Equal Justice USA

The solutions that will build public safety and create space for community healing exist right now, all across the country. We need to grow them so they can realize their full impact. Read about these solutions and more now, in Reimagining Justice This Month.

When our justice systems focus on one outcomepunishing people believed to do harmthere is no room to meet the needs of other parties. The last thing surviving family members need to do is clean up the scene of violence. As one survivor put it, it's "trauma on top of trauma." https://www.inquirer.com//philadelphia-crime-scene-cleanup

This is a huge opportunity for justice reimagined. Community-based violence prevention programs - particularly those led by Black and Brown communities - need this investment. They know what works, and have been been creating safety, healing, and accountability without police and prisons throughout the nation. Read more: https://www.npr.org//-5-billion-for-violence-prevention-is

When violence occurs, community-based approaches to violence prevention like the NCST Newark Community Street Team have proven more successful than police. Programs, mostly in Black and Brown communities, are reducing violence and creating healing, accountability, and safety across the country. These programs must be resourced and should be the norm.

We joined over 80 organizations to make our position on the federal death penalty clear: President Biden must end this racist, arbitrary punishment once and for all. Read the full letter here: https://www.aclu.org/letter/coalition-letter-president-biden

"Virginia is taking action on our collective horror and will become an example for a nation that needs to reconcile with its past. Virginia’s deep-rooted racism isn’t an aberration, though. It can be found throughout the nation in every layer of our justice system especially in our reliance on the death penalty. Yes, Virginia’s death penalty repeal will be remarkable, but it cannot stand alone." - Sarah Craft, EJUSA Program Director, Death Penalty

The death penalty perpetuates cycles of trauma. As family members grieve, we must recommit to building justice that can stop violence before it starts, and resource community-led programs that are proving to prevent violence. Until the death penalty is gone for good, there can be no true justice.

Catch a window into the work our Director of Violence Reduction Initiatives, Will Simpson has been doing with community to build justice that creates safety and healing in Newark. When people hear each other’s stories and discover their common values, they build empathy and transformation becomes possible.