Project seeks to expand justice in Richmond

Where: UR Downtown gallery. 626 E. Broad St.

When: Through March 27

The gallery is generally open Monday - Friday 8:30 a.m. -- 5 p.m., though groups are encouraged to call ahead in case there are events taking place in the gallery space.

When Hannah Ayers and Lance Warren moved here from New York three years ago, they detected a sense of self-satisfaction within a city popping up increasingly on various "top" lists.

They feared that critical issues could get lost amid the feel-good glow of a resurgent Richmond, an outcome their long-standing passion for issues of race, justice and history could not abide.

In response, the husband-and-wife team of independent filmmakers launched Richmond Justice, a yearlong project produced by their Field Studio to examine the justice system in Virginia's capital through portraits of individuals whose lives have been shaped by it. Each week in 2016, their website released a new portrait of a Richmonder as part of their goal of "revealing the story not of felons or people in the system, but really of our neighbors," Warren said during an interview Wednesday.

The portraits and stories of those 53 individuals will be on display through March 17 at UR Downtown Gallery.

Ayers - daughter of Ed Ayers, president emeritus of the University of Richmond - thanked the project's participants at last Friday's exhibit opening.

"You trusted us with your stories and you made this project not only possible, but you made it meaningful," she said. "Over the course of the year, nearly 20,000 people read your stories. And you taught us a lot."

Ayers told the gathering, which included Richmond Commonwealth's Attorney Michael Herring and Sheriff C.T. Woody, that justice is intertwined with so many things: housing, mental health, substance abuse, family, jobs, history and so much more. "And if you want to understand that complexity, if you want to know the obstacles that people face when they're released from the Richmond Justice Center - and that's 18,000 people every year - talk to them and listen to them."

The exhibit examines our justice system through four themes: juvenile justice and the school-to-prison pipeline; people "pushed to the margins" by poverty, mental illness and substance abuse; those working "inside and out" of the criminal justice system; and those struggling with re-entry into society.

Richmond Justice participants represent those who've run afoul of the law, those charged with creating, enforcing or adjudicating the laws, and a broad cross section in between. But none of the portraits identifies its subject as a felon or ex-offender, or by their last name.

One woman, with her head turned away from the camera, is identified as Allison, a veteran and mother of two. I prioritized keeping the lights on for my kids instead of paying fees. That's why I went to jail: because I didn't have money, she says.

Travis, co-founder of ROOTS (Reinventing Ourselves Outside the System), says: Without proven paths to employment, housing, and health care after incarceration, the justice system wasn't only locking us up; it was also locking us out.

Richmond's mayor, identified only as Levar, stares pensively through a window. I'm going to work day in and day out to close the door on the cycle of poverty and recidivism, he says.

Richmond Justice intends to hold him to that commitment. The exhibit features petitions for visitors to fill out asking Levar Stoney to appoint a senior policy adviser for justice "to coordinate your commitment to justice reform."

Another card provides individuals with an opportunity to present their own ideas to the mayor on how to expand justice in Richmond. Warren and Ayers will eventually submit the cards to Stoney with the goal of nudging him to keep promises he made during a mayoral debate convened by Richmond Justice three weeks before the election.

Ayers, 30, is a Charlottesville native who attended the College of William & Mary and Columbia University. Her background is in history, nonprofit development and multimedia storytelling.

Warren, 33, was raised in Virginia and studied history and politics at Syracuse University and Brandeis University, with a focus on civil rights and social justice in the 20th century United States.

Ayers said a goal of the Richmond Justice project exhibit was to display everyone "on the same platform and humanize them and not have their titles, to honor everyone's perspective," so that a mother's story was presented in the same way as an elected official's.

Or as Warren said: "These are all just people, whether they are in positions of power or positions of trying to survive power."

But some of the stories resonated with particular power to Warren and Ayers.

Although Warren likened singling out a participant's story to "trying to pick your favorite child," he acknowledged being particularly touched by the narrative of Kenneth, described in the exhibit as a contractor and mentor.

Kenneth Williams, 67, completed a prison sentence for robbery 30 years ago. But it was only last year that the 67-year-old Richmonder's voting rights were restored by Gov. Terry McAuliffe.

Today, I voted for the first time in my entire life. I feel like I made a difference. I had a voice, and I played a part," he says next to a portrait of his grinning face, which is lined with joy.

"Seeing him be able to vote, a man more than twice my age, for the first time ... it was a profound thing to watch," said Warren, who also cited the story of Angie, a domestic-violence survivor who is assistant manager at Clothes Closet.

"We asked her what justice means to her. She said, 'Justice means seeing my children smile.' We saw a lot of different definitions of justice in this project."

Ayers, meanwhile, was heartened by the efforts of Barry Moore, general manager of Haley Buick GMC, to prepare inmates for re-entry and hire ex-offenders at his dealership.

You're looking at a right-wing guy, the most conservative person you will meet. I run a for-profit business; I'm not a missionary. But we're talking about human beings, and giving people a chance, he says next to his portrait.

"He wants every business person in the Richmond area to at least read the application of someone with a record and give them a chance," she said.

The couple say a lot of good people are working to address the pressing issues in Richmond's justice system. But a recurring theme in their interviews with project participants is the need for more coordination and for city leadership "to put some civic muscle behind these good ideas" to effect real change. "That's what we'd like to see come out of this," he said.

Ayers said there will be downward pressure from the federal level with the confirmation of Jeff Sessions as attorney general. "But we think on a local level, there is this sense of increased awareness to examine what our criminal justice system looks like and where improvements need to happen" - at least for the potentially fleeting period that the tenures of Stoney, Herring and Police Chief Alfred Durham overlap.

"To us, it does look like a moment more than an era," Warren said. "The question is, will we seize that in a way in which Richmond rises above its history?"

mwilliams@timesdispatch.com

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