Vision for Justice Platform Relaunched to Envision New Paradigm for Public Safety

Justice Reform Resources, Policing Resources 04.11,24

The Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights, The Leadership Conference Education Fund, and Civil Rights Corp have relaunched Vision for Justice — a comprehensive platform that outlines a new paradigm for public safety that respects the dignity and human rights of all people. Originally launched in 2019, this updated version of Vision for Justice includes recommendations that better reflect and incorporate issues that have evolved since the platform’s initial release.

Consider this: 531 of every 100,000 adults in the United States are behind bars; 2.7 million children have a parent serving time in prison or jail on any given day and more than 5.2 million have had an incarcerated parent at some point during their lives; and the War on Drugs has cost this country trillions of dollars and devastated countless communities. This can and must change. We must promote lasting public safety and justice for all by meeting the needs of all communities.

The updated Vision for Justice platform features policy recommendations, including:

  • Investing in violence prevention and non-carceral crisis response to prevent further police excessive use of force against people experiencing a mental health crisis; 
  • Ending high-tech harm and the surveillance state due to the rapid expansion of the use of advanced technology and AI in law enforcement; and
  • Addressing the destabilization of communities by the criminal-legal system, which tears families apart with no room for healing, accountability, and growth.

The platform includes a supplemental organizing toolkit and companion guide that will assist advocates, grassroots activists, policymakers, business leaders, educators, and people eager to make a difference to help hold our elected leaders accountable and amplify the urgent need for a new paradigm for public safety going into the 2024 election and beyond. These resources are accessible on an interactive website and provide concrete solutions for every stage of the criminal-legal process across local, state, and federal levels.

“We cannot keep advancing and investing in the status quo and expect different results. Our criminal-legal system fails to keep people safe and instead results in expanded criminalization, incarceration, and harm. Vision for Justice is a roadmap for a new approach to public safety, one that focuses on investment in communities, reining in the overreach of the criminal-legal system, and centering care and accountability over punishment,” said Bree Spencer, senior director of the justice program at The Leadership Conference.

We must adopt this new vision for justice to create a system that is just and equitable and acknowledges the humanity of all people. We are the majority, and now is the time to point the way to a better future. Our democracy will never be as strong as it can be while our criminal-legal system remains unjust.

The platform details 18 areas of investment in justice reform that together yield a comprehensive framework to transform the criminal-legal system in America. It focuses on:

  • Equity and Accountability: Holding those in power accountable while shifting resources toward investments to keep all communities safe.
  • Human Rights and Dignity: Building a system rooted in healing and human dignity rather than oppression and punishment.
  • Rebuilding Communities: Reckoning with and repairing the harm caused to communities and making the investments in non-carceral services and resources that people need.

Read our Vision for Justice here and check out VisionForJustice.org.