Felons on county boards will help them fix places they broke - or that broke them | Weathersbee

On Memorial Day weekend, Marvin Coleman did something to stop a celebration from becoming a situation.

Coleman, who owns Chelsea Auto Mart and who has been paying it forward in the years since he paid his debt in federal prison for dealing drugs, was hosting a block party in the Hyde Park community when some of the guests began spinning their cars on the street.

“The party, on Hollywood and Chelsea, was like, three miles long,” Coleman said. “These young people came through here doing doughnuts, in the street off Hollywood [Street], spinning around and everything.

“They cut up.”

But Coleman didn’t condemn their antics. He helped coordinate them.

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“What I did, in the place [the lots] where I have my Christmas toy drives, is create an area for them to do doughnuts off the streets. That’s what they’re into right now, and it’s important to let these young men be young men, and they like to spin their cars around.

“My thing was, rather than have them do it in the streets, have them do it in a safe, confined area that I set up just for them.”

All of which tells me that Coleman is a felon whose insight would prove valuable on one of Shelby County’s volunteer boards – especially those that focus on youths and, to an extent, on recreation and opportunities in struggling communities.

Which is why it’s commendable that the Shelby County Commission is clearing the way for that to happen.

The commission is proposing an ordinance that would allow felons to serve on county boards and commissions. That’s part of a series of changes spearheaded by Shelby County Mayor Lee Harris, who has made criminal justice reform a priority of his administration.

That makes sense.

It makes sense because, according to the 2021 data from Prison Policy Institute, 838 out of every 100,000 people in Tennessee are incarcerated in jails, state or federal prisons, or juvenile facilities. That’s higher than the national incarceration rate of 664 per 100,000, and 12th highest among the states.

Many of those inmates are from Shelby County, and will likely wind up back in Shelby County. Many will, like Coleman, seek to reestablish themselves and to use their experiences to steer others from being locked up.

Yet right now, one of the most significant avenues available for them to do that, by being on boards and commissions, is closed to them.

That shouldn’t be.

“Folks with a criminal history not only have something to say, but they have an important perspective that we need as part of these conversations on our volunteer boards,” Harris said.

“When you think about the advisory board for the Youth and Family Resource Center, for example, the center is set up to receive youth who’ve gotten into trouble, and that advisory board could stand to benefit from individuals who got into trouble when they were young.”

Former felons could also be valuable on boards like EDGE, which stands for Economic Growth and Development Engine, and is charged with helping to steer economic development and jobs to struggling areas.

I know a few former felons like Coleman, who’ve managed to start businesses in places like North Memphis, South Memphis, Orange Mound and Whitehaven, whose experiences might help those who are trying to make policy, but don’t possess the insights of people who live and work there.

“If EDGE’s main goal is to drive jobs and opportunity in Shelby County, we know that a lot of people with a criminal history is their main audience,” Harris said.

“A lot of people with criminal history need jobs and opportunity, and that’s how you get them to turn away from that vicious cycle. That’s how you keep them out of the criminal justice system, and that’s how you keep all of us safe.”

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Now, I know some from the “get off my lawn,” crowd will condemn Coleman for creating a safe space for youths to spin cars.

But here’s why that’s shortsighted.

First, if the drivers are doing doughnuts on a private lot with the owner’s permission, they aren’t endangering the public. But if they did doughnuts on a public street or lot, they would be.

Coleman managed to stop that from happening on May 28th.

Second, youth car culture has always been a thing. Those who don’t believe that should watch the 1950s classic, “Rebel Without A Cause,” or the 1978 film, “Grease,” in which a key scene is a drag race on an abandoned strip, or “The Fast and the Furious,” film series of the 2000s.

So, the youths’ behavior isn’t deviant. It’s rebellious, like much of their behavior tends to be, and its great that Coleman recognized that, and didn’t choose to put them in a position to be criminalized over it.

Especially since, more than likely, they would have found another place to do doughnuts. That place could be an interstate that they shut down, or an intersection that they block.

And especially since one of the last things we need are more young people locked up here.

That’s why voices such as Coleman’s are needed.

“The moral of that story is that he [Coleman] was able to reach that audience, and it had something to do with his life and his perspective,” Harris said.

“Some of these folks are the most committed to the community that you’ll find…this [the proposed ordinance] expands opportunity not only for those who have a voice, because we all do, but who can add perspective that really matters when it comes to these volunteer boards.

“This allows them to be full participants in the community.”

Not to mention helping to fix a community that, in some way or other, they helped to break. Or one that broke them first.

Tonyaa Weathersbee can be reached at tonyaa.weathersbee@commercialappeal.com and you can follow her on Twitter: @tonyaajw