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As we consider our roles, it is important to remember that justice is defined not by our own definitions but by the communities directly experiencing injustice. It is also important to keep in sight how our roles align with, support and uplift the existing work of community organizers who have long advocated for restorative and healing justice as common practice, rather than forms of justice defined by the same systems and institutions that uphold structural racism.
2020 has truly tested our resolve. The impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on people in prison cannot be understated. As rates of infection rose inside prisons throughout the state, we witnessed our movement partners quickly and efficiently organize in response to this crisis. We witnessed the same tenacity and steadfastness this summer, as organizers led uprisings worldwide to protest racist state violence after the killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and countless others—violence that is all too familiar for incarcerated people and their families.
Re-imagining an equitable region is core to NCG’s Equitable Recovery framework. Rather than a return to what once was, can we disrupt, re-imagine, and restructure what’s possible? Kim Williams, Hub Manager at Sacramento Building Healthy Communities (Sacramento BHC, a part of The California Endowment's Building Health Communities 10-year plan) spoke with Crispin Delgado NCG's Public Policy Director, about where philanthropy can continue to step in, how to take a community-centered approach, and why movement-building needs to be at the center. Read the full conversation below!
This past week, the award-winning hip hop artist and actor Common went behind the scenes in Southern California to better understand our nation’s prison pipeline, and learn from people whose lives are profoundly affected by it both on the inside and the outside.
In the wake of recent violence in Half Moon Bay, Monterey Park, and Memphis I hope you are finding opportunities to collectively grieve and honor the lives of Asian, Latino, and Black community members tragically lost. At NCG we have been sitting with the heaviness of this grief. We extend empathy and solidarity to those who mourn the loss of loved ones and those supporting the injured to heal from these profoundly traumatic acts of violence.
If we have learned anything about effective community-based response to the health and economic consequences from the COVID-19 pandemic, it is that coordination between governments, nonprofits, and faith-based organizations is critical to addressing the needs of people with the fewest resources who bear the greatest impact of the pandemic.
Our criminal justice system is broken. It disproportionately impacts and targets communities of color and poor communities, and costs California taxpayers billions a year, money that could otherwise be directed towards more fruitful investments in community development, drug treatment, mental health services, education, and jobs. Our system of mass incarceration does not increase public safety, reduce crime, or bring adequate relief to crime survivors