Safer Neighborhoods Start With Trees

Simple neighborhood designs can do more for public safety

Parenthood in the Criminal Legal System

Parents need better protection

Child Support Enforcement Drives Mass Incarceration

Our system isn't helping kids--it's putting parents in prison.

Cash Bail Is Expensive And Unsafe

Across the US, cities, counties, and some states are re-evaluating the use of cash bail.

Criminal Court Processes are Punishments Themselves

It is critical that Americans also acknowledge that powerful institutions inflict violence on people presumed innocent under the law every day. As it stands, the system is directly at odds with the idea that Americans are “innocent until proven guilty”, inflicting severe and traumatizing punishment long before a person sees a jury of their peers.

Policing and Punishing Childhood

Transportation Access and the Criminal Legal System

"Collateral Consequences" of the Criminal Legal System: An Overview

Gang Documentation and Gang Injunctions Harm Communities

Public Benefits Access and the Criminal System

Access to public benefits may be an under-appreciated public safety mechanism. When people are able to pay their rent, support their families, not go hungry, have a roof over their heads, and have access to healthcare, they are less likely to engage in crime.

Access to Education Creates Safety

Interacting with the police, being arrested, or spending time behind bars make it more difficult for a person to get a quality education and access to opportunity. If we care about improving opportunity—and public safety—through education, we must consider shrinking the criminal legal system itself.

Strong Social Ties Increase Safety

It turns out relationships are everything.

Generational Harm

Children and families are the "hidden victims" of the legal system.

Impact of the Carceral System on Economic Stability and Mobility

The criminal legal system is keeping people poor.