As a coalition of organizations dedicated to organizing and advocating on behalf of community members throughout New Orleans, we call upon the city’s leaders and specifically the candidates for Mayor to engage in best practices that will address the root causes of crime and provide results in improving public safety in ALL of our neighborhoods.
We recognize that New Orleans, having simultaneously one of the highest rates of violent crime nationally and the highest rate of incarceration per capita internationally, cannot “arrest its way out of this problem.”
Additionally, we recognize that incarceration patterns in our city result in making the contributing factors to crime worse, not better. In a city of 311,853 we average over 50,000 arrests annually. These numbers closely match the statistics of individuals living in poverty (23%) and those with less than a high school education (19%.) We ask that the new leadership of our city stop criminalizing poverty and address our public safety problems at their root.
In this spirit and based in data collected from hundreds of community members in recent months, we present our sign-on platform:
10 Point Platform for Criminal Justice Reform
1. Conduct a national search for a new Police Chief who has a proven record of criminal justice reform.
2. Ensure that there is no incarceration for traffic violations or municipal offenses, instead require that NOPD follow current citation policy and expand citation policy to include individuals who are charged solely with “Marijuana, 1stoffense.”
3. End the NOPD practice of charging individuals with Crime Against Nature (felony) in cases of simple solicitation.
4. Prioritize Youth/Recreation Programs, access to Drug Treatment and Mental Health services as crime prevention strategies.
5. Create incentives (such as awarding “points” within bidding) in the city contracting processes that encourage employers to hire Formerly Incarcerated Persons.
6. Establish Certificates of Good Conduct which would help individuals with criminal records gain employment.
7. Establish an Office of Formerly Incarcerated Affairs in Mayor’s Office.
8. Convert vacant properties the city holds into employment and housing opportunities for formerly incarcerated persons, low income families and youth.
9. Create a “Public Works” style program to improve New Orleans’ public transportation by increasing number of buses, increasing routes and making the system “green” (in other words, less toxic to the community.)
10. Increase opportunities for New Orleans youth by investing in effective community-based alternatives to incarceration; expanding employment, enrichment and recreational programs; ensuring implementation of positive behavior supports in New Orleans schools; and rebuilding the Youth Study Center efficiently and with the input of expert research and community voices