January Email from Division of Public Defender Services Racial Justice and Cultural Competency Committee Executive Team charged Commission wants “us to sit down and shut up and not complain in the face of the racist systems that are impacting and infecting our very own Division.”
The Racial Justice and Cultural Competency Committee Executive Team of the Division of Public Defender Services used a private email account (with the name Malcolm Little–Malcolm X’s birth name) in January to accuse the Public Defender Services Commission of undermining Chief Public Defender TaShun Bowden-Lewis and “her choices for who she wants to run the Division.” The message–included below–also makes the risible claim that “Silence is violence.” A strange tenet for lawyers who often stress the value of the Constitutional right to remain silent.
Bowden-Lewis cautioned colleagues in a Friday email not to disclose confidential information as the story of turmoil in the state agency grows. That warning may include details of complaints made about a hostile work environment in the Office of the Chief Public Defender.
All but one member of the commission resigned this week.
Here is the January email from the Racial Justice and Cultural Competency Committee Executive Team:
On Tue, Jan 17, 2023 at 6:01 PM Malcolm Little <rjccc1619@gmail.com> wrote:
Hello RJCCC
I hope this message finds you well, and that you are all doing well on this day. I thank you for sharing your emails with the executive and being part of the RJCCC. Your work, your support, and your participation mean the world to us, and we are so thankful for each and every one of you.
I first and foremost would like to apologize for the subterfuge. The executive team felt it was necessary to take certain aspects of the RJCCC off of the Division’s computers because of some of the things we will say today, and some of the concerns we will begin levying against the Commission itself. Before I get ahead of myself, let me begin by explaining why I am writing this email. I am writing this email because the RJCCC executive team, as well as many of its members, are concerned about the treatment of our former tri-chair and Chief Public Defender TaShun Bowden-Lewis. Treatment that is hampering her ability to lead the Division in the way that is right, treatment that is impacting her decisions and in turn us and our colleagues, and treatment that may have serious racist implications for the Commission.
Now, I am not one to throw out baseless allegations, but one must recognize that when there is smoke there is fire, and I am seeing a lot of damn smoke, so there must be a fire and I believe it is only right that more people know about the same smoke that the RJCCC members are seeing left and right. This past November, the Commission had met to interview two candidates for the Derby Public Defender Supervisor Position. TaShun had chosen two very qualified and experienced attorneys, both people of color, one male and one female, to go to the Commission for an opportunity to interview to become the Derby Public Defender. Both interviewed, interviewed well, but before the Commission rendered a decision they asked to postpone their choice until December of 2022.
December of 2022 comes, and the new Derby Public Defender is chosen, and the individual chosen is neither of the people of color that were sent to the Commission by TaShun, but instead a white woman from the Derby Public Defender’s Office. Now, while this woman is more than qualified for the position, and will surely do a fine job within the position, there are some concerns that the executive team have with this decision by the Commission. Chiefly, this decision in undermining TaShun and her choices for who she wants to run the Division.
The decision to choose this other candidate for the Derby Public Defender seems like it was done outside the auspices of TaShun. The Commission interviewed two other candidates for the Derby Public Defender position, both of which were white women, and ultimately chose a white woman over equally or more qualified candidates that were people of color. Now I mention experience and qualifications because if the Commission felt that their choice represented a more experienced and more qualified individual, then their choice would make sense, however, that is not the case. Both candidates that were chosen by TaShun had as much, if not more experience, including more trial experience, than the candidate that was ultimately chosen to be the Derby Public Defender. So how does a less qualified white woman receive a supervisor position over equally or more qualified candidates that are people of color? I think it is important that the RJCCC finds out that answer, and the reasons for that answer.
Regardless of their intent in their decision, the impact of the Commission is real, and we see a white woman receiving a position over equally and/more qualified candidates that are people of color. Now, I have spoken to many people about this, and it seems like this might be part of a bigger effort to undermine TaShun and the work that she is trying to do within the Division. The work to create more diversity, to encourage lawyerying, and just to change the Division for the better. While she is well loved by the RJCCC, apparently that same opinion is not held by the rest of the Division, and especially Hartford, and there are people that are actively undermining her and her abilities day in and day out.
There are people within the Division, within the Commission that want us to just be happy with “giving” us TaShun as a Chief and Daryl as a DEI director. They want us to sit down and shut up and not complain in the face of the racist systems that are impacting and infecting our very own Division. The very things they ask us to combat day in and day out are very well happening within the Division, and this is the biggest cause for concern. How do we stand in the face of these systemic issues that exist within our own job? We do not. We do not abide. We do not remain complicit in silence or otherwise. Silence is violence, and us not talking about these issues will hurt our co-workers, our colleagues, our friends, and our future within this Division.
While no specific plan has been etched out, the executive team is looking to do some things to find out from the Division and the Commission what is going on and to hold them accountable if anything untoward is going on. To make sure that we remove any racist systems that are still infecting our Commission and our Division. To make sure that this never happens again. The only thing we ask of you is to start a conversation. Start asking why our offices don’t always reflect the communities we represent. Start asking why it took so long for the Commissionto hirea black female Chief Public Defender. Start asking the harder questions to make what is going on make sense. And when it does not make sense, and their answers are not up to snuff, you know that is when we have to change.
I thank you all for reading and taking the time out of your day to go over this. I deliberately did not use names to keep confidence with those who I spoke with. I assure you that this is just the tip of the iceberg. There are more stories, more colleagues, more people within the RJCCC and without that have been impacted by the racism, both passive and active, that exist within the Division and within the Commission, and we can no longer leave these stories on deaf ears. Please, I ask you, open up your hearts and your minds to these stories, and speak up for your colleagues when things are going down, because all we have is each other.
Thank you
Sincerely,
Racial Justice and Cultural Competency Committee Executive Team
Published March 24, 2023.