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EGACY Yesterday. Today. Tomorrow.

WEDNESDAYS • March 15, 2017

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INSIDE

Update on ABC brutality lawsuit - 3 HUD opens investigation on complex - 8 ‘Podcasting While Black’ debuts - 10 Inside a plan to break prison cycle - 14

Richmond & Hampton Roads

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Can a grandmother save her girls from domestic violence?

Her daughter wouldn’t tell her anything over the phone. It wasn’t until L.Y. Marlow drove from Maryland to her daughter’s Philadelphia apartment and saw the bruises on the young woman’s neck that she learned the full truth.

Her daughter had become just like her. And her mother. And her grandmother.

Three generations of women in the same family had been physically battered and almost killed by the men they loved, and now here was Marlow’s daughter, the fourth generation, describing how her boyfriend had tried to strangle her. How she began to black out when she heard her six-month-old daughter on the bed next to her screaming. How that sound made her fight back.

Marlow listened that day in 2007, cried and decided then she needed to do something — if not to save her daughter, then to save that baby on the bed, a girl whose name spoke to what she would come to symbolize: Promise.

The nonprofit organization Marlow started days later has grown alongside the long-legged girl it was named after. And this year, as both the organization and Promise turn 10, Marlow has new allies in the long, formidable fight that her group and many others have waged against domestic violence. Saving Promise is bringing together executives from major companies, academics from Harvard and others — all united by an ambitious goal. They don’t want to just help women get out of abusive relationships. They want to prevent that abuse from occurring in the first place.

“I feel Promise was born for a

L. Y. Marlow wants to make sure her 10-year-old granddaughter, Promise, doesn’t become her family’s fifth generation of domestic violence victims. Promise and her mother are in shadow. PHOTO: Amanda Voisard purpose,” said Marlow, who’s 50 and lives in Bethesda, Md. “I want her to know what it means and feels like to not have to endure what four generations of mothers endured before her. She could really be the first in our family not to be abused.”

About one in three American women will experience intimate partner violence at some point in their lifetimes, with the majority becoming victims before their 25th birthday, according to data from

the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Women are far more likely to be killed by a spouse, an intimate acquaintance or a family member than a stranger, the Violence Policy Center found in a recent report. Every year their slayings — sometimes witnessed by their children or after they tried, to no avail, to leave a relationship — generate headlines and anguish in communities across the country.

In Henrico, a Richmond suburb, last week, 33-year old Quanta Nashall Chandler suffered a fatal shot inflicted by her ex-boyfriend, who also killed himself.

In Maryland, a teacher and her 2-year-old daughter, still strapped into her car seat, were killed by the girl’s father. In Florida in January, a man choked his wife to death after a fight, then posted to her Facebook

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The LEGACY

2 • March 15, 2017

News SCOTUS rejects Va. transgender bathroom rights case The Supreme Court has decided not to hear the case of Gavin Grimm, taking it off its calendar and sending it back to a lower court.

Grimm is a transgender teen fighting to use the bathroom of his choice.

Born female, Grimm began to identify as male after freshman year in high school, legally obtained a name change and began hormone therapy.

His case came to the Supreme Court on an appeal from the Gloucester County, Virginia school board after the Fourth Circuit Courts of Appeals ruled in his favor.

In a devastating blow to transgender rights advocates, the Supreme Court also canceled a lower court ruling in favor of Grimm that said federal law allowed him to use school restrooms that matched his gender identity.

This action of the Supreme Court piggybacks the Trump administration’s decision to remove a directive issued while Barack Obama was president that allowed students to use the bathroom of their chosen gender and not biological birth.

Now, a Virginia court will have to evaluate the federal law known as Title IX and the extent to which it applies to transgender students.

Title IX bans sex discrimination and a previous ruling cited an Education Department letter that stated a school generally must treat transgender students consistent with their gender identity. Last month, the Trump administration rescinded the Education Department Title IX. “This is a detour,” said the ACLU’s Joshua Block, “not the end of the road.”

Block, who represented Grimm, says while there is a feeling of disappointment that the Supreme Court will not hear Grimm’s case the

rights of transgender people cannot be ignored.

“The overwhelming level of support shown for Gavin and trans students by people across the country throughout this process shows that the American people have already moved in the right direction,” he said.

Transgender advocates aren’t viewing the court decision as defeat.

Instead, they define it as a temporary setback and point out that because other cases involving similar issue are now maneuvering through federal courts.

Grimm says even though the Supreme Court wouldn’t take the case, he will keep fighting for the rights of transgender people and the right to exist in public spaces.

The case will now go back to the Fourth Circuit and that court could send the case back to Virginia trial court. The Gloucester County School

(from page 1) page to convince her family she was alive. In New Jersey in December, Tara O’Shea-Watson was stabbed to death a month after domestic violence charges were dismissed against her husband. Her obituary read: “Tara is in Heaven now and is no longer afraid.”

Kathleen Basile, a behavioral scientist at the CDC, calls this form of violence “a public health crisis.”

A CDC public survey has found a relationship between domestic violence and increased health problems, including asthma, diabetes, irritable bowel syndrome, chronic headaches and difficulty sleeping.

“If this was a contagious disease, a lot of effort would go to preventing it,” she said. “We need to address it as such.”

‘Don’t kill her!’ Children who witness domestic violence carry lifelong scars.

This year, Saving Promise launched a partnership with Harvard University to start a Learning Lab, where students and researchers can develop “evidence-based prevention strategies, programs and policies.”

On Feb. 20 — Promise’s birthday — Marlow also released a book about her family’s history with the title taken from advice her granddaughter once gave her during a particularly low moment, “Don’t Look at the Monster.”

Gavin Grimm Board reported it looks forward to explaining why its commonsense restroom and locker room policy is legal under the constitution and federal law.

Grimm remains optimistic saying one changed heart is totally worth

this fight for fairness.

“I’ve had so many people come up to me and say that I’ve changed their minds,” Grimm said. “I’ve helped them come to terms with either their own transition or the transition of a loved one.”

Marlow said people often ask her how domestic violence could affect so many generations of one family and, after years of self-reflection, she said she finally has an answer.

“One word: silence,” she said.

“My grandmother didn’t talk to my mother, my mother didn’t talk to me, and I am not ashamed to say it, I didn’t talk to my daughter, not until Promise screamed.”

The morning after she learned of that scream, Marlow turned to the one person she thought might help: Oprah Winfrey.

She had heard about a woman who bought a pair of Oprah’s shoes and stood in them whenever she got depressed. That day, she said, she needed to stand in “any shoes other than my own.”

“Dear Oprah,” she began a long letter that laid out her family’s history and her fear that her daughter would be killed. “Why am I writing to you about this? Well, I’ve decided that although my daughter won’t listen, I must do something to save Promise and hopefully by saving Promise I will save my only daughter as well.”

Oprah didn’t write back. And Marlow, who quit a job at IBM to focus on the organization, says now that was probably for the best.

“Sometimes when people don’t respond, it helps you,” she said. “It gives you a voice.”

It was that voice — one of a grandmother and a victim turned advocate — that struck Dean Michelle Williams of the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health when Marlow approached her about forming a partnership. Before that moment, Williams had worked for years as an epidemiologist studying women’s health but felt limited in her ability to take her work to the general public.

“My frustration turned into real enthusiasm and real exhilaration the day I met L.Y., when I saw a way I could have a real impact in my lifetime,” Williams said. She said she sees the partnership as a way to “change the narrative from managing victims of violence to preventing violence in the first place.”

Williams said participation in the Learning Lab will run across the university and involve the business and education schools.

“Many think it’s just the acute bruises and broken bones,” Williams said. But intimate partner violence has documented health impacts and comes at a financial cost to the public, she said. It also has a far reach. During a research project in Africa, Williams said she was told that only uneducated women suffered from such violence... © WaPo Read the conclusion online at legacynewspaper.com

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March 15, 2017 • 3

Johnson files counter motion in ABC suit

CHARLOTTESVILLE — A University of Virginia graduate is firing back at allegations from Virginia’s Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control that he hasn’t been forthcoming in answering questions related to an upcoming legal hearing A month ago, two ABC agents filed a motion in Charlottesville’s federal courthouse, claiming that Martese Johnson had failed to fully answer questions or turn over documents related to the $3 million lawsuit Johnson filed against them in October 2015.

In late February, Johnson replied with an opposition motion in federal court, saying the agents were seeking information that “went far beyond” the “narrow issues involved” in the case.

In the same week he filed his opposition motion, Johnson’s counsel filed its own motion to compel further responses from ABC law enforcement officer Shawn Walker.

