This letter is open to national, state, and local organizations in support of Congress' first bill to begin building a new, non-carceral paradigm for how we keep communities safe. The ask is for Members of Congress to co-sponsor The People’s Response Act of 2021 and call for a hearing on non-carceral, community-based approaches to public safety.

See the full letter below. If you have questions, please reach out to Thea Sebastian (thea@civilrightscorps.org) or Felicia Gomez (felicia@essiejusticegroup.org).
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Re: Co-sponsor the People's Response Act of 2021 and Call for a Prompt Hearing on the Bill

We, the undersigned, are writing to voice our strong support for The People’s Response Act of 2021 (H.R. 4194). This bill represents an urgently needed paradigm shift in how we promote community safety, away from the criminal-legal system and toward a public health-centered, preventative, and restorative approach. Through up-stream investments, this bill will advance true community safety, prevent violence, mitigate harm, and ensure all communities have what they need to thrive. Moreover, it reflects the reality that community safety does not only mean freedom from violence and crime: broadly speaking, safety means life, liberty, and opportunity.

We know that our current approach to public safety is both failing to keep our country safe and actively putting marginalized communities at risk. Incarceration has a small impact on crime rates overall and no impact on violent crime. Police officers spend the majority of their time responding to routine and non-criminal calls, like traffic stops and mental health crises.  In many places, police spend less than one percent of their time responding to violent crimes, like homicide. The research overwhelmingly shows that the criminal-legal system is ineffective at keeping people safe from violence of all forms.

Worse, the criminal-legal system is itself a direct source of violence and harm for marginalized people. This is particularly true for the Black and brown communities that have been devastated by police violence, mass incarceration, and mass criminalization, as well as the disabled, unhoused, undocumented, and LGBTQ+ communities that are disproportionately policed and jailed. Police officers kill more than 1,000 people each year and seriously injure countless more, often with impunity. Thousands die in prisons and jails annually—often from suicide, lack of medical care, or administrative incompetence. Prisons and jails create the conditions for serious violence, torture, rape, and neglect.

We know that there is a better way. There are evidence-based approaches that are proven to keep communities safe without relying on police or jails, and we can innovate new approaches to security and accountability that better serve the needs of all people without creating massive gaps in our crisis response. Targeted, non-carceral interventions, such as violence interruption programs, can effectively prevent violence before it occurs. Non-police first responders can be called to the scene to mitigate harm in the event of a behavioral health crisis. Holistic investments in our communities -- in healthcare, financial assistance, affordable housing, and high-quality education -- have been shown to reduce crime while providing the basic building blocks of a secure life. The research consistently shows that these non-carceral, non-punitive interventions can be effective at reducing crime and preventing violence, all while increasing opportunity for all. Moreover, many of these interventions are far less expensive than criminal punishment.

For too long, we have attempted to solve critical social crises on the back-end, through arrests and jailing, rather than on the front end, through social supports and services. These crises— homelessness, poverty, food insecurity, mental illness, and substance use disorder, to name a few—implicate the health, wellness, safety, and security of entire communities. The public health community has long taught us that preventative, upstream investments in communities—not downstream dollars spent on curative care, treating an individual once they are sick—are what drove most of the increases in life expectancy over the past century. The same is true in safety: we should be investing in preventing harm on the front-end, not merely responding to harm on the back-end through criminal-legal punishment, which only creates more devastation and violence in the process.

The People’s Response Act would begin building a new infrastructure for community safety, outside of the criminal-legal system and centered on public health. The bill would fund some of the critical, non-carceral, preventative services that communities need to be safe from violence and harm. This includes urgently-needed resources for a broad array of programs, including non-police first responders, violence interruption, abuse prevention, mental health services, substance use disorder treatment, supportive and affordable housing, job training, after-school programs, and restorative justice programming. These services would be selected by local community members and tailored to their local needs. Furthermore, the bill would incentivize states and localities to shrink their criminal-legal systems, reducing the harm and violence that those institutions create directly.

We need The People’s Response Act so that all communities can not only survive, but also thrive and enjoy safety in its most holistic, genuine sense. This bill is a unique and urgent opportunity for Congress to protect and defend the lives of those communities that have been most marginalized and impacted by criminal-legal harm. And it is an opportunity to begin making these communities whole again.

We strongly urge members of the U.S. House of Representatives and, soon, the U.S. Senate to co-sponsor The People’s Response Act and promptly hold a hearing on non-carceral, community-based approaches to public safety. Moreover, we urge all Members of Congress to fight for this bill—and the many necessary bills to follow—until these measures become law and our people can truly be safe.

Sincerely,

[undersigned organizations]

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