As promised, here’s a long thread on how my Judiciary Committee budget will reinvest your tax dollars in building a safe and just DC by investing in communities with non-police resources. First, we have to talk about the status quo. (1/21)

It’s worth remembering, it’s very likely that in some of our hardest hit communities, a combination of policing/prison funding is one of the largest investments the government is making in those neighborhoods. It would be hard to say its an investment paying off.

Our police budget is huge. It got that way over decades. Hundreds of decisions where no one said no or asked for data on outcomes or alternatives. And it will take a lot of work and political will to scale it back and reinvest in our social safety net and anti-violence programs.

If you want to see more about the reductions to the MPD budget passed out of Committee, I did a long thread here: https://twitter.com/charlesallen/status/1277421573192986625. So what are our reinvestments?

Let's start with reducing gun violence. We funded $4.6 million for violence interruption at the Office of Neighborhood Safety and Engagement (ONSE) and $7.2 million (with @RobertWhite_DC) at OAG’s Cure the Streets. The men and women on the ground doing this work are saving lives.

We expanded the Pathways Program @ONSEDC_, which creates a space for young men at risk of committing violence to process trauma, transition into employment, and pursue their passions. The program is critical to violence interruption because it creates a next step for help.

We created a new “Restorative Justice Collaborative” at ONSE. Restorative justice is an alternative to prosecution that emphasizes taking responsibility and repairing harm through voluntary mediation between a harmed party and the person who harmed them.

Restorative justice holds enormous potential to resolve conflict other than by violence or an adversarial courtroom. We have a lot of work to do in this area in DC. For now, check out this conversation b/t @sujathabaliga and @ezraklein as a start: https://twitter.com/ezraklein/status/1273701694887522305?s=20

This new effort ties together all the pieces of restorative justice in govt and community, promoting practices and training, esp among 18-to-35-year-olds. We funded a Director and 4 fellows, which we’d like to fill w/ residents coming home after serving long sentences.

This Council passed sentence review laws like the IRAA and (soon) the Second Look Act, and we have to deliver for the men and women coming home. They need that 1st stable job and we desperately need them as credible role models to make our community safer and reach young people.

Let’s talk about housing. We funded $250,000 to repair existing affordable housing, transferred $250,000 to emergency rental assistance, added $1M for new reentry housing. Separate from cmte work, I also amended the budget today to add more $$ for housing: https://twitter.com/charlesallen/status/1280545772593872896

We funded $4.5 million to provide free legal assistance to tenants facing eviction. @kenyanmcduffie & I helped stand up the first pieces of a right to counsel in the District in 2017. We started in landlord-tenant court, where 90% of landlords have a lawyer & <10% of tenants do.

The outcomes shouldn’t surprise anyone – tenants are much more likely to be evicted without an attorney. https://wamu.org/story/17/05/18/need-lawyer-fight-eviction-new-d-c-program-provide-one-free/

We fully funded this program, which is dramatically changing outcomes. We’re going to face an eviction crisis when the public health emergency is lifted, & combined with housing investments above, this program will help many low-income District residents stay in their homes.

We also restored $1.9 million in net cuts to grants for DC non-profits serving crime survivors, and added another $3.4 million, for a total of $26.5 million.

That includes the final $3 million needed to move ahead with a new shelter for domestic violence survivors. 1/3 of women who are homeless and unaccompanied report violence as the cause. This shelter will save lives.

To tie it all together, we funded a new Gun Violence Prevention Director @SafeDC to lead the District’s strategy for preventing gun violence, but also across agencies to include health, social and human services.

New investments for LGBTQ residents: (1) $500k for a wrap-around workforce development program for transgender, non-binary, + gender-nonconforming residents, (2) a study of transgender employees’ workplace experiences, and (3) a new position at @DCHumanRights for hate crimes ed.

Continuing a partnership w/ @CMSilverman, another wage theft attorney for @AGKarlRacine. These positions have been directly and aggressively protecting DC workers:
https://oag.dc.gov/release/ag-racine-recovers-142k-unpaid-wages-districthttps://www.washingtonpost.com/local/public-safety/two-dc-employers-to-pay-almost-500000-in-wage-theft-cases/2020/01/02/9aa3e168-2d7c-11ea-9b60-817cc18cf173_story.html

We also put money toward making immediate repairs at both Kennedy and King-Greenleaf Rec Centers, which provide a space for the community, from youth to seniors, to gather safely. Both of these rec centers serve communities that regularly experience gun violence.

This isn’t all the Committee’s budget does, but I wanted you to see the direct connection in our funding decisions to redirect some of the MPD budget to fund public safety, justice, & essential community services facing devastating cuts.

And finally, as we have this conversation, it’s incomplete to talk about one without the other in finding the path forward to racial justice. Thanks for reading.