Johnson accused him of refusing to produce documents related to the claim that Walker failed to train his officers and condoned their “pattern or practice of excessive force.”

The suit stems from Johnson’s heavily publicized arrest in March 2015 at the hands of three agents.

Then a 20-year-old, third-year student, Johnson was apprehended by the agents after being turned away from a crowded bar by a bouncer in the early-morning hours after St. Patrick’s Day. The interaction between Johnson, who is black, and the agents, who are white, quickly escalated and ended with Johnson taken to the ground.

He was arrested and charged with public intoxication and obstruction of justice.

Photos and videos of the arrest, depicting Johnson on the ground with a bloodied face and the agents standing over him, drew intense criticism and controversy online.

In the wake of his arrest, Johnson’s supporters accused the ABC of police brutality and racial profiling , prompting calls from legislators to reform the state agency’s law enforcement branch .

After the charges against Johnson

Martese Johnson were dropped, he filed a multimilliondollar suit against the three officers, the department and Walker. In the suit, Johnson alleged false arrest, excessive force, gross negligence and assault and battery, failure to train and supervise the agents, and negligent supervision of them.

Last December, a judge dismissed substantial portions of the claim, dropping the ABC and one of the agents as defendants and excluding the charges of excessive force and negligence.

In that written opinion, Judge Glen Conrad said that, considering the circumstances of the arrest, a “reasonable” agent would have had probable cause to approach Johnson on the night he was arrested.

Conrad also said the ABC was protected from the litigation under the 11th Amendment as an arm of the state, and that agent John Cielakie’s lesser role in the arrest precluded him as a defendant.

The remaining agents, Thomas Custer and Jared Miller, filed a motion in mid-February asking the court to compel Johnson’s cooperation in the case. They alleged that Johnson had given only a limited number of responses to their requests while “objecting to all Interrogatories and [Requests for Production of Documents], producing zero documents and furnishing inadequate answers to what limited Interrogatories for which a written response was offered.”

In his late-February motion, Johnson lambasted the agents’ characterization of his refusals, objected to what he characterized as “overreaching requests” and asserted that the “vast majority of requests sought irrelevant information … and thus imposed an undue burden upon

him.”

Specifically, the motion decries requests for text messages and emails Johnson sent and received about his arrest over the past two years, requests for his UVa academic file , his credit card activity between March 16 and March 19, 2015 and communications he may have had with Trinity Irish Pub, the bar from which he was turned away.

The motion also calls other requests “fishing expeditions” by the defense, including requests for Johnson’s application to UVa, receipts for purchases of toiletries and other items of a “highly personal or sensitive nature” and text messages sent by Johnson asking about illnesses of friends or relatives.

“The issue remains whether the defendants are entitled to information that is neither relevant to claims and defenses at issue

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in this case, nor proportional to the defendants’ actual needs in this case,” Johnson’s filing reads, before asking a court to deny the defendants’ motion.

Johnson’s filing specifically references the well-publicized 2013 incident involving then-UVa student Elizabeth Daly, who was accosted

by ABC enforcement agents who mistook a case of sparkling water she was purchasing for beer.

Daly won a $212,500 settlement after filing her own lawsuit against the ABC. Johnson’s counsel’s filing also asserts that the defense refused to produce documents related to former 409 E.Frank Main S ABC law enforcement director Monahan, who Johnson believes 804-644 was replaced by Walker “in order to reduce accountability and to allow policies regarding use of force to go unenforced.”

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4 • March 15, 2017

HUD opens investigation into conditions at Virginia’s first privatized public housing community CONTRIBUTED REPORT In response to complaints filed on behalf of eight current and former public housing residents, the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) has opened an investigation into discrimination and other program violations at Virginia’s first Rental Assistance Demonstration (RAD) conversion.

Under the RAD program, Hopewell Redevelopment and Housing Authority (HRHA) and Community Housing Partners (CHP) razed the public housing community Langston Park in 2014 and built new apartments on the site, now called the Summit at Hopewell. The complaints allege HRHA and CHP discriminated against both families with children and residents with disabilities; pushed tenants out of Langston Park, depriving them of their legal right to return to the redeveloped Summit at Hopewell; and relocated other tenants to severely overcrowded housing in poor condition.

The complaints to HUD describe multiple violations of residents’ civil rights under the federal Fair Housing Act, Section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act, and the Americans with Disabilities Act. They also allege violations of protections of the federal Uniform Relocation Act for relocated residents, and of RAD program requirements meant to protect affected residents. The alleged problems began early in the conversion process and have continued through the present.

“For the last 42 years, CHP has been one of the leading advocates of affordable housing development in the Commonwealth,” CHP noted in a media statement. “At this time, we have received letters from HUD and Legal Aide requesting certain documents related to our public housing (RAD) conversions of both Kippax Place and Langston Park Apartment communities in Hopewell, Va. “We will be working with HUD, our existing and past residents, and partners to amicably resolve any concerns–some of which have already been addressed and/or resolved by

This contributed photo shows flood waters at the Summit in 2015 after the area received approxemately two inches of rain.

CHP while the remaining items are being looked into by our staff.”

According to the complaints, CHP illegally discriminated against the families from Langston Park who returned to the Summit after construction based on disability status or having children. CHP forbade anyone under the age of 18 from watching their younger siblings, taking out the trash on their own, accessing the computers and other amenities at the community center if not under the direct supervision of an adult, or playing outside unsupervised. One letter from the Summit’s property manager even threatened to call Child Protective Services if children were left in the care of someone under the age of 18.

“CHP’s alleged behavior left families with children little choice: stay inside or face harsh penalties,” said Helen Hardiman, vice president of Law and Policy at Housing Opportunities Made Equal of Virginia, Inc. “This is exactly the kind of discrimination the Fair Housing Act outlaws.”

One of the complaints states that HRHA and CHP denied a resident’s repeated requests for a first floor unit at the Summit to accommodate her medical disability, in violation of her rights. Last year, she died at her home in the Summit of cardiac arrest and arrhythmia, complications from the very disabilities that were exacerbated by HRHA and CHP’s alleged failure to grant her

multiple requests for a reasonable accommodation. Within a week of her death, CHP moved to evict her surviving household members, her 8and 9-year old grandnieces.

RAD is a “public-private partnership” model for redeveloping aging public housing. In most RAD projects, public housing authorities transfer both management and a large portion of ownership of formerly public housing to private companies, but continue to subsidize the property with direct and indirect federal assistance. Langston Park was the first RAD conversion in Virginia. There are currently 39 other public housing communities in Virginia that HUD has approved to convert under the program.

The RAD conversion process requires property management to relocate residents to suitable housing on or off site during construction.

According to the HUD complaints, when construction work began at the Summit in 2014, residents were relocated off-site to apartments that were overcrowded or virtually uninhabitable. Families as large as six members were crammed into two-bedroom apartments. Many of these apartments also had moisture and mold issues, according to some parents who allege that previously healthy children experienced medical problems while living in the overcrowded and rundown units, including asthma and other breathing issues.

RAD program rules also guarantee all residents the right to return to the redeveloped property. Some families from Langston Park allege they were pushed out of the community altogether, and not allowed to return to the Summit after construction.

HRHA and CHP rebuilt the Summit with fewer large apartments for families with children. One resident in Langston Park with a daughter in a wheelchair claims CHP told her that there would not be an accessible unit at the Summit.

Several residents at Langston Park claim they were misinformed and pressured, in violation of program rules, to accept buyout offers to move elsewhere, apparently because their return to the Summit would limit CHP’s eligibility for tax credit financing. Kim Rolla, staff attorney and Housing Coordinator at Legal Aid Justice Center said that “all of these alleged actions denied residents – the intended beneficiaries of this program – their federally guaranteed right to return to the redeveloped property.

“It caused displaced residents extreme financial hardship,” she said. “Many ended up in unstable housing situations, and some even experienced periods of homelessness.”

Despite these widespread problems, both CHP and HRHA have been approved for another RAD conversion together. Both are currently involved in the conversion of an elderly and disabled public housing building – Kippax Place – where advocates are uncovering similar problems and additional ones unique to that building’s population.

LAJC and HOME filed the complaints on behalf of their clients to prevent further violations of the rights of their clients and other residents who were harmed in the conversion process and/or are continuing to be discriminated against. RAD is often touted as the new frontier of public housing, but HUD, housing authorities, and RAD developers must remember their obligations under the law. The redevelopment of Langston Park is a prime example of a failure to do so, and at the expense of residents who deserve better.

