Stevens presses on crisis response and COVID-19 precedent

So no, let me just.

All right.

I have questions here.

So let me go.

Thank you.

Because I have questions.

Because I want to go back to my first question when I asked, were we in a crisis?

Are we in a crisis?

Yes.

So people are agreeing.

I see head shaking.

No one wants to say it on the record, but I see head shaking.

Got it.

So in March, when there was COVID, there was a concerted effort for courts, the defendant, defenders, the prosecutors, city agencies came together and quickly identified young people who could be

let go and go home safely.

Is that correct?

Did this happen in March of 2020?

I might be the only person on the panel who is aware.

That's why we need people who have institutional knowledge.

So did that happen?

Yes.

Yay!

Gail, please.

I'm trying to be serious.

So if we're in a crisis now and we're overcrowded, I'm unclear on why that sense of urgency isn't happening now.

And so that's why I think people are frustrated when we're hearing like we're working with the state on the data.

Because when I, because I want to be clear.

I've been speaking with the OCF commissioner.

She also feels like it's a crisis, which is why the waiver was removed, because she's like, nothing is being done, because no one is addressing this crisis.

So I'm not understanding why these tactics aren't being done.

So ACS said to release...

What is ACS doing to push your partners and everyone to come together to get this done?

Because again, you can't control the door, but all these different levers, they can't.

We have the DAs who are saying they're willing to work and come to the table.

Mach J, they're saying they're doing all these things.

I don't understand what's happening.

So I'm like really frustrated in this moment.

What is happening and why, if we've already done this before, why are we trying to reinvent the wheel with this press release and not just doing this to get these kids home and get them out?

So I'll start by saying I appreciate your frustration and that I don't want to speak for everyone, but I think I can to say that we all agree that we want to have as few children in detention as possible

and that we have been working together and with others to try to accomplish that.

I hear you and I hear you saying you need us to do more and it's not enough.

No, no, no.

I'm not saying do more.

No, no, no, no.

I'm actually not saying to do more.

I am saying we have a remedy for what we've done in the past to address a crisis.

I am asking everyone here, why are we not doing that right now?

What is the delay?

That is the question.