Criminal Justice Reform

Overview

As a native of the Washington, DC metropolitan area, MBC's Principal, Melanie E. Bates, Esq., has dedicated her career to serving the local community. MBC has a deep commitment to criminal justice reform. Poverty, lack of education, and other social issues should not feed the pipeline to prison. Through consistent advocacy, we desire to alleviate the factors that force many people to be impacted by the system.

Know Your Rights Program

A key component of this work is our Know Your Rights Program. During the Program, participants are provided with comprehensive information regarding their rights during police encounters. The Program includes a robust dialogue, special guest speakers, PowerPoint presentation, video clips, handouts, and role play. The Program consists of the following objectives:

Participants partake in a discussion about personal experiences with law enforcement
Participants learn statistics related to policing and the overall criminal justice system
Participants learn key phrases to remember while in an encounter with law enforcement
Participants watch videos depicting a myriad of scenarios involving law enforcement and members of the community
Participants engage in role play
Participants share thoughts about how they will plan to conduct themselves in any future situations
Participants are provided with information about the mission of the D.C. Office of Police Complaints and how to file a complaint, if needed