AMERICANS AGREE THAT WE NEED TO REFORM THE JUSTICE SYSTEM AND REDUCE THE INCARCERATION RATE

95% of Americans say that the criminal justice system has problems that need fixing. Two-thirds of likely voters support measures to reduce the prison population in America, such as commuting sentences for people 55 and older and those with long-term illnesses. 

VOTERS WANT TO END CRIMINALIZATION OF POVERTY AND THE WAR ON DRUGS

74% of voters agree that poor people shouldn’t be locked up just because they can’t pay fines and fees. 83% agree that the war on drugs has failed.

WORLD’S LEADING JAILER

The U.S. has the highest per capita incarceration rate in the world. Every year, over 600,000 people enter prison and people go to jail 10.6 million times each year. 49,000 children are incarcerated in juvenile facilities on any given day. The federal prison population has increased by almost 832% since 1980.

JUSTICE ISN’T EQUAL

People of color, especially Black people and Indigenous people, are more policed, more likely to be arrested and more likely to be given long sentences. Black people are 2.6 times more likely to be killed by police than white people. Black people are 13% of the U.S. population but 38% of people in prison are Black.

BAIL TARGETS THE POOR

Over 477,000 people are locked up who haven’t even been convicted or sentenced, often because they cannot afford to pay their bail. Pre-trial detention does nothing to make our communities safer and is devastating on a human level: people lose jobs, housing, custody of their children and are much more likely to plead guilty (regardless of their actual guilt).

We need to invest in the things that truly make our communities safer like healthcare for all, housing, and education.

No matter what we look like or where we come from, we all want to know we can make it home to our families at the end of the day.

We are coming together to demand that liberty and justice be for all and that our elected officials and public servants respect our rights, no matter our race, accent or zip code.

Small tweaks haven’t stopped the killings. We need to reimagine public safety in America.

Communities are in deep pain right now. Each murder of yet another Black person by the police shows we need to transform our approach to public safety. Lives should always matter more than property.

When police departments are not accountable to anyone but themselves, it leads to even more dangerous decisions by police, hurts our families, and deepens mistrust within our communities.

For too long, leadership has failed to address the harm and violence that continue to plague the police department and city. This is an opportunity to take it seriously by creating accountability.

The police murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor and so many others have shown us that the police don’t keep everyone safe. We need a new approach to public safety that truly protects everyone from harm.

The Drug War failed our communities. It locked up people struggling with addiction, separated families, profiled people just going about their daily lives and made our communities less safe. We need real solutions like treatment and investment in our neighborhoods. 

Poverty shouldn’t be a death sentence, but for the millions of people without access to masks and other protective equipment inside of a 6 by 8 foot cell, a few nights in jail during a pandemic could not just change their life, but be the end of it. It’s not equal justice when a kid caught with drugs gets thrown in jail, while a Wall Street executive who defrauds hard working homeowners gets a bonus. 

We support systems that help survivors heal, help people who’ve done harm give back, and keep families and communities connected.

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