Reimagining Justice This Month | June 2020
Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism.
Ordinance Outlawing White Supremacy, Establishing Anti-Violence Office Signed into Law, TapInto
Last Wednesday, the Newark City Council passed an ordinance to redirect funds away from the police department to create a citywide Office of Violence Prevention. When we say “defund the police”, this is what it looks like. When we say “justice, reimagined”, this is what we mean.
Trauma to Trust uses ACEs science to heal wounds between community members, police, ACES Connection
To transform our systems, institutions must be aware of and accountable for the harm and trauma they cause in communities—especially Black communities in the U.S. EJUSA programs center the healing of trauma as a way to build public safety. That work takes shape through community leaders like Al-Tariq Best, a member of our Trauma and Healing Network.
911 Services That Dispatch Mental Health Counselors, Not Cops, Gain Traction, Truthout
Over the past half-century, we’ve forwarded countless social needs—mental health care, drug intervention, school safety—to the police, who are trained to solve none of these issues. But cities like Austin, Texas, are looking to course correct by making emergency mental health services more accessible to those who need them.
Sex Workers Have Never Counted on Cops. Let’s Learn From Their Safety Tactics., Truthout
Communities who cannot count on law enforcement to ensure their safety have been reimagining approaches to safety and justice for years by forming mutual aid networks and systems of communal care. These informal systems have stepped in to ensure that community members have access to health care, child care, and other means of survival.
Defund the Police? What it really means and how we get there: an EJUSA primer
What does it mean to defund the police? What would a future look like where justice did not mean punishment, and where community needs were met with care rather than violence? Our team created a primer to discuss the possibilities that the current moment presents us.
