PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — With dozens of judicial candidates on the ballot for November’s general election, a local nonprofit called The Elevation Project is hosting a forum to help Philadelphia communities learn more about those who could be filling those benches, possibly for decades, and understand the impact they have.
From the city to state levels, judges impact many facets of our lives, said nonprofit founder Latrista Webb.
“It affects everyone,” she said. “So if we do not have the right people on the bench, it affects public safety.”
The Elevation Project is dedicated to helping formerly incarcerated individuals successfully re-enter society. Webb said the judges who win in the upcoming election will impact many issues for decades to come.
“If you have a landlord-tenant dispute, you go in front of a judge. If I decided tomorrow I wanted to sue you, we have to go in front of the judge,” she explained. “If someone decides to call DHS on me tomorrow and DHS decides to just remove my child for nothing, we have to go in front of a judge. So judges are a part of everyday life.
“I believe that my people should know who sits on the bench. They should feel empowered to vote for judges that are going to be fair.”
Jasimane Ransom saw the significance of judges firsthand. Before she became a graduate of The Elevation Project’s business incubator program, she was incarcerated for months while pregnant.
“I was there for three months and when I finally did get in front of a judge, it was just like, no remorse, no understanding, no explanation of anything,” she recalled. “Sometimes we’re uneducated and misinformed about the judicial system and about the roles that judges play. If we can just have more opportunities to get as much information about the judicial part of the system and the roles that they play and how they affect us, then it’ll make a lot of things better.”
For the forum, the group has only heard back from about a handful of the dozens of candidates on the ballot. With so much on the line, organizers and Ransom hope more will participate, as it can help underserved communities realize the power that judges have — as well as the power of citizens.
“This is a wonderful opportunity to be able to come across formerly incarcerated people who are back in society, who are turning things around, who are doing better,” she said of the forum, which she is moderating. “If [judges] had the opportunity to sit with us, talk to us, understand our day-to-day, see the things that we’re involved in, that might also give them a different insight with their own judgment.”
Webb agrees. “It’s important that we come out and get to know these people, and as we vote that we don’t just go in there and just vote ‘yes’ for retention, that we really pay attention to who the candidates are and what they’re doing in our communities to create public safety.”
The judicial forum will take place Tuesday, Oct. 17, at 6 p.m. at the School of the Future in West Philly.