March 15, 2017 • 5

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Plans to cut domestic spending to pay increased defense spending could undermine work safety issues

NOTICE OF PRIMARY ELECTION CITY OF RICHMOND The State Board of Elections ordered Primary Elections be held in the City of Richmond on:

FROM WIRE REPORTS

TUESDAY, JUNE 13, 2017

Reported plans by the Trump administration to cut domestic spending to help pay for an increase in defense spending could lead to increased safety issues for some federal workers, according to one of Virginia’s U.S. senators.

Sen. Tim Kaine last week took a tour of Federal Correctional Complex Petersburg in Prince George County to gather information about the challenges and risks that correctional officers and inmates face.

Kaine explained that as mayor of Richmond he had visited the city jail, and as governor of Virginia he visited state prisons, but he “had never been in a federal [correctional] facility.” He said he believes it’s important when analyzing budget proposals to understand the potential impact “not just on paper.”

What he learned from his tour and from discussions with staff members was that “more money for programs” that provide inmates with education opportunities and job training means “the less you have [released inmates] come back,” which ultimately means less spending, Kaine said.

In addition, the effects of past spending cuts and a federal hiring freeze imposed by the Trump administration, staffing at the correctional complex here “is significantly down,” Kaine noted.

The hiring freeze “makes it more dangerous for the guards and the inmates.”

Further cuts would also likely have a negative impact on the regional economy. Kaine noted that spending on the Prince George facility totals around $40 million a year.

Kaine criticized the hiring freeze when it was first ordered in January. Now, he said, he hopes that when the White House presents its detailed budget proposal, the freeze will be lifted. “Safety is not something we can compromise,” he said.

The purpose of these elections is to nominate candidates for the following offices that will be on the ballot in November:

Democratic Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, House of Delegates Districts 68, 69, 70, 71 and 74, Commonwealth’s Attorney, Treasurer and Sheriff

Republican Governor, Lieutenant Governor, Attorney General, House of Delegates Districts 68, 70 and 71 Information about participating in a primary election as a candidate or in the general election as a non-party candidate can be found at www.elections.virginia.gov.

NOTE: A primary election will not be held for any office in which only one candidate qualifies to have their name appear on the ballot.

THE DEADLINE TO REGISTER TO VOTE IN THIS ELECTION IS MONDAY, MAY 22, 2017 Qualified residents of the Commonwealth of Virginia may apply for, or change, their voter registration online at www.elections.virginia.gov, or in person at the Office of the General Registrar, Room 105, City Hall, 900 East Broad Street, Richmond, Virginia. Office hours are 8:00 AM to 5:00 PM, Monday through Friday, except holidays. Applications are also available at all City libraries, post offices and DMVs.

Sen. Tim Kaine (R) recently took a tour of FCC Petersburg.

Kaine has long been a supporter of corrections reform and programs geared toward lowering recidivism rates. As governor, he noted, “I restored, at the time, a record number of [ex-felons'] rights. Every governor since then has done better.”

As governor, Kaine also supported reducing mandatory minimum sentences for nonviolent drug offenders as well as community-based programs to help ex-offenders find jobs and stay out of prison in the future.

Currently, Kaine is a co-sponsor of a bill that would create a National Criminal Justice Commission to take a comprehensive look at overhauling the justice system, including sentencing rules that are putting an increasing number of nonviolent drug offenders in prison for terms of 20 or

more years, raising the national cost of incarceration. The proposal was first introduced by Kaine’s Senate predecessor, Jim Webb. Kaine’s Senate colleague, Sen. Mark Warner, is also a co-sponsor.

According to figures from the Bureau of Prisons, out of the nation’s current federal prison population of about 177,000, almost half – about 82,000, or 46 percent – are serving sentences for drug offenses.

The deadline to apply for an absentee ballot through the mail for this election is Tuesday June 6, 2017. The deadline to apply for and vote an absentee ballot in person is 5:00 PM, Saturday, June 10, 2017, except in the case of certain emergencies. The Office of the General Registrar will be open for absentee voting during regular business hours, and from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM on Saturday, June 10, 2017. Persons with a VA DMV issued ID can also apply online for an absentee ballot through the mail at: www.elections.virginia.gov.

PHOTO ID IS NOW REQUIRED TO VOTE IN PERSON. See www.elections.virginia.gov for more information.

Call (804) 646-5950 for more information.

(from page 2) ignore the nature and scope of He adds that the defendants have not relayed communications related to two outside investigations initiated because of Johnson’s arrest.

“Essentially, the defendants’ discovery responses fundamentally

Johnson’s claims against Director Walker by seeking to limit this case to agents Miller and Custer,” the motion reads.

The new motions are scheduled to be taken up in federal court in Roanoke March 27.

6 • March 15, 2017

Op/Ed & Letters

The LEGACY

Trump, blacks & the GOP E.W. JACKSON Americans of African descent voted overwhelmingly Republican from the end of the Civil War to the 1930s, but became almost totally Democrat by the 1970s. No single event brought about this tectonic shift, but the change in black voting patterns began with Franklin Delano Roosevelt. During the depression, Roosevelt’s Civilian Conservation Corps (CCC) gave starving men work, food and shelter. My father, a black American, lived and worked in a CCC camp for six months, and he was forever grateful.

As a result, he became a passionate Democrat, and disdained the Republican Party as the exclusive club of the heartless rich. When Truman became president, he ended racial segregation in the military, furthering the image of Democrats as the party of compassion and justice.

Then came John Kennedy, the inspiring symbol of the future. His famous call to Coretta Scott King while her husband was held in a Georgia jail created an emotional bond with black voters. Most historians agree that President Kennedy was reticent at best, fearing that he would alienate southern Democrats. Nevertheless, he made the call and reinforced the idea that Democrats cared and Republicans did not. That single gesture caused Martin Luther King Sr. to switch his support from Nixon to Kennedy, and The LEGACY NEWSPAPER Vol. 3 No. 11 Mailing Address 409 E. Main Street 4 Office Address 105 1/2 E. Clay St. Richmond, VA 23219 Call 804-644-1550 Online www.legacynewspaper.com

many black voters did the same.

After the Kennedy assassination, Lyndon Johnson - the former segregationist who was known to use the n-word in private - became the public champion of civil rights.

The last Republican to receive a significant percentage of the black vote was Richard Nixon with 32 percent. It was the dying gasp of a century long love affair between black voters and the GOP. They have now been estranged for half a century.

How did Republicans allow a constituency once firmly in their camp to make a wholesale exodus?

Or to put it another way, how did Democrats wrench the black vote from the GOP’s grasp?

A common misperception held by black voters today is that as the Democrat Party became more sensitive to the needs of black citizens, Dixiecrats switched to the The LEGACY welcomes all signed letters and all respectful opinions.

Letter writers and columnists opinions are their own and endorsements of their views by The LEGACY should be inferred. The LEGACY assumes no responsibility for unsolicited material.

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Republican Party. In other words, the parties reversed roles. While it is true that many southern whites became Republicans, there were other political re-alignments which disprove the role reversal theory.

As Northeastern Democrats embraced civil rights, they were also adopting abortion as a central tenet. Furthermore, the Democrat Party supported the 1962 and 1963 Supreme Court decisions which ruled in Engle v. Vitale, School District of Abington Township v.

Schempp, and Murray v. Curlett that prayer and Bible reading in public schools violate the 1st Amendment.

Republicans were opposed.

In 1982 Ronald Reagan proposed a Constitutional Amendment to restore prayer to schools. That issue solidified the platforms and images of the two parties - the Democrats as secular liberals, the Republicans as evangelical conservatives. As secularism and identity politics became more influential among Democrats, they lurched to the far left. As evangelicals became more powerful in Republican ranks, the party became more decidedly Christian.

However, the GOP never became the party of segregationists as is wrongly thought. It became the party for people of faith, and I, a black American, was one of the people who left the Democrat Party to become a Republican in the early 80s.

The more Republicans took on a religious persona, the more the Democrats shunned religion. No one will ever forget the infamous moment when Democrats at their 2012 national convention took God out of their platform, and then clumsily and over objections tried to put Him back.

It was telling.

The Democrat Party brand as champion for black civil rights has also been weakened by the creation of new classes of “victims” - gays, illegal immigrants, Muslims, transgenders, the list goes on and on.

The problems of the inner city are complex and horrifying, but fighting to allow the Caitlyn Jenners of the world to “be who they were meant to be” and use the bathroom of their choice makes for a simpler, more hip rallying cry. The only message Democrats have had to the black community for the last 40 years boils down to, “Republicans are racists.

Vote Democrat.”

