Public Safety Comes from Community Investment
We advocate for jobs and education, not incarceration.
Unemployment is a leading root cause of crime. We need to invest in our schools, living wage jobs, and an end to discrimination against roughly 100,000 local people with criminal records.
We call on elected officials to support hiring people based on qualifications and work ethic, rather than denying them opportunities based on the stigma of their past. Elected officials should be role models for Louisiana employers.
A healthy community is a safe community.
Substance abuse and mental illness are both public health concerns that lead to numerous arrests, charges, and convictions.
We call on elected officials to support substance abuse and mental illness treatment being done by medical professionals, not police and deputies; and crisis interventions being done by highly trained and highly skilled people who de-escalate tensions and promote nonviolence among our community members.
Affordable housing is a human right, not a handout.
Affordable housing is essential for safety, and many of our community members are prevented from creating a home due to finances (even those working full-time) and/or criminal records discrimination. The public housing criminal background check policy, revised by HANO in 2016, is an essential component of advancing housing access and uniting families in New Orleans, and in Louisiana as a whole.
We call on elected officials to support creating housing units that are accessible and affordable to the people who live in Louisiana, with non-discrimination policies that reduce the negative impacts of mass incarceration.