'Abolitionists and advocates of criminal justice reform in Los Angeles County have amassed some impressive victories, laying out a vision for reducing incarceration and providing care that could have national significance.'
the county to honor the funding requirements. In spite of all the difficulties, the model put forth by grassroots groups in L.A. holds genuine promise, representing an effort to fundamentally reorient the county’s approach to public safety and care.
Often, when you put pressure on a local government against something they want to do, they’ll say, “Well, what are we supposed to do instead? You guys are only good at diagnosing the problem, not figuring out what to do.”We anticipated that and developed a very comprehensive plan around what you could do instead of expanding the largest jail system in the world. We put together thetwo editions of that report.
I saw people coming through our programs having so much success. But I also saw that my family members and friends who were going through the court system were having horrible outcomes. I realized it was simple: those who were facing the same risk factors as people getting incarcerated, but who were getting treatment and services in ways that were set apart from the court system, were having success. Those going through the court system were not.
Part of how we were able to be part of the governance process was by having very intentional conversations internally. This is always a tricky thing to do in an activist community—to say, “We’re not going to just do the protest stuff that they expect us to do. We’re not going to just shut it down.” We had to say, “We’re building something. We’re creating something, and it has to be collaborative.”
” campaigns. But your approach seems to be different, in that it unifies these different issues into a single campaign with a common vision.I learned something a long time ago, when I stepped into this more nonprofit, criminal justice reform world. I encountered this professionalized version of advocacy, and I felt pretty horrified at a few things. One was the siloing of the issues. Saying, “OK, we’re just doing bail reform. We’re not talking about those other things.
They didn’t do it because they liked us. They did it because we had them cornered, and because we had mobilized a critical mass. This was right before the pandemic. Even then, we were anticipating them creating an austerity narrative to not fund the vision they just agreed to. And then the people promoting Measure J became their own coalition, because groups such as the United Way reached out to us wanting to help.