ProGov21 Policy Library

Policing + Transit

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2020

Level City or Town

State(s) All States

Source Transit Center

Policy Areas Public Safety, Transportation & Mobility

Many transit agencies apply an overly punitive approach to minor transgressions. For example, this report argues that current methods of fare enforcement are too harsh. Fare evasion should be decriminalized, and the penalties should be made proportional to the severity of offense....

An Organizer’s Guide to Confront Pretrial Risk Assessment Tools in Decarceration Campaigns

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2019

Level State

State(s) All States

Source Community Justice Exchange

Policy Areas Civil Rights

Risk assessment tools (RATs) are decision-making rubrics that make predictions; they utilize a multitude of tools to make predictions about a defendant’s statistical likelihood, or “risk,” of not returning to court or being rearrested if released. Ultimately, RATs greatly influence...

A Social Media Toolkit: For Organizing and Advocacy to End Mass Criminalization and Incarceration

Type Fact Sheet or Infographic

Year 2020

Level City or Town, County

State(s) All States

Source Community Justice Exchange

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Public Safety

Storytelling on social media has become a powerful tool to shift public narratives in the movement to end mass criminalization. However, if misused, improper storytelling runs the risk of perpetuating narratives that reinforce, rather than work to dismantle, the criminal justice system....

Selective Celling: Inmate Population in Ohio’s Private Prisons

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2001

Level City or Town, State

State(s) Ohio

Source Policy Matters Ohio

Policy Areas Civil Rights

This report discusses relevant research on prison privatization and presents concerns regarding the expansion of prison privatization across Ohio. The report also features three case studies which highlight some glaring issues with the implementation of private prisons in the state,...

Community Bail Funds as an Organizing Tool: A Primer for Exploring the Tactic

Type Fact Sheet or Infographic

Year 2019

Level City or Town, County, State

State(s) All States

Source Community Justice Exchange

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Community Development

This document is intended for organizers, legal advocates, and organizations contemplating starting a bail fund as an intervention in the criminal legal and/or immigration detention systems. The first part of the document poses core exploratory questions to consider before starting...

2017 Columbus Executive Order Declaring Sanctuary Status

Type Executive Order

Year 2017

Level City or Town

State(s) Ohio

Source Mayor of the City of Columbus

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Public Safety, Civil Rights

This executive order protects people without documentation from deportation and expands immigration protection services....

Step-by-Step Guide to Drafting Your Own Community Safety Policy at the State Level

Type Fact Sheet or Infographic

Year 2022

Level State

State(s) All States

Source Civil Rights Corps

Policy Areas Community Development, Public Safety

A Community Safety Policy is a policy agenda that shifts the concept of “safety” from a primarily criminal-legal model to a new framework that roots safety in public health and makes investments in non-carceral solutions. This guide outlines four steps states can take to create their...

Increase Public Safety and Advance Racial Justice by Repealing Juvenile Curfews

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2020

Level City or Town, County

State(s) All States

Source Local Progress

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Community Development, Public Safety

Roughly three-quarters of American cities have juvenile curfew laws that criminalize youth for being in public spaces during late night and school hours. These laws disproportionately punish black and brown youth and low-income families. This policy brief argues that juvenile curfew...

2020 San Francisco Ordinance 123-20 Prohibiting Revenue Collection from Incarcerated Individuals

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2020

Level City or Town

State(s) California

Source San Francisco Board of Supervisors

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Economic Justice

This ordinance prohibits the city from making contracts or agreements with jail facilities that allow it to generate revenue from the sale of goods and services to inmates. It also explains how the city has previously generated funding through heavily marked up prices on phone calls...

So You Want to Courtwatch?

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2018

Level City or Town, County

State(s) All States

Source Community Justice Exchange

Policy Areas Civil Rights

For decades, advocates, activists, and organizations have deployed courtwatching as a tactic to achieve a wide variety of outcomes, such as ensuring a more transparent criminal legal system, reporting on judges or prosecutors, gathering information for a campaign, providing individual...

Kids Soar with Early Education Investments in Oregon

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2022

Level State

State(s) Oregon

Source Council for a Strong America

Policy Areas Children & Families, Education, Public Safety

One of the most effective ways to prevent crime is to provide children with the parental support and programs needed to be successful, productive members of society. This report discusses four steps Oregon policymakers should take to support children's success and improve public safety:...

Preventing and Mitigating Police-Involved Violence

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2017

Level City or Town, County

State(s) All States

Source State Innovation Exchange

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance, Housing, Public Safety, Public Safety, Civil Rights

Alarming rates of police brutality and abuse of power persist across U.S. cities and states, with 987 people shot and killed by law enforcement officers in 2017 alone. Victims of police-involved violence are disproportionately people of color, and a quarter of victims struggle with...

Proposed Public Health and Public Safety Pathways for Criminal Justice System Responses to COVID-19

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2020

Level City or Town, County

State(s) All States

Source Williams Institute

Policy Areas Public Spaces, Public Safety, Health

Incarceration puts both incarcerated people and corrections staff at risk of contracting COVID-19. A wide array of criminal justice stakeholders have come together to call for a public health-oriented approach to the COVID-19 crisis. The key recommendations include releasing incarcerated...

