Fate. My hope is restored. With that i would like to thank all of our panelist. Thank you. [ applause ] and we are now going to move to our second panel. While they take their seats, this idea of forced treatment versus Constitutional Rights has always been a tension that weve had in our criminal justice system. There is an issue that came up earlier this year that you may have read about involving this implementation of a court that was supposed to treat individuals who were suffering from longterm alcoholism. And the court was set up in a way where individuals were not being arrested for a crime but instead were being jailed for contempt of court as long as 120150 days in jail. My office, when we learned of this, we were not involved in the creation of it, challenged it because we believed that it was unconstitutional because you were not charging people with crimes and you are jailing people for contempt of court when legally they hadnt failed to come to court because in most of the
Doesnt provide the information that they need to challenge the prosecution. Where we know many of our experts on arson and the fire wasnt arson. When you have evidence that isnt disclosed you have experts that are challenged because there are no resources and you have a system that has burden the public with too many cases and its impossible for them not to be complacent. We have to remember to be vigilant and challenge a system that doesnt give a person representation are entitled to. I wanted to ask you what is it about the culture of prosecution or prosecutors that allows wrongful convictions. I know there have been stories of prosecutors who have been responsible for exonerating individuals who they believe are wrongfully convicted but thats the exception, not the rule. I know in a documentary central park 5 and after 5 young men were imprisoned and later exxon rated them. What do you think has to change in terms of the actuality cult you are culture of the criminal Justice System
Worker who had been shot to death by a man who refused treatment. The county r remains the only county to implement the law. There have been other counties in Los Angeles County and other counties who are considering it. Why have they not adopted the law. What is it about forced treatment and the consequences for an allowing refusing treatment. We have a panel who have a knowledge of this subject in some cases because of their professional endeavors and in some cases because of personal experiences and in some cases, both. Let me introduce them. Karen chen is an attorney manager for the San Francisco public defenders office, kathy, whose son battled Mental Illness, can is a subject treatment expert for the medical center. Danny is the associate director for the serial neeb breet program for the city of san diego. And San Francisco chief of police. Gary is a psychiatrist and lauras law advocate and eduardo vega of the Mental Health association of San Francisco. Let me start by opposing
Families, my loved wupz ones that lost. That made me fight more. I never gate gave up my fate. My hope is restored. With that i would like to thank all of our panelist. Thank you. [ applause ] and we are now going to move to our second panel. While they take their seats, this idea of forced treatment versus Constitutional Rights has always been a tension that weve had in our criminal justice system. There is an issue that came up earlier this year that you may have read about involving this implementation of a court that was supposed to treat individuals who were suffering from longterm alcoholism. And the court was set up in a way where individuals were not being arrested for a crime but instead were being jailed for contempt of court as long as 120150 days in jail. My office, when we learned of this, we were not involved in the creation of it, challenged it because we believed that it was unconstitutional because you were not charging people with crimes and you are jailing people for
What makes it fun. Thank you. Jum. [ applause ] we are now going to take audience questions and answers. No cards. So please pass them in so we can ask questions. Youll let me again ask karen, you spent the last yearandahalf studying and observing how gideons promise have been broken. What do you think is an obstacle to closing the gap between rich and poor peoples justice. What have we learned about the solution . Well, i think the biggest obstacle to closing this gap is the political desire to do so which is kind of i talked about that a little bit in my talk. But i think that, you know, and you can learn this lesson in many ways. I dont know when you go to work, i have to learn the same lessons over and over and they are a big epiphany for me each time t epiphany i had while i was working on this book im a journalist and im a generalist. I was really drowning in it for the First Six Months when i was reporting. I didnt know what was going on in court, i didnt know the language, i di