-My name is Judge Damon Shadid.
I'm running for reelection to the position
I've held on the Seattle Municipal Court
for the past eight years.
My two terms in office have been guided by a singular principle,
we can make Seattle safer and healthier
by addressing the root causes of crime
instead of the business as usual approach of jailing people
repeatedly and then releasing them back onto the street
in a worse condition than when they entered.
To accomplish this, I've taken a multi-pronged approach
to addressing crime in Seattle.
First, we needed a more efficient
and effective way of handling low-level property crimes,
I therefore created a new community court
unifying the court, the city attorney,
and the Department of Public Defense behind a shared vision
connecting defendants to services
on their very first court date,
instead of having to wait months for a case to resolve.
Second, we needed better ways to address people
who come to the court system with untreated
and sometimes long-standing mental health issues.
These people can often act out in violent and dangerous ways,
holding them in jail for long periods of time
can often destabilize them further,
making them even more dangerous when released.
I therefore expanded and re-imagined
Seattle's Mental Health Court to better serve
these challenging individuals.
Finally, we needed a better way
to support our essential case workers
who are on the streets every day helping connect
those experiencing homelessness to services and housing.
I created a consolidated calendar
that allows case workers to come to court
just one-half day per week to support their clients
who are involved in the criminal legal system,
thus giving case workers more time to work
with their clients on the street instead of sitting in court.
The common theme behind all these programs is collaboration.
No one institution or program can solve all of our problems,
we must work together to make our city a safer
and healthier place to live.
But we have much more work to do,
and I would ask for your vote in the November general election.
Thank you. My name is Judge Damon Shadid,
Seattle Municipal Court, Position 7.