Transformative Edge of Reform
Transformative Edge of Reform
Some communities are moving to the transformative edge of reform by increasing funding for community safety initiatives while decreasing funding for local law enforcement agencies.
Moved by public demand during and following the racial justice uprising of 2020, some local and state-level elected officials are taking the first steps in shifting power toward community-driven investments to secure safety. Communities are also beginning to limit the scope of law enforcement in favor of alternative responses to emergencies and crises, as well as funding harm reduction-focused approaches to criminalized behavior among young people and people experiencing homelessness. (1)
Examples of Efforts on the Transformative Edge of Reform:
Increasing funding for community-based harm reduction services and basic needs provision. Streetwork Safe Horizon, in New York City offers young people access to supports, community, services, and basic needs in order to prevent violence and promote justice and support for victims of crime and their families.
Implementing transformative justice frameworks may decrease harm in communities and increase safety: The Vera Institute and Common Justice developed a framework for accounting for violence and increasing safety.
Community organizers are replacing police as emergency responders in some communities: The Anti-Police Terror Project in Oakland, Community Action Teams in Southern California, and the Violence Interrupters in Chicago all offer models and community-based alternatives to police responders to emergencies and violence.
Other community-based responses to harm, like Cure Violence, deploy public health workers whose identity and experience give them the credibility to build relationships with people most likely to shoot or be shot in a confrontation and to intervene in violence as it is about to occur.Removing law enforcement from schools and limiting the role of law enforcement in interacting with young people. There are efforts to support young people in securing their own, self-defined safety and sense of community that are underway and should be learned from and built upon in Portland, Denver, and New York City.
Frameworks for restorative justice have also been used to support survivors and communities who have experienced violence to help ensure they do not perpetuate harm or pass their pain on to others, thereby increasing community safety. The National Compadres Network draws on culturally rooted healing practices to treat survivors of violence to help ensure that they do not pass their pain on to others.
The Bay Area Transformative Justice Collaborative publishes case studies, principles that guide their work, and courses in transformative justice to support others in undertaking restorative justice initiatives. The community-based Roca programs have produced results in their work with street- and gang-involved youth outside of Boston. The Healing Hurt People program in Philadelphia and Youth ALIVE in Oakland work with people admitted to hospitals to address their pain and prevent retaliatory violence. Countless other smaller, grassroots, neighborhood-grown programs that are led by and for the people most directly impacted by violence, poverty, and over-policing successfully nurture safety and security for their neighbors.
(1) See Action 1 for a definition and summary of criminalized behaviors.