Community Voices: Barriers to Voting For California's Formerly Incarcerated

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2015

Level Other Boards and Agencies

State(s) California

Source The Greenlining Institute

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance

In addition to disenfranchising people through law and policy, felony disenfranchisement laws create additional barriers to voting. The complexity of these laws and a lack of awareness about them have caused confusion and misinformation among formerly incarcerated communities as well...

2) 2023 New York City Ordinance 1252 Establishing a Task Force Addressing Housing for Incarcerated Transgender Individuals

Type Ordinance or Resolution

Year 2023

Level City or Town

State(s) New York

Source City of New York

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Economic Justice, Housing

Transgender, gender nonconforming, and intersex individuals often face uninformed or discriminatory practices at the hands of public institutions. This ordinance establishes a task force to address policies related to the treatment of current or formerly incarcerated individuals within...

Ending the Criminalization of Failure-to-Appear: An Organizers’ Guide to Demanding Court Changes in the Time of COVID-19

Type Fact Sheet or Infographic

Year 2020

Level City or Town, County

State(s) All States

Source Community Justice Exchange

Policy Areas Civil Rights

Before COVID-19 became a global pandemic, missing a court date, a check-in with parole or probation, a day of community service, or a court-mandated treatment program could and frequently did result in people being jailed. However, during the early days of the pandemic, most states...

Preventing Sexual Assault and Supporting Survivors

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2018

Level County

State(s) All States

Source SiX Action

Policy Areas Housing, Public Safety, Health, Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Education, Children & Families

Sexual assault is an intensely personal, devastating crime with far-reaching impacts in our communities. It is common, destructive, and nobody should be traumatized by navigating their next steps for safety and healing. One in five women will experience sexual assault while in college,...

Local Options for Protecting Immigrants: A Collection of City and County Policies to Protect Immigrants from Discrimination and Deportation

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2016

Level County

State(s) All States

Source Immigrant Legal Resource Center

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Democracy & Governance, Children & Families, Housing, Public Safety

In response to President-elect Donald Trump's promise to deport two to three million immigrants when he takes office, many cities and counties across the United States are seeking to enact local policies (often referred to as "sanctuary" or "welcoming") to protect their immigrant...

COVID-19 Response Guidance for Community Bail & Bond Funds

Type Fact Sheet or Infographic

Year 2020

Level City or Town, State

State(s) All States

Source Community Justice Exchange

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Public Spaces, Public Safety, Health

People in prisons, jails, and immigration jails are particularly vulnerable to COVID-19 outbreaks. Given the inherent high risk of all incarceration settings, this statement argues that the best protection for these individuals is release for everyone in the custody of federal prisons,...

Abolitionist Principles & Campaign Strategies for Prosecutor Organizing

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2019

Level City or Town, County, Other Boards and Agencies

State(s) All States

Source Community Justice Exchange

Policy Areas Economic Justice, Civil Rights, Housing, Public Safety

"The following is a framework that seeks to draw out what “prosecutor organizing” looks like with an abolitionist lens. The first section outlines principles to hold us accountable to each other, so that there is shared agreement about what abolition means in organizing around prosecutors....

Against Ecocide: Legal Protection for Earth

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2016

Level National

State(s) All States

Source Tellus Institute

Policy Areas Democracy & Governance, Environment & Natural Resources

As states and corporations continue to harm the planet, legal experts and citizens are calling for the codification of ecocide as a fifth crime against peace, joining genocide, crimes of agression, crimes against humanity, and war crimes. Initiatives to criminalize ecocide express...

From Risk to Opportunity: Afterschool Programs Keep Kids Safe When Juvenile Crime Peaks

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2019

Level State

State(s) All States

Source Council for a Strong America

Policy Areas Children & Families, Community Development, Education, Public Safety

Participation in high-quality afterschool programs can reduce juvenile crime. This report highlights case studies of local afterschool programs from around the country that have been successful in providing at-risk youth with safe spaces that keep them from engaging in dangerous behavior....

Investing in Kids Now Can Prevent Future Crime in Michigan

Type Policy Brief or Report

Year 2022

Level State

State(s) Michigan

Source Council for a Strong America

Policy Areas Children & Families, Education, Public Safety

One of the most effective ways to prevent crime is to provide children with the parental support and programs needed to be successful, productive members of society. This report discusses four steps Michigan policymakers should take to support children's success and improve public...

Decarceration During COVID-19: A Messaging Toolkit for Campaigns for Mass Release

Type Fact Sheet or Infographic

Year 2020

Level City or Town, County

State(s) All States

Source Community Justice Exchange

Policy Areas Civil Rights, Health

Incarcerated people in the United States’ jails, prisons, and immigration detention centers are at an unacceptable risk of serious illness or death from COVID-19. This document provides some guidance and tools for families, organizers, and advocates who are demanding their decarceration...

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