In truth black voters no longer have a political home. Democrats take them for granted and Republicans consider them unreachable. Suddenly appears Donald J. Trump, a white, New York billionaire turned Republican politician, directly appealing to black citizens and expecting to get their votes.

“What the hell have you got to lose?” he asked again and again on

(continued on page 7)

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March 15, 2017 • 7

P.T. Hoffsteader, Esq.

Preservation talk As you well know, there have been a lot of tensions and disagreements about how to honor the enslaved people who lived, worked, were bought and sold, imprisoned, died, resisted and survived in Shockoe Bottom.

The creation of an historic interpretive center around the Devil’s Half-Acre / Lumpkin’s Jail archaeological site is a fine beginning, and we want to help ensure there is vision for and commitment to the rest of the area, specifically protections against loss or misuse of the African Burial Ground and those adjacent areas that have been identified as the sites of slave-trading offices, auction sites and jails.

The concept of a memorial park has wide support. Acknowledgement of that sentiment has made its way into the language being offered

by SmithGroupJJR, the city’s consultants who have the contract to develop the Devil’s Half Acre / Lumpkin’s Jail site. Their press release states, “Building upon ‘Richmond Speaks,’ the City of Richmond is initiating the first stage of the process to develop the actual Lumpkin’s Slave Jail Site as the seed project in Shockoe Bottom along the Richmond Slave Trail.”

But we will feel much better when the city and the state propose and affirm that legal protections are in place for the entire Memorial Park footprint. These parcels represent what is left of some of the earliest black history sites--the original street grid (1737) and municipal burying ground (1750-1816), and where slave trading businesses were active

in the 20-30 years leading up to Emancipation in April 1865.

Institutions like the National Trust for Historic Preservation and Preservation Virginia, which recognized Shockoe Bottom in 2014 as a district of historic sites at risk, have actively promoted its preservation at the statewide and national level. I hope you will review your copy of our latest proposal, completed with the help of the Center for Design Engagement after a series of community meetings in June of last year, also online at goo. gl/8R2sJJ. You can also view the original Community Proposal at sacredgroundproject.net/p/blog-page.

The election of Mayor Levar Stoney, and four new city council members in Richmond, offers a chance to restart the conversation about how we can protect and interpret the history of Shockoe Bottom in a way that does justice to our ancestors, and to the educational and economic development needs of the city.

Mayor Stoney is on record as supporting “the general concept of a memorial park” on several occasions. The Sacred Ground Project has requested a meeting to start a new relationship with Richmond’s administration.

The community engagement meetings that SmithGroupJJR has announced will be one of the opportunities to ensure that the language in their press release represents not only the spirit of their approach, but the letter of the next steps in ensuring that Richmond’s Trail of Enslaved Africans culminates in a 9-acre memorial park dedicated to truth-telling our city’s whole history in public. The other opportunities will be to be in touch

with our city council, district and state representatives continuously.

Please plan to attend: March 27, at City Hall, 6 -7 p.m. – Sacred Ground Project will present a statement during the public comment period on the Community Proposal for a Nine Acre Shockoe Bottom Memorial Park.

It is important to reiterate that the city now defines its “museum” as the “seed project of a greater plan” in Shockoe Bottom to “stimulate the further investigation and interpretation” of Richmond’s slave history. But, what is the city’s “greater plan” for Shockoe Bottom?

Ana Edwards, chair, Sacred Ground Historical Reclamation Project of the Defenders for Freedom, Justice & Equality with Phil Wilayto, Elizabeth Kostelny, Robert Nieweg & Max Page

Investigation needed The American people deserve an honest president and attorney general.

It is clear that the Trump campaign, transition team and administration have had very questionable contacts with the Russian government. With others lying about their contact It is now also clear that the country’s top law enforcement official (AG) has lied about his contacts. Trump and his Republican party are in their “cover up” mode.

Why is Trump not attacking the Russian government for their spy ship prowling our east coast, near military installations and government facilities, [probably] stealing national secrets? I am sure Trump’s intelligence briefers have

told him that this is the farthest north a Russian spy ship has ever ventured off our coast.

An impartial, objective, thorough and independent investigation into all credible allegations concerning the relationship between Donald Trump, his campaign and transition teams and chief of staff, along with the Russian government, is needed.

The Trump administration and Republicans in Congress cannot be trusted to investigate themselves and this is the reason for an independent investigation.

Democrats and others need to force Congress to take a bolder stance for America and not Russia.

Walt Hill

(from page 6) the campaign trail. He repeatedly promised to do something about the crime and violence plaguing the inner cities. He has committed to give children of poor black parents an opportunity for a quality education through school choice.

The election results showed 13 percent of black men voted for him, a staggeringly high number in light of recent voting history.

Are we witnessing an anomaly or is this the beginning of another seismic shift in the black vote like what took place from Roosevelt to Johnson?

The jury is still out, but if President Trump delivers on his promises of jobs, education and safe streets, he may separate black voters from the Democrat coalition and bring them back to their original home in the Party of Lincoln.

8 • March 15, 2017

Faith & Religion

The LEGACY

American pastors are older and getting older If you’re noticing a lot of gray in the pulpit at your church these days, you’re not alone. Pastors are getting older.

“The aging of pastors represents a substantial crisis for Protestant churches,” David Kinnaman, president of the Barna Group, said in remarks included with a report titled “The Aging of America’s Pastors,” released recently.

“In fact, there are now more full-time senior pastors who are over the age 65 than under the age of 40,” he said. “It is urgent that denominations, networks and independent churches determine how to best motivate, mobilize, resource and deploy … younger pastors.”

The data on aging is part of a larger study Barna conducted with Pepperdine University. It examined how religious leaders are negotiating the increasing complexity of modern life and ministry. “The State of Pastors” study also looked at shifts in

the demographics of faith leaders and at the trends driving those changes.

The findings on age are often dramatic.

In 1992, Barna reported that the median age of pastors was 44. A third of them were under 40 and a quarter was over 55. Only 6 percent were 65 or older.

“Twenty-five years later, the average age is 54,” Barna announced in a summary of the new report published online. “Only one in seven pastors is under 40, and half are over 55.”

And the percentage of faith leaders 65 and older has tripled since 1992, Barna said.

Going back even further, Barna found that 55 percent of all Protestant pastors were 45 or younger in 1968 – “that is, the majority of all church leaders were in their 20s, 30s and early 40s.”

By 2017, only 22 percent are under 45.

The research group cited a number of causes for these trends.

“At the most basic level, people are living longer.”

The average life expectancy for men in 1968 was 66 years old, compared to 76 today, according to the report summary.

The increase in second-career clergy has been another factor – especially in non-mainline and historically black congregations. In other words, many ministers are answering their callings at later ages.

The 2008 economic crisis has also played a part by imploding 401(k) plans and home values. As a result, many older pastors are financially unable to leave their jobs.

“On the other end of the age spectrum, an insufficient number of young would-be pastors is likely a factor, too,” Barna said. “A majority of current pastors say even finding future leaders — much less mentoring them — is a challenge.”

Religious freedom clashes coming to a Sunday school class near you BNG - A new small-group study curriculum produced by the Southern Baptist Convention portrays religious liberty as under siege in the United States of America.

A joint project of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and LifeWay Christian Resources, the six-week study titled Religious Liberty: How the Gospel Shapes Our First Freedom challenges church members to ponder what life would be like if their freedom to practice their faith was taken away.

“There was a time not long ago when everybody in American life supported religious freedom, at least verbally,” ERLC leader Russell

Moore said in a video introduction.

“Now we live in a time where religious freedom is increasingly not only debated but often denied and attacked.”

Moore said American Christians don’t know what the future holds.

“It could be that there’s a day coming when even in American life churches are not free to worship in places that are rented in the public square,” he said. “We could be in a day where your children or grandchildren in the future may not able to advertise that they are deacons or elders or pastors in Christian churches for fear of losing their jobs.”

Kelvin Cochran The study touches on current controversies such as Christian bakers and florists accused of discrimination for refusing to provide

Two-thirds of pastors surveyed said they believe it’s becoming more difficult to identify suitable, younger ministry candidates.

Also, 52 percent of clergy said they believe many young leaders think vocational ministry is less important than other kinds of work.

The report also cautions churches about the possible implications of increasingly older clergy.

“It’s not inherently a problem that there are older pastors in positions of leadership,” Kinnaman said in his published remarks. “In fact, younger generations are often looking for wisdom and leadership from established teachers and leaders.”

But there can be challenges.

“The problem arises when today’s pastors do not represent a healthy mix of young, middle age and older leaders,” he said. “For the Christian community to be at its best, it needs intergenerational leaders to move it forward.” services for same-sex weddings because they believe homosexuality is a sin.

