EJUSA’s vision is a world where violence is rare and every community is safe and healthy. That means that we have a criminal legal system that doesn't cause more harm.
A full scale transformation of the criminal legal system and all the systems that connect to it is work that will take generations. We need to both rehab the mess we have now and build a new public safety ecosystem.
Today — and since forever — our criminal legal system focuses on one outcome: who caused harm and how do we punish them? There’s little to no concern for the survivor of that harm or the way the community recovers.
The policies that cities, states, and our federal government have put into place for over two centuries rely on the idea that we must center the person who caused harm. This punishment strategy is a failure and often causes more harm to families and communities. We must break this cycle of harm as we also work to transform the justice system.
From where I sit at EJUSA, there are two questions I ask myself nearly every day.
First, what is a policy landscape that both tears down what’s not working (pretty much everything) and puts the structures and procedures in place that prevent violence and deliver healing to everyone affected by violence without causing further harm to anyone?
And second, what does transformation even mean when we’re talking about changing policy in an environment, such as a legislative body, whose job is to steward and tweak the existing laws? Laws created by our state legislatures, arguably, impact the day-to-day lives of our communities in ways we don’t even know.
State legislatures have already started opening their doors to begin legislating policy that is both big and full of minutiae — all of it impacting people in every state across the country. It’s a funny time of year where the words of dead language light our path through the legislature. We — lawmakers, activists, my teammates and coalition partners — say words like sine die, cloture, and germane like it’s a lunch order. It’s a terrible, critically important, and utterly opaque process filled with high drama that is also incredibly boring. They don’t teach us Sun Tzu in political science because they think it only informs strategy to fight actual wars.
In my mind, it’s possible to support policy change that lessens the harm of the current legal system as we work to pass legislation that builds a foundation that embraces new and transformational strategies to interrupt and prevent violence.
I wish I was here to tell you I have it all figured out, but it’s hella complicated.
I know it is possible to go from a punishment based system to one that prioritizes healing and violence prevention while building a world where violence is rare, but it’s no small job. We definitely can’t do it all in one legislative season, we definitely can’t do it all in one legislative session, but as you’ll read below critical bills are being introduced that can be the foundation for transformation.
Every piece of legislation is an opportunity to arrest the harm the current system causes and, at the same time, plant seeds for a transformed future. I’m excited to share a few ways we will support our whole vision in the 2022 legislative season:
What are we working on?
What trends am I watching this legislative cycle?
- State legislative postures toward criminal justice reform — In the last five years we’ve seen state legislators and voters across the country be narrowly reform-minded. I say narrowly because many, though not all, of those reforms are centered on nonviolent offenses. But no matter how narrow or specific, every action has a reaction. Anecdotally, I’ve started to notice legislators lean away from reforms and solutions that are not centered on punishment.
- Distribution of federal stimulus and COVID relief money at the state and local level — States, counties, and cities are receiving billions of dollars in relief that is available to be spent on community-based violence prevention.
- Republican sponsorship of death penalty repeal bills — Over the last decade, we’ve seen an increase in the number of republican co-sponsors. In just the last two legislative cycles, Republican are listed as sponsors on bills to abolish the death penalty in 11 states plus the Federal Government.
Why am I hopeful?
Recognition of the need to transform our criminal legal system and the business of public safety continues to grow in our collective imagination. Dreaming about what’s possible is the first step to imagining the structures we need to tear down and build to get to a world where violence is rare.
Efforts to reform can contribute to transformation but we must continually make sure to excise the devil from the details - not falling back on lesser punishment, insisting that we offer new ways of doing business as we tear down the most terrible parts of existing policy in an effort to clear the way for transformational change. It’s a double edged sword and we must always be bold in our choices.
May your legislative sessions bring good policy to your state.
