Over the pandemic, I fell in love with a free tool called Google Data Studio, a program that uses data to create interactive custom reports. I ran the numbers from AIM Court since it’s inception, and I am very pleased to announce that 156 young men and women have earned dismissals on 179 felony cases, avoided a potential of 2,544 years in prison, and performed 3,744 hours of community service. The report and some other takeaways follow.
In order to graduate, participants must complete an individualized curriculum that may include life skills courses, mental health treatment, and treatment for substance abuse. They must actively pursue their education and, if appropriate, maintain lawful and gainful employment. They must also complete community service hours, complete a physical wellness exam, and a complete a basic financial literacy program. Once they have done so, their cases are dismissed and expunged.
156 young men and women have not only earned the right to live their lives free from the constraints of a felony conviction, they are better equipped to ensure they’ll never have to set foot in a Felony District Court as a citizen accused of a crime again.
Of the 179 total felony dismissals, 14 were first degrees, 23 second, 50 third, and 92 were state jails. In addition, graduates earned 44 companion misdemeanor dismissals. We forged ahead during the pandemic by conducting our specialty court docket virtually and managed to graduate 33 more via Zoom.
The team I get to work with every day is amazing, and they are to be commended. The collaborative effort involves these representatives from the Dallas County District Attorney’s Office, the Dallas County Public Defender’s Office, The Dallas County Adult Probation Department: Krist Caldwell, Audrey Garnett, Kimberly Duran, Denetra Denson, George Johnson, Nate Clark, Daryl Bradley, and Michael Williams. I am also honored to work with the magnificent folks at Community Service Providers such as IPS Recovery, Oasis Center, SVP Dallas and Cafe Momentum.
The report is interactive. Hover over it each graph and click to see, for example, not only how many people graduated from AIM in 2919 (47), but a breakdown of the number of earned dismissals by degree (those are the scoreboards on the lower right), their age at graduation (that is the pie chart on the left), and watch some granulated numbers appear in red in the text box on the right corresponding to the years of prison time avoided, number of community service hours performed, and total number of dismissals.