We partner with government agencies to create public safety policy that treats youth with respect instead of stereotypes, with dignity instead of force, with opportunity instead of punishment.
1 / School Safety
Police have caused more harm than good under the guise of school safety. In the 2013-2014 school year, black students accounted for 33% of arrests in public schools even though they comprised only 16% of enrollment. Raising Justice actively advocates for the removal of School Resource Officers from our hallways by providing alternatives that promote racial equity and preserve safety.
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2 / Alternatives to Detention
We now know that, developmentally, young people don’t reach adulthood until the age of 25. Until then, our brains aren’t fully mature. Making mistakes as a young person should not be met with the same degree of punishment that an adult would receive. Raising Justice firmly believes young people should have community-led alternatives to detention and probation.
3 / Engagement & Training
Raising Justice approaches divestment knowing that police officers are still in our neighborhoods. If law enforcement is to exist, their entire direction of violence has to dramatically change. This starts with training and ends with the community. There should be comprehensive and continuous engagement with the community through a trauma-informed lens— police should spend less time training with military weapons and more time problem-solving with community members de-escalation.
4 / Accountability & Oversight
Police Officers must be held to the same, if not higher, expectations of the law as the rest of us. Police tactics should focus on restoration of order, mediation of disputes, and de-escalation of conflicts. No officer should see violence, especially deadly violence, as a tactic. This starts with ending Qualified Immunity and increasing Data Transparency to hold officers accountable.
