From Vera:
While the United States has made real progress to reduce the number of people in jail and prison over the last 15 years, we have more work to do to end mass incarceration and build safe, thriving communities. We all deserve safety, accountability, and justice. The next president and their administration should commit to these 10 actions—some immediate, others over the course of a first term. While this is by no means an exhaustive list of what the president can and should do, it highlights areas where meaningful, actionable change is within reach.
1. Build Permanent, Sustainable Funding Streams for Comprehensive Community Safety Strategies
More than 40,000 people in the United States die from gun violence every year. With an estimated 378 million guns in circulation in this country, the next administration needs a proactive strategy to reduce gun violence by building and strengthening public safety ecosystems beyond arrest, prosecution, and incarceration. A proactive strategy is vital to addressing the disproportionate toll gun violence takes on Black communities—young Black men are 21.6 times more likely to experience gun violence than young white men. In addition to investing in the things proven to make communities safe—jobs, quality education, healthcare, and housing—the next administration must continue to invest in community violence intervention (CVI) programs and strategies, which are among the most successful and cost-effective solutions to prevent community violence.
CVI programs and strategies are led by civilian experts—often called violence interrupters, life coaches, or credible messengers—who build relationships with people most at risk of participating in a shooting or being a victim of gun violence. States and cities across the country used more than $500 million from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA) and the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act (BSCA)—an unprecedented federal investment—to develop and expand these interventions. With the help of these and related strategies, cities like Detroit, Boston, St. Louis and Baltimore have seen massive reductions in homicides and shootings. The next administration should provide further funding at this level in order to scale CVI approaches and build comprehensive public safety ecosystems. This would represent a significant investment but still does not compare to annual spending on police, which totals $30 billion from the federal government and roughly $115 billion from states and localities.
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