Published:
Monday, October 21, 2024
As we approach the election in a few weeks, tough-on-crime rhetoric and fearmongering around public safety inevitably becomes more mainstream and shows up frequently in debates between different candidates and policies.
We already know many of the tough-on-crime policies touted by candidates do not work, and instead make further investments in failed systems that have devastated communities across Washington for decades. Many of us are pushing back on this tired framework and are trying to figure out what solutions actually keep us and our neighbors safe and healthy.
In the “Home Safe” blog series, we have been exploring what a different model of community safety could look like. To do so, we have looked at the origins of the criminal legal system and the harmful impact this sprawling system has on our families, schools, and communities. We have also turned to experts in the field to hear what they have learned through collective decades of experience working with impacted communities and fighting unjust policies.
In early October, ACLU of Washington policy experts participated in a panel discussion hosted by UW Public Lectures entitled “We Keep Us Safe: Public Safety, Crime, and Elections.” The panel included our smart justice policy program directors as well as experts in restorative justice and violence prevention who have been directly impacted by the criminal legal system.
The participants were:
The discussion on October 8 tried to answer the same questions we have been thinking about in the blog series, examining the impact the criminal legal system has had on families, schools, and communities and exploring what is possible if we truly invest in community safety.
Below are some highlights from the conversation and key takeaways about public health and safety.
The dream of public safety
Storms opened the discussion by asking panelists, “what do you envision when you talk about public safety?” She emphasized the importance of grounding conversations in what we are hoping for and the world we dream of creating.
Participants had many of the same answers – universal healthcare, eliminating poverty, eradicating the wealth gap, dismantling systems of oppression and white supremacy, fully funding schools, and figuring out a way to heal our planet.
“I think about my neighbors having what they need to be well,” Kartman said.
Youngblood emphasized that when we talk about what does keep us safe, we also must look at what does not keep us safe. We have decades of data to show what does not work – building more prisons, handing out life and long sentences, and passing more tough-on-crime legislation.
For years, we have been told the lie that overpolicing communities of color, investing in police departments, and sentencing more people to life in the criminal legal system would make us safer.
This is not true.
“Interconnectedness, relationships, building trust, working together. We need to invest in people,” Youngblood said.
The mass incarceration crisis
It is impossible to discuss public safety without also discussing the mass incarceration crisis. In the past 40 years, the prison population in Washington state has ballooned. Despite having a national reputation for passing liberal and progressive policies, Washington was one of the first states to pass three strikes legislation. The state abolished parole back in 1984 and has some of the highest rates of life and long sentences in the nation.
“We have this narrative that if we lock people up and throw away the key, that’s going to keep us safe,” Moore said. “If that worked, we would be the safest country in the world, but we aren’t.”
As a result, our prisons are the number one elder care institutions in our state because so many people are serving life or long sentences. Moore attributed this largely to the lack of progressive sentencing reform passed in Washington state.
“We get trapped in these election cycles where people are worried about public safety, and so we continue to invest in these systems that aren’t keeping us safe,” she said.
How poverty feeds into systems of mass incarceration
Clark spoke extensively about the importance of decriminalizing poverty and the intersection between poverty and the criminal legal system.
“It is important to recognize that our overreliance on criminalization has significantly contributed to the mass incarceration crisis,” she said.
Within the context of mental health and substance abuse, instead of providing adequate healthcare and substance use treatment, the criminal legal system criminalizes these issues and then incarcerates people who would have been better served by medical or other supports.
Economic inequality also plays a pivotal role. Poverty and the lack of access to education and employment opportunities contribute to higher crime rates.
“By criminalizing offenses related to poverty, we are only exacerbating the system of mass incarceration,” Clark said. “We need to address how ineffective tough-on-crime policies have been. For too long, the system has prioritized punitive measures over preventive ones.”
The false binary of perpetrators and victims
The criminal legal system tries to create a binary – survivors and victims on one side, people who have caused harm on the other. That is not the reality.
Many people who have caused harm were once hurt themselves; past trauma is a reliable indicator of future incarceration.
Kartman spoke about her own experiences with the criminal legal system, both as a survivor and person who has caused harm. She emphasized the strong pipeline between survivorship and incarceration, and how interventions outside of the criminal legal system kept her safe and well. She looked to a restorative justice framework to move forward and find closure, rather than relying on the criminal legal system to give it to her.
“My healing wasn’t going to be found in his punishment,” Kartman said.
Youngblood echoed many of the same points, stating that people who have been hurt, hurt other people, and asked at what point does punishment run its course.
“We need to get people what they need to heal,” he said.
Youngblood also emphasized the importance of empathy and seeing someone’s humanity irrespective of what they have done, and instead look at who they are today.
“We live in a state that is supposedly progressive, but if you look at the practices, we aren’t progressive in the ways that really count,” he said.
Looking forward
We know what keeps us safe, and it is not increased investments in policing and the criminal legal system. Instead, we must invest in the pillars of healthy communities: education, economic stability, health care, environment, and community.
The panelists also emphasized the importance of civic engagement, voting, and working within your community to affect change.
“Understanding the issues is the very first step,” Clark said.