“All across the United States we see people right now who are being persecuted for following the teaching of their faith,” Alan Sears, founder of Alliance Defending Freedom, said in a lesson video. “We’re having people being told they can’t own a business or be in the public commerce stream.

We’re having people told that they cannot hold public employment because of certain beliefs.”

Sears cited the example of Kelvin Cochran, the former fire chief of Atlanta fired in 2015 for allegedly violating city policy by writing a self-published book without getting the mayor’s permission. Cochran, a Southern Baptist, sued the city, claiming officials didn’t agree with portions of the book denouncing homosexuality as a form of “sexual

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(from page 8) perversion” akin to pederasty or bestiality.

The city claimed Cochran was suspended and ultimately fired because selling a book for profit violated a city ordinance barring department heads from seeking outside employment without written approval. Cochran then gave 22 copies of the book to city employees, raising questions on the city council about his ability to relate constructively to LGBT workers under his supervision.

“This gentleman was the most highly recognized and decorated fire person in the United States,” Sears said. “He held the office of fire administrator of the United States in the Department of Homeland Security. He was brought to Washington by President Obama’s administration. He returned to Atlanta at the request of the mayor, but when it became known that he was a Sunday school teacher who held traditional Christian beliefs that conflicted with the designs of certain politicians in the city of Atlanta, it cost him his job.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center labels Alliance Defending Freedom a hate group because of its opposition to LGBT rights.

Another lesson video discusses misunderstanding of religious liberty not only in secular society but among Christians who support only “religious liberty for me, for my church, for my people.”

March 15, 2017 • 9 “You see some Christians who are less inclined to want to extend the application of the principle of religious liberty to other minority groups, whether they be Muslims or Hindus or other groups,” said Trevin Wax, Bible and reference publisher for LifeWay Christian Resources. “So on the right sometimes as well you see this shrinking of religious liberty to where it really simply means special privilege for Christians.”

Recently the ERLC came under criticism for joining a legal brief defending the right of Muslims to build a mosque in New Jersey.

Critics said they don’t question that Muslims have a right to worship, but it’s inappropriate to use Southern Baptist offerings to aid them in their efforts to promote a competing faith.

The ERLC’s 2017 legislative agenda includes support for First Amendment Defense Act, which would prohibit the federal government from taking “discriminatory action” against anyone who “believes or acts in accordance with a religious belief or moral conviction that marriage is or should be recognized as the union of one man and one woman, or that sexual relations are properly reserved to such a marriage.”

Last month the Washington state Supreme Court ruled unanimously that a Southern Baptist florist who refused to sell flowers to a gay couple for their wedding violated state laws barring discrimination in public accommodation based on sexual orientation.

“One of the major misconceptions in the debate over nondiscrimination laws related to sexual orientation is the belief that Christians are trying to create a gay/straight apartheid or recreation of Jim Crow Southern segregation,” says a sample lesson posted online.

“Such an interpretation is deeply misguided. The simple reality is that respecting religious liberty is a way for us to live together without crushing faith and conscience.

Religious liberty helps us to live in peace.”

The Washington court said requiring the florist to provide gay couples the same services she would offer for an atheistic or Muslim wedding did not violate her right to freedom of religion or speech.

Saying the case “is no more about access to flowers than civil rights cases in the 1960s were about access to sandwiches,” justices said laws requiring public accommodation serve society by “eradicating barriers to the equal treatment of all citizens in the commercial marketplace.”

First filed in the House and Senate in 2015, the First Amendment Defense Act stalled after one hearing amid concern that President Obama would veto the bill. This time around the sponsors

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Opponents say the bill would exploit religious freedom but use it as an excuse to discriminate.

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10 • March 15, 2017

The LEGACY

In ‘Podcasting While Black’ course, students draw on black rhetoric Reyna Smith, a senior at Virginia Commonwealth University, says she is feeling “lost in the sauce” and in need of feedback as she works to fine tune the concept of her first podcast, “Tea Time in the Shade,” which she’s thinking will likely open up with a rant comparing and contrasting Melania Trump and Michelle Obama.

Chioke I’Anson, Ph.D., an instructor in the Department of African American Studies in the College of Humanities and Sciences and one of NPR’s two voices of underwriting heard on public radio stations across the country, advises Smith that it would be most engaging for listeners if she opens her show with an “organized rant.”

“Start off with, ‘Yo, here’s my rant!’

And then you’re like, ‘Welcome to ‘Tea Time in the Shade,’ and that sets up the whole thing,” I’Anson says. “The thing about ranting is that you miss out on the structure that makes a thing really effective and what you get instead is, like, the crunkness. So, I’m saying, you can have an effective structure, like some Frederick Douglass-type stuff, but your content is Melania Trump vs.

Mrs. Obama.”

Smith, who is majoring in African American studies and international social studies, is developing “Tea Time in the Shade” as part of a new African American Studies course called “Podcasting While Black,” in which the students learn critical concepts and rhetorical strategies of great African-American communicators and then incorporate those methods into podcasts exploring the experiences, history and lives of African Americans.

“There are all these other mediums in which Africana knowledge, knowledge from the humanities itself, can be spread out.”

“One of the dope things about Africana history is that there are all these rhetorical tools that are exemplified in all these figures, whether they be historical or contemporary,” I’Anson said. “So like, people always talk about Socrates

Bill Miller, vice president and general manager of 88.9 WCVE Public Radio, shows the “Podcasting While Black” students the NPR member station’s studio during a recent field trip. and Ovid and these cats, right?

And these cats are fantastic. But some of the best manifestations of the Socratic method are found in Martin Luther King. Some of the best manifestations of Ovid’s speech structure is actually in Frederick Douglass. Some of the best ways of articulating our emotional life at all is in Audre Lorde and Toni Morrison.

So we need to look at these figures not just to think about what they meant for history, but also to think about what we can learn from them in the ways that they communicated.

That can also help us out, and that’s one of the missions of this course.”

The idea of the course is that students learn the basics of podcasting — how to use and maintain recording equipment, how to use digital editing software, how to find their podcast “voice” — and then eventually produce their own

podcast pilot that utilizes lessons from Africana history.

“If we think about academic stuff, it takes some really basic forms — it’s a paper, it’s a book, it’s an article, it’s a speech that I gave one time at a banquet. It has a fundamentally dry kind of framework. But that’s not necessary at all,” I’Anson said.

“There are all these other mediums in which Africana knowledge, knowledge from the humanities itself, can be spread out: Podcasting, making cool TV shows, being on YouTube. So I wanted to use these different mediums to get students to think critically about the ways that they themselves communicate.”

Workshopping podcast concepts The students are currently workshopping their podcast ideas, and will record and edit them soon.

At the end of the semester, the

podcasts will be posted online and will be available for download.

Along with Smith’s “Tea Time in the Shade,” the students’ podcast ideas include one focusing on “blerds,” or black nerds. Another will explore mental health in the AfricanAmerican community.

Bryce Johnson, a senior political science major, is working on one that will involve him interviewing his childhood best friend who recently came out as gay.

“What I’m going to be doing is talking with him about our past experiences growing up and talking about situations where maybe he felt a little bit uncomfortable and where he was maybe hesitant to come out and say what he really felt because of stereotypical gender norms in the early 2000s and even before then in how we were brought up,” Johnson

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(from page 10) said. “So I want to dive deep into our past and get a better understanding of how he feels and where we are in terms of moving forward.”

Ashlynn Bell, a junior majoring in African American Studies and Psychology, is working with a classmate on a podcast they’re calling “Memoirs of a Dark Skinned Girl.”

“We want to open it with a letter from a dark-skinned girl, asking for advice and self-love and acceptance in a society where you’re so heavily stigmatized,” Bell said. “And [we’re planning] to have guests on to talk about their experiences as a darkskinned girl and what they did to overcome challenges that they face.

So it wouldn’t be just, ‘Woe is me, listen to our pain.’ It’ll be, what can we practically learn to help people who still need it now? And presented in a way that can be heard by a lot of people.”

At last week’s class, I’Anson advised the “Memoirs of a Dark Skinned Girl” team to avoid being overly general, and to instead to be personal and specific.

“You don’t want to be like, ‘Darkskin girls have issues,’” he said. “You want to be like, ‘I was 12 and this happened to me.’”

Yet another student, senior English major Lauren Parker, was inspired

by WBEZ’s “Making Oprah” podcast, which tells the behind-the-scenes story of the rise of Oprah Winfrey’s TV talk show, and decided to do a podcast on Richmond history.

