Background
The current approach to public safety is not working — for children, for families, and particularly for Black and brown communities that have been devastated by mental health crises, substance use health crises, and criminalization. We must dismantle our public safety system’s instinct to criminalize and replace it with an instinct to provide care.
The People’s Response Act, introduced by U.S. Representative Cori Bush, emphasizes an inclusive, holistic, and health-centered approach to public safety by creating a public safety agency within the Department of Human Health and Services — because communities and experts agree that public safety is a matter of public health. It adopts a new approach to public safety that will save lives, and build systems of care that are rooted in improving the well-being of all communities. This approach must be equitable, health-centered, and preventative to stop violence and harm before it occurs while ensuring that every community has what it needs to flourish.
Programs Funded
The people’s response act provides grant money for programs like
Non-carceral first responders
Community based employment programs
Infrastructural investment
Afterschool and enrichment programs
Social-emotional wraparound services
Cooperatives
Trauma informed healing
Restorative justice
Harm reduction-based treatment of mental health and substance abuse
Mentorship
Community public health services
Survivor services
Vouchers for supportive housing
Violence interruption
Infrastructure investments for parks and green space
Harm reduction-based treatment of mental health and substance use
Community land trusts
School-based health care services
Reentry programs
Take Action
Tell us your vision for public safety and stay informed
What communities have already done
Supportive Housing Instead of Criminalization
The JusticeLA Coalition – a coalition of over 30 grassroots organizations – stopped Los Angeles County’s $3.5 billion jail expansion plan. In 2021, the first supportive housing for houseless people was built on the site of the proposed staging area for the expansion. Dynamic land use projects are currently being designed and implemented as alternatives to incarceration and in the direction of the development of a care-first infrastructure. Read more here.
Reimagining Communities
The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls works to develop directly impacted women to build hyper-local and community led systems of accountability, safety, and empowerment that includes participatory defense and alternative community safety models. Read more here.
Care Not Jail
In 2019, Women on the Rise – a collective of formerly incarcerated women – successfully fought for the closure of Atlanta City Detention Center. Now, these same women are working with the City of Atlanta to repurpose the jail into a community-led holistic care center. Read more here.
Gun Violence as Public Health
In 2016, Detroit activists and physicians had an idea: what if gun violence was treated as a public health issue? Detroit Life is Valuable Everyday (DLIVE) was founded as a partnership with Sinai Grace Hospital to provide public health interventions that work holistically to address the trauma of gun violence. Physicians work with violence intervention specialists to create engagement, mentorship, and peer support. Learn more about DLIVE here.
Invest in Communities
In 2017, Colorado passed legislation that provided $4 million a year to reinvest and reimagine public safety in two cities disproportionately impacted by mass incarceration. The funds resourced a grant program that focused on community-led violence prevention and economic empowerment. Grants were distributed to community-based organizations to develop a range of employment programs, educational support, and create public spaces for people who have been justice impacted. Read more here.
Community Protects Community
In St. Louis, the Freedom Community Center works to create community safety through a model that centers building collective power through healing and community-based accountability. They work to reinvest in communities that have high rates of violence. Read more here