We already know many of the tough-on-crime policies touted by candidates do not work, and instead make further investments in failed systems that have devastated communities across Washington for decades. Many of us are pushing back on this tired framework and are trying to figure out what solutions actually keep us and our neighbors safe and healthy.
In the “Home Safe” blog series, we have been exploring what a different model of community safety could look like. To do so, we have looked at the origins of the criminal legal system and the harmful impact this sprawling system has on our families, schools, and communities. We have also turned to experts in the field to hear what they have learned through collective decades of experience working with impacted communities and fighting unjust policies.
In early October, ACLU of Washington policy experts participated in a panel discussion hosted by UW Public Lectures entitled “We Keep Us Safe: Public Safety, Crime, and Elections.” The panel included our smart justice policy program directors as well as experts in restorative justice and violence prevention who have been directly impacted by the criminal legal system.
The participants were:
- Jazmyn Clark, ACLU-WA smart justice policy program director
- Martina Kartman, Collective Justice co-founder and community wellness director
- Chelsea Moore, ACLU-WA smart justice policy program director
- Eugene Youngblood, Look2Justice community organizing director
The discussion on October 8 tried to answer the same questions we have been thinking about in the blog series, examining the impact the criminal legal system has had on families, schools, and communities and exploring what is possible if we truly invest in community safety.
Below are some highlights from the conversation and key takeaways about public health and safety.
The dream of public safety
Storms opened the discussion by asking panelists, “what do you envision when you talk about public safety?” She emphasized the importance of grounding conversations in what we are hoping for and the world we dream of creating.
Participants had many of the same answers – universal healthcare, eliminating poverty, eradicating the wealth gap, dismantling systems of oppression and white supremacy, fully funding schools, and figuring out a way to heal our planet.
“I think about my neighbors having what they need to be well,” Kartman said.
Youngblood emphasized that when we talk about what does keep us safe, we also must look at what does not keep us safe. We have decades of data to show what does not work – building more prisons, handing out life and long sentences, and passing more tough-on-crime legislation.
For years, we have been told the lie that overpolicing communities of color, investing in police departments, and sentencing more people to life in the criminal legal system would make us safer.
This is not true.
“Interconnectedness, relationships, building trust, working together. We need to invest in people,” Youngblood said.
The mass incarceration crisis
It is impossible to discuss public safety without also discussing the mass incarceration crisis. In the past 40 years, the prison population in Washington state has ballooned. Despite having a national reputation for passing liberal and progressive policies, Washington was one of the first states to pass three strikes legislation. The state abolished parole back in 1984 and has some of the highest rates of life and long sentences in the nation.
“We have this narrative that if we lock people up and throw away the key, that’s going to keep us safe,” Moore said. “If that worked, we would be the safest country in the world, but we aren’t.”
As a result, our prisons are the number one elder care institutions in our state because so many people are serving life or long sentences. Moore attributed this largely to the lack of progressive sentencing reform passed in Washington state.
“We get trapped in these election cycles where people are worried about public safety, and so we continue to invest in these systems that aren’t keeping us safe,” she said.
How poverty feeds into systems of mass incarceration
Clark spoke extensively about the importance of decriminalizing poverty and the intersection between poverty and the criminal legal system.
“It is important to recognize that our overreliance on criminalization has significantly contributed to the mass incarceration crisis,” she said.
Within the context of mental health and substance abuse, instead of providing adequate healthcare and substance use treatment, the criminal legal system criminalizes these issues and then incarcerates people who would have been better served by medical or other supports.
Economic inequality also plays a pivotal role. Poverty and the lack of access to education and employment opportunities contribute to higher crime rates.
“By criminalizing offenses related to poverty, we are only exacerbating the system of mass incarceration,” Clark said. “We need to address how ineffective tough-on-crime policies have been. For too long, the system has prioritized punitive measures over preventive ones.”
The false binary of perpetrators and victims
The criminal legal system tries to create a binary – survivors and victims on one side, people who have caused harm on the other. That is not the reality.
Many people who have caused harm were once hurt themselves; past trauma is a reliable indicator of future incarceration.
Kartman spoke about her own experiences with the criminal legal system, both as a survivor and person who has caused harm. She emphasized the strong pipeline between survivorship and incarceration, and how interventions outside of the criminal legal system kept her safe and well. She looked to a restorative justice framework to move forward and find closure, rather than relying on the criminal legal system to give it to her.
“My healing wasn’t going to be found in his punishment,” Kartman said.
Youngblood echoed many of the same points, stating that people who have been hurt, hurt other people, and asked at what point does punishment run its course.
“We need to get people what they need to heal,” he said.
Youngblood also emphasized the importance of empathy and seeing someone’s humanity irrespective of what they have done, and instead look at who they are today.
“We live in a state that is supposedly progressive, but if you look at the practices, we aren’t progressive in the ways that really count,” he said.
Looking forward
We know what keeps us safe, and it is not increased investments in policing and the criminal legal system. Instead, we must invest in the pillars of healthy communities: education, economic stability, health care, environment, and community.
The panelists also emphasized the importance of civic engagement, voting, and working within your community to affect change.
“Understanding the issues is the very first step,” Clark said.