“I was looking at places that were major sites of Richmond’s slave market or places important to Confederate history. Because those places that don’t seem to have history or don’t seem to impact us now, the different types of sociology in those places are still kind of marked by that history. I was thinking about that, and wanted to put it into a conversation,” Parker said. “I could just research the history myself and talk about it myself, but I think it’s really interesting to see a place that was a major site of the slave market, and to see who’s there today and who’s not?”

Advice from “Love + Radio” As students arrived at last week’s

March 15, 2017 • 11 class, I’Anson played a clip that aired earlier that day on “1A,” a national public radio show and podcast produced by WAMU, in which Lauren Ober, host of WAMU’s and NPR’s “The Big Listen” podcast, described visiting I’Anson’s class and speaking with students about their podcast ideas.

“So, ‘You’re welcome’ is what I’m trying to say,” I’Anson deadpanned to the class. “I’m trying to put you guys in the streets!”

That day’s class featured a guest lecture by Nick van der Kolk, creator and host of the podcast “Love + Radio,” which features “in-depth, otherworldly-produced interviews with an eclectic range of subjects, from the seedy to the sublime” and has been produced since 2005.

“Just so you know,” I’Anson told the students, “we’re now in the presence of a legend who is really deep in the game.”

Nick van der Kolk, creator and host of the podcast “Love + Radio,” visited the “Podcasting While Black” class last week to give tips on drawing great stories out of interview subjects.

Van der Kolk shared a few stories behind his podcast’s most famous episodes, including the time he had a gun pointed at him while interviewing a Detroit man who ran a “DIY strip club” out of an old house in residential neighborhood.

Van der Kolk told the class that he likes to explore “morally complicated situations and characters,” including a man who married a doll who was featured on “My Strange Addiction” and an advocate on behalf of registered sex offenders.

“I don’t consider most of our subjects weirdos, except in kind of a delightful way, even if some of them have aspects that might be reprehensible,” he said. “I always have to have a deep sense of empathy for them, while at the same time trying to check myself and come at things from a more objective perspective or ask questions on behalf of the audience.”

I’Anson asked van der Kolk if he had any interviewing secrets he could share with the class as they develop their own podcasts.

“I’m often kind of curious why people say yes to being interviewed.”

Chioke I’Anson, Ph.D., an instructor in the Department of African American Studies, (left), and his students in the new “Podcasting While Black” class at VCU. “People want to feel validated,” van der Kolk said. “I’m often kind of curious why people say yes to being interviewed. Unless someone has something like a book to sell or a political agenda, there’s no real reason for them to say yes.

And, in fact, if they say something that upsets people, there could be potential consequences for them. So the logical thing, when I come say, ‘Are you interested in an interview?’ is to say no. Not that I feel like I’m an unfair interviewer or anything like that. But it’s really powerful.

People need to feel validated and they need to feel like they’re listened to.”

Van der Kolk also gave the students such practical tips as setting up the microphone as close to the interview subject as possible — “If you want that nice, intimate sound, you gotta be right up next to them,” he said, and also to get very familiar with the recording equipment before heading out for an interview.

“You don’t want to be fiddling around with stuff when you show up to interview someone,” he said. “If you show and you’re fumbling with your equipment, that’s going to make your subject feel awkward.”

A helpful tool to communicate A number of the students in “Podcasting While Black” were not very familiar with podcasts before signing up, but they say they are now

enthusiastic about the medium.

“I was just really interested in the idea of podcasting,” Johnson said.

“I was already into YouTube and I make YouTube videos, so I had already sort of expressed myself through that medium as far as content creation. But I hadn’t really gotten into podcasting. I’d heard a couple of them but I hadn’t taken the time to actually check out podcasting and learn more about it, so I thought it’d be a really good experience.”

Bell said she wanted to take the course because I’Anson is such an engaging professor, but also to give herself communication practice that will come in handy in her future career.

“I struggle with communicating confidently, so I thought this could be a good way to encompass both learning about the history of narratives within the Africana diaspora but also to help myself with communication,” she said.

“Since I want to be a therapist, I’m going to have to be comfortable with interviewing people and speaking confidently and clearly.”

“I didn’t listen to podcasts a lot before,” she added. “I didn’t take the class with the aim [of hosting my own podcast] in mind, but now that I know so much about it and it’s such a helpful tool to communicate with a lot of people, I definitely would consider it now.” © VCU

12 • March 15, 2017

The LEGACY

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March 15, 2017 • 13

Out of prison, then back in? Unique plan aims to break cycle BOSTON — Tykeam Jackson’s soft voice and warm smile give little hint of how the 21-year-old spent his youth: in and out of juvenile detention and jails, leading a life in Boston’s mean streets centered on gangs and guns.

“I was always having guns to protect myself. I just kept getting caught,” he said. “I was hanging around the wrong crowd, being in the wrong areas, getting into the wrong activities.”

Over the past year, his outlook has changed. Even as a pending criminal case looms over him, he’s slowly gaining confidence that he can break the cycle that has entangled him — with the help of a unique organization called Roca.

“They’ve gotten me in the right direction,” he said. “Since I’ve been with Roca, my whole life has done a 360.”

Roca is a nonprofit that seeks to steer hundreds of Massachusetts’ highest-risk young men away

from a return behind bars, using a distinctive blend of relentlessness and patience. Even the most troublesome participants are exhorted to persist with its multiyear education and job programs; Roca is loath to give up on any of them.

If its unorthodox approach works — and private investors are betting millions of dollars it will — it might show a path forward for other states and cities grasping for ways to bring down stubbornly high rates of rearrest and re-incarceration.

“It was hard staying out of jail before I got with Roca,” Jackson said.

“It’s because I didn’t have a voice. I was just another kid going through the system who everybody just wanted to brush off.”

With more than 2.1 million people held in America’s prisons and jails and the annual bill around $80 billion, according to a Brookings Institution study, there has been bipartisan action on many criminal

Derrik Pannesi, right, bags leaves as part of his job training with the jail alternative program at Roca Inc. at a playground in Mass. recently. In January, Pannesi credited Roca with getting him on track after an adolescence filled with gang activity and multiple stints behind bars. In spite of the message tattooed on the back of his hands, he acknowledged Roca was beginning to gain his trust. But in late February, Roca had dismaying news _ Pannesi was back in jail, rearrested after police lodged gun- and drug-related charges against him.

PHOTO: Charles Krupa

justice reforms, from scaling back some mandatory sentences to routing more nonviolent offenders to diversion programs.

But there’s been no breakthrough on recidivism.

Within five years, 77 percent of ex-prisoners in a 2014 federal study were arrested again, and more than half went back to prison. The study, by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, tracked outcomes for 405,000 inmates released from prisons in 30 states in 2005.

Recidivism rates were highest for inmates who were 24 or younger at release — the age range of the young men that Roca works with in the tough neighborhoods of greater Boston. Nearly all of them have arrest records; the vast majority are high school dropouts involved in street gangs.

They are, in Roca’s own words, young men “not ready, willing or able to participate in any other program.”

“My guys are not going to be Boy Scouts,” said Jason Owens, a Roca assistant director. “It’s Last Chance University for them. It’s either Roca, or jail, or death.” ___ Roca’s program, with its pledge to investors that they’ll be repaid for its success, is unusual in many ways, and yet it reflects changing attitudes in the U.S. penal system.

Politicians and corrections officials are increasingly vocal about stopping the revolving door back to prison, whether for fiscal or humanitarian reasons.

“It used to be that public officials couldn't even pronounce recidivism,” said Mike Thompson, director of the Council of State Governments’ Justice Center. “Now you’ll see governors include a whole plan to deal with it in their State of the State address.”

Many prison systems have intensified efforts to better prepare inmates for release. Innovative jobtraining and education programs have been launched behind bars, including college courses offered through a federally funded pilot program. Several Western prisons teach inmates to train wild horses; a program in some Florida prisons teaches poetry, play-writing and other skills.

“Gone are the days when prison folks didn’t care about how many

times you came back through the front gate,” said Fred Patrick of the Vera Institute of Justice, a New York-based think tank.

Nonetheless, Patrick said, there are obstacles — from the reluctance of many legislators to pay for re-entry programs to the fact that ex-inmates face barriers to obtaining jobs, driver’s licenses and public housing.

“People say, ‘You did your time, come home, get a job and move on,’” he said. “And yet you can’t get a barber’s license, even if you did that in prison.”

Then there is the problem of “technical violations” of parole and probation terms; many former inmates go back to prison not because they committed a new criminal offense, but because of breaking a rule.

