A number of advocates and experts stress that following structural changes are needed to address the above injustices.
These structural changes include:
Community-Based Harm Reduction Strategies
- De-militarize policing
- Make de-escalation a standard element of police protocol
- Shift budget from policing to community health and social services
Reorientation of State, Prosecutorial, and Carceral Positioning
- Transfer power and resources to communities who are already providing social supports through initiatives like credible
messenger programs and kinship reentry
- Incorporation of those directly impacted by the carceral system into a robust social safety net
- No pre-trial detention
- No cash bail
- End mandatory minimums
- Create system of alternatives to incarceration
Community-Carceral Health Principles
- Vaccine distribution accompanied by decarceration
- De-siloing corrections from public health infrastructure, giving public health departments a larger role in accountability
With these injustices and needed solutions in mind, the call to action for those in the research and policy space is three-fold:
- To work in solidarity with and learn from the leadership of individuals who have direct lived experience with the
ills of mass incarceration and COVID-19;
- To identify research tools and advocacy pathways, and venues for democratic engagement that can help dismantle
mechanisms of racial and medical oppression which have persisted in the criminal legal system for too long.
- To develop antiracist and ethical models of rapid response and collaboration that enable a wider community of stakeholders to meet the long- and short-term racial justice and public health challenges of today.
Please join us in this effort.
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