suffer. They often see a white judge, a white prosecutor, a white public defender, and a Black defendant in the middle watching them go back and forth deciding what is going to happen to them. It is like watching a tennis match, the tennis match that decides their freedom. The defendant is often there alone and isolated with little to no participation in their own defense.

We Resolve is a group of Twin Cities families, artists, and organizers, resolve to walk with individuals, families, and communities as they empower themselves using the Participatory Defense Model to defend their loved ones against a discriminatory punishment system. This presentation highlights the following action steps this work takes: Community tool: -The First 24-; Intervention; Social Biography; Participatory defense weekly meetings; and Court Support.

Presenters:

Damon Drake, Executive Director, We Resolve

Tim Dorway, Community Engagement Coordinator and Legislative Advocate for Alpha Emergence Behavioral Services and Community Resolver, We Resolve MN

Marquette Richardson, Community Resolver, We Resolve MN