On a Friday at 3pm, in the middle of the workday, most prosecutors are in court, writing affidavits or drafting prosecution memos.
But on a Friday afternoon three weeks ago, D.C. U.S Attorney Ronald Machen, the District’s chief federal prosecutor, was hanging out with some fraternity brothers, who were dancing.
Machen, along with his deputy Vincent H. Cohen Jr., stood against the wall of the Town Hall Education Arts Recreation Camps in Southeast Washington, watching four Omega Psi Phi brothers entertain a packed room, one of two, of more than 100 community members. They were soon followed by some young hip hop artists, a wise-cracking prosecutor and detective duo, a hospital trauma expert, and panel discussions with titles such as “Guns, Gangs, and Crews and the effect it has on you.”
The presentations were part of D.C.’s first Youth Outreach Anti-Violence Summit, which is the latest event in what is becoming a mark of Machen’s tenure: aggressive community outreach to emphasize intervention and prevention, not just enforcement.
Machen’s aides estimate that he goes to some sort of community event three or four times a week, and the U.S. Attorney’s Office is one the leading organizers of major outreach efforts in Washington, including the Youth Summit three weeks ago.
“This is more extensive community work than has ever been done before by this office,” Machen said in an interview with Main Justice.
Machen says the outreach is a key crime fighting tool; the goal is to intervene in the lives of young D.C. residents before they ever get tangled up in the criminal justice system.
“We don’t want to see you,” Machen told the assembled youths.
Machen, who as a partner at WilmerHale charged $875 an hour, said that the millionaires and billionaires he dealt with in private practice were no smarter than the kids in the Southeast, just more disciplined and focused. He sees his community efforts as a way to help local youth avoid crime and drugs and find some of that discipline and focus.
Since Machen took charge, the office’s events have grown steadily in scale and scope. A relatively early one last summer at Matthews Memorial Baptist Church in Southeast’s Barry Farm neighborhood had about 150 attendees, including Metropolitan Police Chief Cathy Lanier. (Full disclosure: this author was an intern at Machen’s office at the time and attended the event.)
And the events have progressed since then. At the youth summit almost a year later, more than fifteen law enforcement and community groups were involved as the word has spread about the U.S. Attorney’s office dedication to the effort.
Bishop Matthew Hudson, the Pastor of the Memorial Church, says Machen has continued to drive the push for more and better community events.
“This is driven by him. I don’t think it would be possible without him,” Hudson said.
Hudson, who is on the commission that nominated Machen for the post and who was in attendance at the youth summit, said Machen was committed to community efforts in the nomination process and is carrying out the efforts he promised to do, citing Machen’s appearance at Barry Farm’s Goodman basketball league, a wildly popular activity in the community.
“It’s wonderful that he is consistent in hitting the nail on the head. This is not an issue that is fizzling for him,” Hudson said.
Hudson echoed Machen’s statements that previous community efforts by the U.S. Attorney’s Office fell short of current activities. Community outreach efforts existed, but Hudson said they never had a substantial impact and was never a priority under previous U.S. Attorneys.
Kenneth Wainstein, who served as the D.C. U.S. Attorney from 2004 to 2006 and is now a partner at O’Melveny & Myers LLP, declined to comment on Machen’s claim that his outreach efforts are more extensive than those of past U.S. Attorneys. But he did say that Machen’s community efforts are built on the backs of many former U.S. Attorneys at the office, including current Attorney General Eric Holder, who began the serious emphasis on prevention and intervention when he was the capital’s U.S. Attorney. Community efforts by D.C. federal prosecutors have a long history, and Machen also says he is indebted to it: in 1996, Holder started a pilot program for a community prosecution system, which his successor, Wilma Lewis, made permanent and implemented citywide in 1999.
Wainstein said the programs are crucial, especially given the unique nature of the D.C. office, which prosecutes both local and federal crimes.
Despite the efforts, even Machen says that it is still a “very dangerous time” for those [Southeast] neighborhoods.” D.C.’s neighborhoods across the Anacostia River have a murder rate roughly four times that of the rest of the city.
Machen said he and community leaders want broaden their activities, to attract more people, to change attitudes toward law enforcement and to enforce the need for people to perform basic civic duties, such as showing up for jury duty.
Hudson said that as word of these events slowly spreads in Southeast neighborhoods, more young people are changing their attitudes toward law enforcement.
In one case at least, Machen’s community outreach has had a direct effect. Hudson said that one of his daughters did not want to go the Thurgood Marshall Academy, a charter high school in D.C. that focuses on legal studies. But after his daughter went to a community event and saw Machen speak, she changed her mind and is now set on becoming a lawyer.
“I have tangible results already from the community efforts,” Hudson said. “And eventually she is going to have an internship at the U.S. Attorney’s office even if the church has to pay for it!”
