MEMPHIS, Tenn. — After calling for an investigation into the district attorney general’s office late last year over what he called “illegal restorative justice schemes,” Tennessee state senator Brent Taylor is once again wanting more information about the D.A.’s Office.
“The judicial system is a mess. Everything from the district attorney to the judges needs to have all of our eyes looking," Taylor said.
Two of Taylor’s most recent bills push to require the DA's Office to report data to the state and mandate outside nonprofits that work with the DA’s office like, Just City here in Memphis, to report where they get their funding.
“Those groups have partnered with the District Attorney’s Office, and they’ve actually been into the D.A.’s Office and done training sessions with the A.D.A.'s, the assistant district attorneys," Taylor said. "And when you look, at just a cursory glance, they all have a stated goal of cashless bail.”
However, some said such proposals are a direct attack on Memphis and Shelby County.
“A donation to Just City is tax-deductible to the extent allowed by federal law. And, in a sense, to target donors of organizations like Vera, Justice Innovation Lab and Just City is, to an extent, bullying," Josh Spickler from Just City said.
“I wholeheartedly believe this is a deliberate attack on Memphis and Shelby County,” Memphis Community Organizer Richard Massey said. “He is signaling them out, targeting bringing them back to his Republican colleagues and basically writing Memphis off a radical, leftist dystopia.”