Justice for all
What keeps us safe is living in communities where we look out for our neighbors, have the great schools, transit, housing, and healthcare we need, where our children come home safe at the end of the day, and where the people sworn to serve and protect us prevent, investigate and solve crimes treat us all as equals. Most residents of Allegheny County understand that the tools of the past, like stop and frisk, high fines and fees for minor crimes, mandatory minimum sentences, militarizing the police, allowing easy access to assault weapons, having to be wealthy to get an attorney, solitary confinement, and being released from jail without support have failed. They have ruined countless lives, and we are no safer for it.
Now, we have a choice: we can take a comprehensive public health approach to public safety, where we fund proven strategies that recognize the many factors that influence criminal behavior. No matter what we look like or which neighborhood we live in, we can all have an equal opportunity to live safely and securely by adding qualified experts, like mental health professionals and social workers to our current system, so that we can respond best to those who need help.
It’s time to set a new standard for public safety by funding the health and safety measures we know keep us safe. As County Executive, Sara would:
➜ Invest in universal mental health supports to build stronger communities and create opportunities for all youth, especially Black and Brown children, to thrive.
➜ Direct the Department of Health and Department of Human Services to operate upstream and provide services before a crisis, and an unsafe situation can occur by prioritizing the social determinants of health.
➜ Create spaces for those undergoing a mental health crisis that are safe, supportive, and encourage reconnection to community and opportunity.
➜ Create safe, trauma-informed, youth-focused centers that prioritize reconnection to community and reunification with family, and does not require interaction with the criminal legal system to get services.
➜ Provide education programs focusing on healing, reintegration into the community, and connection to opportunity as the long-term solution.
➜ Utilize diversion programs that have been proven successful nationwide and will lower recidivism rates and keep people out of jail. Many of them are already working right here in Allegheny County, but they need more support.
➜ Change the way we respond to people having mental health crises and substance abuse issues – getting people the help they need rather than locking them up – by integrating Co-response with trained medical professionals into how we do 911 dispatch.
➜ Fully fund the Public Defenders’ Office to provide the basic human right to representation.
➜ Appoint previously incarcerated members to the Jail Oversight Board, attend meetings regularly, and publicly report out on progress.
➜ Fire the Warden and hire new leadership at the County Jail who will establish clear, publicly available plans to end solitary confinement and other inhumane practices at the Allegheny County Jail, as voters demanded on the 2021 ballot initiative.
➜ Create a new employment and recruitment plan for safe staffing for the ACJ that includes hiring more trained medical personnel, in-house substance-use support program that include Medically Assisted Treatment (MAT)
➜ Institute restorative justice practices in the Allegheny County Jail, Allegheny County Police Department, and other public safety agencies
➜ Incentive municipalities to combine and share public safety services to reduce pressure on budgets, improve training, hiring, and retention, and increase standards and accountability. The County can provide resources and support – technology platforms, assistance with federal and state grants, direct financial support, and more – to municipalities and Councils of Government to help them work together better.
➜ Work with legislators in Harrisburg to address the pension obligations and other bureaucratic issues that inter-municipal public safety coordination lack.
➜ Provide funding to help grow community organizations and nonprofits who do the work on these opportunities every day.