The real key to a safer community

A few words from the Spring 2023 issue of “Yes!” Magazine’s article by Amanda Alexander and Deanna Van Buren: “Our society is addicted to punishment. For the last 50 years, we have expanded police forces, passed laws criminalizing poverty, and incarcerated people for longer and longer periods of time. People returning from prison often find themselves shut out of housing … jobs, public benefits, and other opportunities for the rest of their lives.

“This investment in policing and prisons hasn’t made us safe. According to a 2020 study published by the Bureau of Justice Statistics, only 40% of violent victimizations were reported to police that year. As Danielle Sered writes in her 2019 book “Until We Reckon: Violence, Mass Incarceration, and a Road to Repair,” “More than half of the people who survive serious violence prefer nothing to everything available to them through law enforcement.” We all deserve to live in communities where our basic needs are met, where the conditions that lead to violence are minimized…

“… an awareness that relationships, community, and care keep us safe.

“At the community level, we need to build up local ecosystems of care through …restorative justice; worker-owned cooperatives; community fridges …; unarmed response teams to support people with mental health needs; … food co-ops, and farming collectives … and mutual aid. There are many examples of such communityled projects cataloged online by One Million Experiments.

Meeting people’s basic needs makes for a safer community. Reminds me of our spiritual ethics.

— Charles Withuhn, Chico