That’s what sent Scott Rich back to New York City’s Rikers Island prison. After two stints behind bars, he says he was on track to put that way of life behind him and succeed with a $15-an-hour job when he was apprehended for violating his paroleimposed curfew last year.

“My girlfriend was pregnant at the time, and I was out past curfew just moving her car from one space to another when I was pulled over,” he said. “In that instant, that’s when everything just crumbled — everything I was working for, obtaining this job, staying out of trouble all that time.”

Rich, 23, dropped out of school in ninth grade and was arrested at 16 for armed robbery. He served 23 months at Rikers, then was arrested again in 2013 and served nine months in prison.

His first post-prison employment earned him only $150 a week, he said, because two weekdays were taken up with parole-related appointments. Eventually, he landed the $15-an-hour landscaping job, only to lose it due to the curfew violation.

Looking ahead, Rich would like to be a self-employed entrepreneur, but he is realistic about challenges he’ll face after his release. And he’s grateful that programming at Rikers to assist inmates with re-entry is “10 times better” now than during his first stint.

“Just get me up to the point where I can get my foot in the door,” he said. “Don”t just throw me out to the wolves.” ___

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14 • March 15, 2017

The LEGACY

Alz. care tops $250

Beth Kallmyer For the first time, total payments exceeded a quarter of a trillion dollars ($259 billion) for caring for individuals living with Alzheimer’s or other dementias, according to data reported in the 2017 Alzheimer’s Disease Facts and Figures report, recently released by the Alzheimer’s Association.

The report also includes new research on the disease’s impact on caregivers, such as family members. “This report details the physical and mental damage many people experience when caring for someone with Alzheimer”s,” said Beth Kallmyer, MSW, vice president of Constituent Services for the Alzheimer’s Association.

“It also reveals how this burden disproportionately affects women, who tend to spend more time caregiving, take on more caregiving tasks and care for individuals with more cognitive, functional and behavioral problems.”

More than 15 million Americans provide unpaid care in the form of physical, emotional and financial support for the estimated 5.5 million Americans of all ages living with Alzheimer’s dementia. In 2016, Alzheimer's caregivers provided an estimated 18.2 billion hours of unpaid care – a contribution to the nation valued at $230.1 billion.

The report illustrates that the strain of caregiving produces serious physical and mental health consequences. For instance, more than one out of three (35 percent) caregivers for people with

Alzheimer’s or another dementia report that their health has gotten worse due to care responsibilities, compared with one out of five (19 percent) caregivers for older people without dementia. Also, depression and anxiety are more common among dementia caregivers than among people providing care for individuals with certain other conditions.

“As the number of people with Alzheimer’s continues to grow, so does the impact and cost of providing care,” said Kallmyer. “While we’ve seen recent increases in federal research funding and access to critical care planning and support services, there’s still an urgent need to support research that can bring us closer to effective treatment options and, ultimately, a cure.”

Caring for someone living with dementia often falls on women, who make up two-thirds of Alzheimer’s caregivers. New findings highlighted in the report show that of all dementia caregivers who provided care for more than 40 hours a week, 69 percent are women. Of those providing care to someone with dementia for more than five years, 63 percent are women.

The report provides an in-depth look at the latest national statistics and information on Alzheimer’s prevalence, incidence, use and costs of care, caregiving and mortality.

The report shows that, for the first time, total annual payments for health care, long-term care and hospice care for people with Alzheimer’s and other dementias

VCU Health System patient information improperly accessed VCU Health System has notified about 2,700 individuals that their or their minor child’s electronic medical records were recently inappropriately accessed. The issue came to light Jan. 10, when the health system reports that “an unusual pattern of accessing electronic medical records was detected”. The questionable access happened between Jan. 3-10.

The investigation indicated the electronic medical records were viewed without malicious intent and no information was inappropriately used. However, it is the health system’s responsibility to notify affected patients that the incidents happened.

Information that may have been viewed includes the patient’s full name, home address, date of birth, medical record number, healthcare provider, visit dates, health insurance information and other medical information. In some instances, social security numbers also could have been viewed.

As part of the health system’s partnership with physicians in the community (not employed by the VCU Health System), access is provided to their practices so they can view the medical records of their patients who are referred to VCU for medical care and treatment.

Access also is provided to certain contracted vendors who provide have surpassed a quarter of a trillion dollars. Additionally, despite support from Medicare, Medicaid and other sources of financial assistance, individuals with Alzheimer’s or other dementias still incur high out-ofpocket costs. The average per-person out-of-pocket costs for seniors with Alzheimer’s and other dementias are almost five times higher than average per-person payments for seniors without these conditions ($10,315 versus $2,232).

Although deaths from other major causes have decreased, new data from the report shows that deaths from Alzheimer’s have increased significantly. Between 2000 and 2014, deaths from heart disease

medical equipment to patients for continuity of care upon their discharge from the hospital.

Following an investigation, the health system noted that acting independently, employees of some community physician groups and an employee of a contracted vendor accessed, without legitimate business reasons, information about services patients received at the VCU Health System. As a result of the incidents, the respective employers terminated those employees.

Following the incident, the health system reports it has instituted new safeguards to prevent inappropriate access to the electronic medical record system.

The health system notes that there is no indication that the private health information has been or will be used for any unintended purposes. Still, it is providing one year of free credit monitoring and identity theft protection services to assist patients whose social security numbers were viewable.

Instructions have been provided to all patients for placing a fraud alert, freezing a credit file, obtaining a free credit report and protecting health information.

Additionally, the health system is staffing a toll-free response line for patient questions at 844-308-6636.

The health system also is decreased 14 percent, while deaths from Alzheimer’s increased 89 percent.

Of the estimated 5.5 million Americans with Alzheimer's dementia in 2017, 5.3 million people are age 65 and older and approximately 200,000 are under age 65 (younger-onset Alzheimer’s).

Barring the development of medical breakthroughs, the number of people age 65 and older with Alzheimer's dementia may nearly triple from 5.3 million to 13.8 million by 2050.

Every 66 seconds, someone in the U.S. develops Alzheimer’s dementia.

By mid-century, someone in the U.S. will develop the disease every 33 seconds.

March 15, 2017 • 15

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For details, call 804-803-1549

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Calendar

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COMMUNITY ACTIVITIES & EVENTS

3.30, 3:30 p.m.

Ongoing

Looking for a job, or considering a career change? If so, mark your calendar for an upcoming Career Fair being hosted by John Tyler Community College and Old Dominion University (ODU). The Career Fair will take place March 30, 2017, from 3:30 – 6:30 p.m. in the Nicholas Center at John Tyler Community College’s Chester Campus, located at 13101 Jefferson Davis Highway. More than 85 employers will be on hand.

In addition to meeting these employers, attendees will have the opportunity to talk to representatives from John Tyler Community College and ODU about educational programs that can lead to workforce success.

The career fair is free and open to the community. For a list of employers who will be in attendance, go to www.jtcc.edu/about/news/8223.

Questions about the career fair may be directed to Dr. Ann Sorensen at 804-706-5166 or asorensen@jtcc.edu or Bennie Rogers, III at 804-5941562 or brogers@jtcc.edu.

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Virginia State University’s (VSU) accounting majors are working in cooperation with the U.S. Internal Revenue Service to provide income tax preparation and filing assistance for 2016 tax returns to individual or joint filers in the Tri-Cities area with income below $58,000.

The Volunteer Income Tax Assistance site has been established on VSU’s campus in Singleton Hall, Room 333, and is being staffed two days a week, Tuesdays from 12:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. and Saturdays from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. through April 11. The service will be closed during the university’s Spring Break, March 12 - March 19.

Those desiring help in preparing and filing their tax returns should bring with them all essential records – W2 forms, SSA – 1099, if appropriate, etc. Free electronic filing will be done for individuals who are required to use IRS forms 1040A or 1040EZ only. IRS E-File for individuals is the easy alternative to filing paper returns.

This is the 30th year VSU accounting majors have provided this service, which is being coordinated

by Lester Reynolds, assistant professor of accounting and a former IRS employee; and Dr. Hari Sharma, chairman of the Department of Accounting and Finance in the Reginald F. Lewis College of Business. For more informatioan, call 804- 524-5842.

AUTO CLUB SERVICE

Submit your calendar events by email to: editor@legacynewspaper.com.

Include who, what, where, when & contact information that can be printed. Submission deadline is Friday.

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(from page 13) How does Roca, which operates only in Massachusetts, help ex-offenders get their feet in the door to a new life?

