Reimagining Justice This Month highlights stories about effective responses to violence – responses that disrupt cycles of violence, heal trauma, and address structural racism.
States Set Aside Millions of Dollars for Crime Victims. But Some Gun Violence Survivors Don’t Get the Funds They Desperately Need, The Trace
Elizabeth Van Brocklin asserts that all victims – whether harmed by mass shootings or neighborhood gun violence – should receive the support they need in the wake of tragedy. She points out the lack of services for those injured in incidents of gun violence, who are disproportionately young black men. Now, Van Brocklin says, some states are beginning to improve access and funds for underserved victims.
Can Police Change Their Mindset from Warriors to Guardians?, The Crime Report
A Fordham Law School panel highlights the recurring tragedy of police-caused homicides in the U.S. One panel member contends that these tragedies should be addressed by “reengineering” police procedures and trainings in ways that encourages them to save lives, not take them.
Communities traumatized by gun violence need mental health care, not more cops, Think NBC News
Camiella Williams provides her perspective on the mental health needs of communities in Chicago. As someone who has been personally affected by gun violence, she argues that we need a national conversation about the lasting effects of gun violence on survivors. She has personally lost 29 loved ones to gun violence and yet has never been offered grief counseling. She writes, “Our mental health is not — and has never been — a concern of our elected officials.”
New Narratives of Hope This Black History Month–And Beyond, Robert Wood Johnson Foundation (RWJF)
A recent RWJF-funded survey shows that racial gaps in healthcare have persisted and in some cases worsened since the civil rights era. Dwayne Proctor analyzes these findings and points to specific initiatives that are changing public health narratives. In one example, in Louisville, KY, more than 60 community- and faith-based organizations are working with the Campaign for Black Male Achievement to create “Zones of Hope,” to increase high school graduation rates, improve access to after-school programs, and expand job opportunities.
We Can’t Fight Rape Culture Without Fighting Mass Incarceration, Broadly
The recent #MeToo movement has raised awareness of the institutionalization and widespread problem of sexual assault. However, the most at-risk population is still largely being excluded from the cultural and social dialogue surrounding these conversations. Incarcerated people experience sexual assault at staggering rates, and 1 in 3 transgender prisoners are sexually assaulted while in the U.S. prison system. Aviva Stahl asserts that reckoning with this issue begins with humanizing those currently behind bars.
Bryan Stevenson on What Well-Meaning White People Need to Know About Race, Pacific Standard Magazine
Harvard University-trained public defense lawyer Bryan Stevenson gives an interview on racial trauma, segregation, and listening to marginalized voices, giving deep context to white supremacy: “I genuinely believe that, despite all of that victimization, the worst part of slavery was this narrative that we created about black people—this idea that black people aren’t fully human, that they are three-fifths human, that they are not capable, that they are not evolved. That ideology, which set up white supremacy in America, was the most poisonous and destructive consequence of two centuries of slavery.”
Why Can’t the U.S. Treat Gun Violence as a Public-Health Problem?, The Atlantic
The American Public Health Association and the American Medical Association have both taken to calling gun violence a public-health problem. In 2016, more than 100 medical organizations signed a letter to Congress asking to lift the Dickey Amendment, which forbids the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention from using money to “advocate or promote gun control.”
