We Can Do Better
There are many areas of racial inequity in our educational systems, financial organizations, health care systems, etc. In light of the catalytic nature of George Floyd’s death and the resulting wide spread mobilization, we’ve chosen to focus on reforming the criminal justice system. This is a rare moment in history, a tipping point in awareness. With it comes the opportunity to take advantage of the collective will to finally disassemble the baked in racial bias that targets and incarcerates our black community members. We are finally waking up to what our statistics have been pointing to all along - our criminal justice system is rife with institutionalized racism. There are greater percentages of contact, physical harm and searches, as well as more severe criminal charges, higher bails and longer sentencing for black people compared to white people in similar circumstances.
To make use of the current push for change, we feel it’s’ vital to have a plan. The success or failure of many social movements can be tied to how clear they were about what they wanted to accomplish and how well they could convey that clarity to the general public. Social movements that protest and advocate without clear and attainable goals tend to fizzle, whereas movements that stay focused, stay on message and treat everyone with dignity tend to have greater success. Synthesized from the hard work of community members, public servants and the many organizations / thought leaders who’ve long been fighting for racial justice, we believe we have created a viable plan.
Our approach involves a clear goal – total reform of the criminal justice system. And we have a clear path with immediate priorities and a three-phase approach reforming the three major components of the criminal justice system: policing, the court system and the incarceration system. There are immediate policy changes that apply to all three components and there is a three-phase deeper reformation approach that starts with policing, then focuses on the court system and ends with the incarceration system.
We believe there are meaningful short-term changes that would make a significant difference to the lives of many black people, but they would just be a first step in the reformation process. Some examples of immediate changes specific to policing would be reducing profiling, banning chokeholds, requiring body cameras and mandatory reporting of excessive violence. Several counties and some states have already passed these policy changes.
While working to achieve immediate changes, we will simultaneously be working toward mid-range and long-term objectives. Starting with policing, examples of mid-range objectives are: working toward greater racial diversity in police department personnel, modifying police training (specifically de-escalation skills, social justice awareness, and use of force), and reducing the police union’s ability to shield ‘bad cops’ from accountability.
Our longer-term objectives for policing involve wholesale changes to how police departments staff themselves and respond to the needs of the community. Instead of police officers being dispatched in every situation, there will be more social workers, mental health workers and restorative justice representatives, all being deployed in the appropriate circumstances. Police departments be integrated with a diverse set of personnel and clear protocols for who responds to what situations. People with mental health and addiction issues will be assessed and diverted to the proper treatment situations, low level offenders will be given the option of entering the restorative justice process, etc. Mental health and restorative justice diversion alone would reduce the numbers of people entering the criminal justice system by more than half!
