Everett Mitchell Is Running for

Dane County Circuit Court Judge

Experience Where It Counts



Everett Mitchell, currently the UW-Madison’s cirector

of community relations, worked on reintegration

programs at Madison-area Urban Ministry and as a

Dane County assistant district attorney.



begin to ensure that not only does our community remain safe, but our young people are able to have their voices heard and remain safe at the

same time. For me, it didn’t matter if everyone didn’t agree. At that moment, what we had to agree on was that our community was hurting and

we needed to make sure that we had found a way to make sure that voice is heard and our city is kept safe.”



Ever since he arrived in Madison 12 years ago, Mitchell has been engaged in the Dane County community. Mitchell began his involvement

with Madison-area Urban Ministry where he worked on restorative justice issues.



“One of the things that I am most proud of is at that time when we took over the program, recidivism was around 65-70 percent,” Mitchell said.

“But those who were coming into our program, we were able to demonstrate around 10-15 percent, so we were able to show a stark reduction

when you are able to give them the fundamental things like residence, employment support, treatment, transportation and education. With that

experience, it prompted me to go to law school to learn more about the law and to be more of an advocate in learning how to assist people as

they begin to enter into the legal system. “



Once out of the UW Law School, Mitchell headed to the Dane County District Attorney’s Office and worked as an assistant DA.



“You participated in charging all kinds of cases,” Mitchell said. “Not only did we charge cases, but we were also responsible for having our

own caseload. At any given time, I would have 200-300 cases that I was constantly rotating throughout my time to try to deal with those cases

at various stages. That was very important that people understand that as an assistant district attorney, you focus a lot on the volume of cases

that you have. I was one who dealt with OWI all the way up to strangulation/suffocation. I had misdemeanor cases that I dealt with as well as

some battery. One of the things that you learn early on in the system is the system has a lot of different pieces to it that are constantly grinding

all the time and are constantly moving. And then you have to pause every now and then to say, ‘Okay, how is the decision that I am making

within my own caseload going to be able to make sure that our community is safe and make sure that the right options are available for people

to use.”



And when Mitchell moved over to UW-Madison, he got a broader view of the different systems in Madison and the impact that they have — or

don’t have — on racial disparities in the criminal justice system.



“What the job at the university provided was a way for me to see the county differently than I would have seen it if I had just been an assistant

district attorney,” Mitchell said. “With the assistant district attorney work, you are in the system, but now as I am working with education

systems, working with social service systems and social workers and being involved in a lot of conversations with law enforcement and

building those relationships around the county, you begin to see how rich in resources the community is, but you also begin to see how they are

not connected. They are working in silos. And it is those silos that sometimes add to the inability for us to connect together in a meaningful way

that really does provide a safety net for our entire community. And so, when the Race to Equity report came out in 2013, that was one of those

moments where everyone began to pay attention to something that some of us had seen. But then it became a public discussion about what are

some ways that we can work together. And the university gave me a platform to see that as an institution, as a huge community employer, what

can we be doing to really participate in those dialogues so that we can bring people together and bring those resources together.”



Mitchell is not afraid of controversy, if the controversy is happening for the right reason. As the pastor of Christ the Solid Rock Baptist Church,

he married a lesbian couple, something that stirred a lot of controversy within the African American community.



“I think marrying the gay couple in my church demonstrated to people my values,” Mitchell said. “And my values are about equity for all people.

And I stand firm that we have to create a society where we treat the same. Not everyone will grow up in the same situations. Everyone won’t

have the same resources. But how we approach human beings, how we approach people in our society has to be something that we really

make sure we stand up for. I really do believe in what Martin Luther King Jr. said, ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ We are

all interconnected. And if we are all interconnected, the oppression and denial of rights to one group ultimately impacts the freedom of another.

So when I made the decision to stand up for that, it was as if I was realizing that I don’t stand alone for other people who are struggling, who are

being denied equal rights just like my ancestors were denied equal rights. And just like they would have wanted someone to stand up for them,

this community needed to hear from a Black man, a Black pastor, that love is for everyone, not just for the straight few.”



And that is what has prompted Mitchell to run for Dane County Circuit Court judge, the desire to promote equity and fairness within the criminal

justice and to use his vast experience to help reduce racial disparities in Dane County while keeping Dane County safe.