It begins with dogged recruiting by its outreach workers, who sometimes make pests of themselves with a dozen or more face-to-face pitches at the homes and hangouts of their targets. Once a recruit agrees to give the program a try, there’s a phase called transitional employment. The newcomers are assigned to work crews, and paid the minimum wage for tasks such as landscaping and snow removal in parks. To advance to more sophisticated job-training, they must work 60 days without an absence — a goal that sometimes takes a year or more to achieve.

“Our guys come in with no skills — we have to show them how to work,” said Aaron Bray, the transitional employment coordinator. “We expect them to fail sometimes.”

This outlook contrasts with many other programs that are selective about whom they recruit and oust participants who are uncooperative.

“The cops hated us when we first started — they saw us as a ‘hug a thug’ program,” said Owens, the Roca assistant director, a burly extrovert who served prison time himself before joining the staff 10 years ago.

He is a first-name basis with police and troublemakers alike in Chelsea, where Roca’s headquarters is based.

Chelsea Police Capt. David Batchelor said his department now views Roca as valuable ally.

“Most programs, if you violate the rules, you're out,” Batchelor said.

“Roca’s the only one I know of — if you break the rules, they’ll take you back. These kids have issues, and just yelling at them is not going to get it done.”

Jessica Iovanna, Chelsea’s assistant chief of probation, said Roca has made her job “a lot easier,” explaining that young men in the program are likely to get two-day jail stints, rather than months-long confinement, for common violations of probation. “There’s going to be slip-ups,” she said. “We try to take little steps to change their behavior.”

Behavioral therapy sessions help Roca participants with anger management and conflict resolution.

And, given that virtually all are high school dropouts, they’re encouraged to take academic courses that could lead to a General Education

Molly Baldwin Development diploma.

The GED classes are individually tailored and taught one-on-one by volunteers, often using a university library, a hospital cafeteria or the kitchen at the student's home. In Boston, with its complex web of gang rivalries, it’s deemed too dangerous for large numbers to attend classes at the Roca building.

“Any rival might kill them on sight,” said Roca’s Boston director, Shannon McAuliffe. In fact, in February 2015, 21-year-old Kenny Lamour was working with a Roca snow-clearing crew when he was shot dead by an 18-year-old adversary. ___ The scent of burning sage rose from a centerpiece as a group of young men gathered in one of Roca’s peacemaking circles, based on North American Indian rituals. Joined by staff members, they shared thoughts about the challenges they face and ideas for addressing them.

“The first time I saw someone shot, I was in the third grade,” Ray’shawn Mohammed confided. “I was forced to grow up quicker than usual.” He talked about getting shot in the leg last year in a gang-related incident and faces possible incarceration on a gun charge.

“This place teaches you patience — and to be humble,” he said.

Indeed, Roca’s staff — for all the pride they take in their program — know it’s not foolproof.

Back in January, they introduced a visiting journalist to Derrik Pannesi, a poised 22-year-old who credited Roca with getting him on track after an adolescence filled with gang activity and multiple stints behind bars. Although the message tattooed on the back of his hands read, “Trust No One,” he acknowledged Roca was beginning to gain his trust.

“A lot of people, when they see someone like us, they lock their door

or roll up their window,” Pannesi said. “At Roca, they’re not going to turn their back and walk away.”

Pannesi grew up in Cambridge, home to Harvard University but also to some gritty neighborhoods and gang activity. When he was seven, his father was shot dead while “running the streets,” he said. Within five years, he was mixed up with a gang himself.

“It’s not too late,” he said in January. “I’m not in state prison; I’m not in a coffin like my dad. Now that I’ve got the chance, I’m going to take it.”

But in late February, Roca had dismaying news — Pannesi was back in jail, re-arrested after police lodged gun- and drug-related charges against him.

Tykeam Jackson’s relations with Roca also have been checkered. He’s been locked up twice since he first enrolled in January 2015, and he was ousted from his work crew at one point before being readmitted.

Yet Shannon McAuliffe is impressed that Jackson has stuck with the program despite facing charges in a carjacking case and despite being targeted recently by a volley of gunfire from a gang rival that left him with an injured leg “He might go to jail, yet he’s still showing up. He still has the fire in him,” McAuliffe said. “I’ll say, ‘You don’t have to be here,’ and he’ll say, ‘If I’m not here, Shannon, I’m going to die.” ___ With its motto “Less jail, more future,” Roca aims not just to save young people from wasting their lives but to save taxpayers from wasting their money.

At the heart of the initiative is the high cost of incarceration compared to programs that curb recidivism.

According to Roca, the annual cost of incarceration in Massachusetts is about $53,500 per person, while Roca’s program costs about $26,000 per person for four years.

“No business would be allowed to run as poorly as our prison systems are run in this country — the costs and the outcomes are abysmal,” said Molly Baldwin, Roca’s CEO and founder. “Some people maybe get to it for humanitarian reasons, but I think the country has begun to change over the past few years literally because of money.”

When Baldwin started the

organization in 1988, it focused primarily on teen pregnancy prevention, then expanded into such areas as outreach to refugees and HIV/AIDS prevention. Over the past 10 years, its work has shifted heavily to a focus on reducing recidivism among high-risk young men.

“It’s not magic, it’s not 100 percent.

But we’re on to something,” said Baldwin “We don’t really care if you like us or not. It’s about, how do we get to know you — how do we stay on it with you until you’re’ ready to make the changes that we believe you really want to make in your heart.”

Does Roca’s approach really work?

So far, the signs are positive. Of the young men who’ve been with the program at least two years, 91 percent have not been re-arrested and 85 percent have held a job for at least six months.

But a more definitive judgment will come in about two years, when outside evaluators assess whether Roca has succeeded in saving taxpayers' money by curtailing the amount of time that its participants are incarcerated. The outcomes of the roughly 1,000 Roca participants will be compared with those of a control group of other high-risk young men.

If Roca can reduce the number of prison bed days by 40 percent compared to the control group, the state — having saved on incarceration costs — will repay private investors who provided Roca with more than $18 million in grants and loans. If Roca reduces prison time by 60 percent, the state’s savings will be huge, and the investors will get “Pay for Success” bonus payments.

At best, according to Roca, the investors will get $27 million, and the state will spend $45 million less on incarceration. At worst, the state will pay out nothing.

Meanwhile, participants like Tykeam Jackson look toward their personal future. He’s completed a training course in forklift operation, but he’d like go to community college, maybe out of state, to study business and accounting.

“When I got to Roca, I felt, “Take the chance,’ because I messed up so much... I felt it was my last chance,” he said. “Now I feel this program just changed my life all around.”

18 • March 15, 2017

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We encourage and support advertising and marketing programs in which there are no barriers to obtaining housing because of race, color, religion, national origin, sex, elderliness, familial status or handicap.

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The City of Richmond is seeking to fill the following position(s): Customer Service Supervisor – Revenue Recovery 35M00000501 Department of Public Utilities Apply by 03/26/17 ********************************* For an exciting career with the City of Richmond, visit our website for additional information and apply today!

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SERVICES DIVORCE – Uncontested, $395 + $86 court cost. No court appearance. Estimated completion time twenty-one days. Telephone inquiries welcome - no obligation.

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HAMPTON CITY Tuesday, March 28, 2017 2:00 p.m. EST – ITB 17-80/E Annual needs for designated City Fleet Vehicles Lubrication Services.

Thursday, March 30, 2017 3:00 p.m. EST – ITB 17-78/E Hampton General District Court Public Toilets Renovation.

A Mandatory Pre-bid Conference is schedule on Tuesday, March 21, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. local time at 236 N. King Street, Hampton, Virginia 23669.

Thursday, April 6, 2017 4:00 p.m. EST – RFP 17-79/LDW Retail Sheds at Buckroe Beach HAMPTON CITY SCHOOLS Thursday, March 30, 2017 2:00 p.m. EST – RFP 17-171215/EA Ovens and Steamers Thursday, April 13, 2017 2:00 p.m. EST – RFP 17-171292/EA Canopy Renovations. A Mandatory Pre-bid meeting is schedule on Monday, March 27, 2017 at 10:00 a.m. local time Eaton Middle School, 2108 Cunningham Drive, Hampton, VA 23666 For additional information, see our web page at http://www.hampton.gov/bids-contracts A withdrawal of bid due to error shall be in accordance with Section 2.24330 of the Code of Virginia. All forms relating to these solicitations may be obtained from the above listed address or for further information call; (757) 727-2200. The right is reserved to reject any and all responses, to make awards in whole or in part, and to waive any informality in submittals.

Minority-Owned, Woman-Owned and Veteran Businesses are encouraged to participate.

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