Of Course, They Put It in Writing

No Racism Here


Full Sentencing Memo

While it is common knowledge that prosecutors routinely charge minorities more harshly than wipipo, but in Florida, the local state attorney (basically a DA) actually put this in writing. (He's a registered Democrat, BTW.)

Of course, this being Florida, you are forbidden from discussing the news in school, under potential threat of felony charges.  (As Anna Russel would say, "I'm not making this up, you know.")

Mackenzie Hayes was an employee of the second judicial circuit of Florida, working for Jack Campbell’s State Attorney’s Office (SAO) as a prosecutor. Mackenzie tells her story and shocking details of racism in the second judicial circuits office with Our Tallahassee, including a memo that directs staff to offer harsher penalties for Hispanic people.

Hayes worked for Jack Campbell’s State Attorney’s Office between December 5th, 2022, and January 26th, 2023. In that period, she primarily worked in the Leon County State Attorney’s office, working on misdemeanors. Towards the end of January, she was sent out to Jefferson County.

She only worked at the Jefferson County office for five days.

In those five days working in the office, McKenzie says it was a glaring difference in the state attorney’s office’s culture and views on race. In Jefferson County, the all-white staff of prosecutors would often discuss an “us versus them” mentality when referencing local migrant farm workers.

………

“It was very clear that this was a white office, in leadership, staff, attorneys. Both the Leon and Jefferson county offices were like that,” Hayes said.

……….

This culture wasn’t limited to just one staff member or one case. Hayes says that fellow attorneys in the Jefferson County office all appeared to embrace this culture. Hayes says she took this picture one day while alone in the office.

Photograph metadata attached to the Hayes’ photo shows its date, January 25th, 2023, one day before her final day on the job, alongside location data matching the Jefferson County SAO location.

The memo is titled “Primary MM (misdemeanor) Plea Offers” and hangs in one area of the Jefferson County office.

“IF EXTENSIVE CRIMINAL HISTORY and/or HISPANIC -> Adjudicated Guilty + Costs,” the memo reads.

………

“Oh my god, they wrote down the racism policy,” Hayes’ recalled her first thoughts when she saw it. Researching it over the next two days, she found the file on their local server, where she copied it to prove the memo’s existence to the media. Metadata from that file shows the document was created on September 29th, 2022, and the author of the file was a prosecutor who continues to work to this day in the Leon County courthouse on behalf of the Office of the State Attorney.

The author of this policy still works for Jack Campbell.  This is not some racist dudes in one office in a far flung organization.

The fact that he is still working for Jack Campbell means that Jack Campbell thinks that this is not a big deal.

There is literally no bigger deal than this.